South Africa will assist small and medium enterprises in the textile sector to address environmental challenges through sustainable business practices. This will be done by implementing eco-innovation and life-cycle approaches to improve circularity within the textile industry. The Innovative Business Practices and Economic Models in the Textile Value Chain – or InTex – project is being implemented by the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) working with a technical partner, Centre for African Resource Efficiency and Sustainability (CARES). The project is funded by European Union and managed by UNEP in Tunisia, Kenya and South Africa.

During the first phase of the project, a target of 10 companies will be assisted and at the end of the phase five case studies will be developed to share the impact and encourage further uptake of circular economy principles and innovative business practices in the sector. The whole point of this project is to promote innovative business practices and economic models in the textile value chain. The second phase of the project will see the implementation of the project being extended to other textile companies through hosting of training and capacity building workshops.

Small and medium units will benefit from the training workshops by learning about eco-innovation, product environmental footprint and circular business models and gain access to tools and guidelines that can help make their business more sustainable, circular, and resilient. Further, by being part of the project, they will also learn how to calculate and communicate the environmental footprint of their textile product and develop new business strategies and underlying business models by following the eco-innovative approach.