Description
Denim is one of the world's most iconic fashion staples, but producing a single pair of jeans can require thousands of litres of water, significant energy, and chemical-intensive manufacturing.
Join UNEP Goodwill Ambassador Amber Valletta as she visits leading denim manufacturers in Tunisia to discover how innovation, cleaner technologies, digital product information systems and circular design are helping transform one of fashion's most resource-intensive products.
This story is co-funded by the European Union.
Fashion and textiles is among the world’s most polluting industries. And denim is one of the industry’s most resource-intensive products. A single pair of jeans can require 3,800 litres of water to produce. Many jeans also need large quantities of energy and chemicals to achieve certain colours and special effects.
While much of the world’s denim is produced and manufactured in Asia, Tunisia is among the top suppliers of finished denim garments to the European Union (EU), holding about 8 percent of the market share last year. The North African nation’s proximity to Europe allows quick-turnaround times, which helps brands respond to the market and stay atop trends.
Tunisian manufacturers are regularly audited on EU rules and expectations, which have focused increasingly on traceability, transparency, durability and environmental performance.
“The industry now is under strong pressure,” said Bilel Ben Miled, Sustainability Manager at Gonser Group near Tunis. “Brands, customers, final consumers and even governments are demanding sustainable products with low impact.”
This pressure is often a chain-reaction: governments mandate environmental requirements from brands, and brands then push their suppliers to meet those standards, lest they switch to manufacturers that can.
At Gonser Denim Revolution (GDR), sustainability has increased over time through a series of improvements. For example, chemicals such as potassium permanganate and hypochlorite, long used to create certain denim effects, are being phased out in favour of safer alternatives that can deliver similar results with less environmental impact.
Critically, water used to wash the jeans at various points in the production process is treated and recycled. This and other technological improvements can help reduce the amount of water used in a single pair of jeans by 75%. That is especially important in a country prone to extended droughts.
Another manufacturer, DEMCO, has also started using machinery that washes jeans with ozone gas or minimal amounts of ozonized water to bleach or fade denim. It reduces about 90% of the water used.
While digital and laser-based technologies have the potential to reduce water and chemical use relative to conventional wet-processing techniques, their overall environmental performance remains context-dependent and requires further life-cycle evidence.
This is where UNEP’s InTex programme comes in.
Funded by the European Union and the Government of Denmark, and part of the UNEP Textile Initiative, InTex works with small and medium-sized enterprises in textile-producing countries to support their sustainability and circularity. The initiative helps factories collect and analyze operational data to better understand where environmental impacts are occurring most and what practical interventions can create the most measurable improvements.
For Ben Miled, InTex-supported life-cycle assessments helped turn sustainability from a broad ambition into an action plan. “With this, we know where we can improve the environmental impact, where we can reduce our footprint,” he said.
While GDR and DEMCO have had sustainability embedded into their philosophies since their inception, for many factories, the transition to producing cleaner and greener is being driven largely by policy.
The European Union is advancing new rules that will come into effect in 2027 and 2028, including eco-design requirements and digital product information systems, which document the sustainability of materials used in garment manufacturing. Ultimately, this promotes transparency, showing consumers what it is they’re really buying.
Industry players say the sustainability of denim will ultimately be shaped by a myriad of choices across the value chain in the coming years. As that process plays out, it is important to remember that every garment comes with an environmental cost.
About UNEP
The United Nations Environment Programme (www.unep.org) is the leading global authority on the environment and the United Nations' voice for environmental action. Working with governments, businesses, civil society and communities around the world, UNEP drives efforts to tackle climate change, nature, land and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Through leadership, partnerships and innovation, UNEP inspires, informs and enables nations and people to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.