Skip to main content
Cornell University mobile logo
Dignity factory workers producing shirts for overseas clients, in Accra, Ghana

Hot Air: How will fashion adapt to accelerating climate change?

How have weather conditions already changed in major apparel production centers? In this follow-up to our Higher Ground? reports, we looked at the past twenty years of weather data in our 23 focus cities to try and find that out, as well as ask how workers, brands and retailers, manufacturers and their governments should react and adapt to our warming future in a world of corporate due diligence. Read our findings here.

A flooded area near to Phnom Penh, Cambodia
/global-labor-institute/research-0/gli-hot-air

Measuring Supply Chain Due Diligence

Labor Outcomes Metrics

Read about the Global Labor Institute's new quantitative metrics that measure labor outcomes—actual impacts for workers.

Workers in Bangladesh
Read more about Measuring Supply Chain Due Diligence

Latest News and Events

Visiting Fellow Samira Rafaela in the International Labor Rights Case Law Journal

She describes the ways this new law can be used to work to eradicate forced labor in Turkmenistan and its larger place in the new emerging global labor order.
photograph of Samira
Visiting Fellow Samira Rafaela in the International Labor Rights Case Law Journal

Higher Ground? Climate change and apparel production

This brief for apparel brands and manufacturers—based on analyses by the Cornell University Global Labor Institute and U.K.-based fund manager Schroders—looks into fashion’s near future to calculate the possible economic damage caused by high heat, rising humidity, and disruptive flooding.
Flooded buildings and streets
Higher Ground? Climate change and apparel production

Brussels CSDDD Event Readout

Measuring outcomes for supply chain workers is “part and parcel of [European] competitiveness,” says MEP Lara Wolters at a recent GLI, ECCHR, and HRW event
MEP Lara Wolters stands at a lecturn with a Press Club Bussels Europe sign on it, in front of a white banner with black and blue text that says "Press Club Brussels Europe" and "Be Hear. Say it in Brussels" at an event
Brussels CSDDD Event Readout

Sourcing Journal: 'Heat Check: Searing Temps Lead to Unsafe Working Conditions in the Global South'

Sourcing Journal
“[I]n Cambodia, the law says the temperature should not be such that it affects workers’ health. That’s worse than useless because the government can point to a standard and say, ‘Well, of course, we have a legal standard'...But of course, the standard’s meaningless.”
Garmet workers sewing in a factory
Sourcing Journal: 'Heat Check: Searing Temps Lead to Unsafe Working Conditions in the Global South'

Event: Corporate Sustainability and Accountability: How is it working for labor rights?

Please join us for this event in Brussels organized by Cornell GLI, ECCHR, and Human Rights watch on due diligence and reporting requirement, like the EU CSDDD and their forced labor ban. Member of European Parliament Lara Wolters will be a part of the two expert panels.
White text saying "Corporate Sustainability and Accountability: How is it working for labor rights?" is on a red-colored image background, and black text on a white background says "October 16, 14:00 - 16:00 CEST, Brussels, Belgium." The logos of ILR Global Labor Institute, ECCHR, and Human Rights Watch are on the bottom of the image.
Event: Corporate Sustainability and Accountability: How is it working for labor rights?

GLI Executive Director Jason Judd Guests on the ‘Frankly Speaking’ Podcast

GLI Executive Director Jason Judd is on the ‘Frankly Speaking’ podcast from Frank Bold, where he discusses the just transition, GLI’s labor outcome metrics, and sheep, goats, foxes, and hedgehogs.
A red background with white text that says "Frankly speaking: A Podcast on Responsible Business" with a globe and another logo that says "Frank Bold"
GLI Executive Director Jason Judd Guests on the ‘Frankly Speaking’ Podcast

To Eliminate Gender Based Violence and Harassment

Dindigul Agreement

This is GLI’s year two assessment of the processes and outcomes of an innovative agreement regarding freedom of association and the elimination of gender based violence at a South Indian apparel factory that could be a model for other factories around the world.

Busy factory floor with rows of sewing stations
Read the report

Higher Ground? Fashion’s Climate Breakdown

Impacts of climate change on global apparel production

In partnership with Schroders, we report the impacts of climate change on global apparel production. In our first report, we track climate change impacts at the global, national, and factory levels. We map fashion's climate vulnerabilities across production centers, and estimate future economic damages from extreme heat and flooding. Our second report examines company-level climate risk, cost, and financing for adaption and just resilience.

Textile workers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Read the reports

Change or Groundhog Day? What new research tells us about what works in global labor governance

2024 GLI Conference Highlights

Samira Rafaela
View more information

Stay Connected

Join the Global Labor Institute mailing list.