Sustainable developments in knitting

The global community is aware that policies and practices regarding human consumption of resources need to change. Sustainability is now a dominant factor within government policies worldwide. A recent report compiled on behalf of the European Union identified clothing and textiles as key industries in terms of reducing environmental impact. In response to this report the UK government devised the clothing roadmap to investigate sustainable developments within these industries.
Sustainable design was identified as one area for improvement. This paper acknowledges that the clothing supply chains are not transparent. Consumers can purchase garments produced from organic and eco fibres since labelling indentifies the raw material sources. However, it is less straightforward to purchase garments produced using sustainable technologies since processing information is not displayed at the point of sale. This paper investigates sustainability within the knitwear industry and challenges the view that the textile manufacturing industries are significant contributors to energy consumption.