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Dignity factory workers producing shirts for overseas clients, in Accra, Ghana

Cooling Before It Got Cool: Case Studies in Heat Adaptation in Southeast Asian Factories

Heat Adaptation in Apparel Factories

A new examination of how apparel factories are adapting to extreme heat while investing in cooling, automation, and climate resilience strategies.

A thermal image of a worker at a station in a garment factory, showing the high heat levels through brighter orange colors at their workstation.
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The Dindigul Agreement to End Gender-based Violence and Harassment

Has It Worked?

This is GLI’s official final assessment of the Dindigul Agreement to End Gender-Based Violence and Harassment at a South Indian apparel factory that could be a model for other factories around the world. 

Large room of garment factory workers
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Warming to the Idea? Labor Governance and Extreme Heat in Apparel Production

Impacts of Climate Change on Global Apparel Production

How have weather conditions already started to affect the apparel industry and how should the industry adapt? This policy brief builds upon past GLI research and our report co-produced with the IFC and the ILO's Better Work program to present new findings on the impacts of extreme heat and the adaptation responses from employers, workers, their governments and buyers in the global apparel and footwear industry. See our new research here.

Cambodian workers are seen in a local footwear manufacturing plant, with containers of materials in multiple colors sitting in front of workers wearing bandanas and many wearing masks as well.
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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 Research and Events

GLI and the IFC-ILO: The Heat is On: How heat stress impacts the apparel industry, jobs, and worker health

This report, co-produced by GLI and the International Finance Corporation, with input from the International Labour Organization’s Better Work team, build upon past GLI research and examines the impacts of heat stress and flooding on the apparel industry.
The fron page of "The Heat is On" report. A woman stands with a yellow fabric over her head, and the title "The Heat is On: How heat stress impacts the apparel industry, jobs, and worker health" is on a dark maroon background. The logos of Cornell University, the Global Labor Institue, and the Facility for Investment Climate Advisory Services sit on the bottom of the page on a white background.
GLI and the IFC-ILO: The Heat is On: How heat stress impacts the apparel industry, jobs, and worker health

December 4 GLI Conference: More TLC? Trade-Labor Connections in the New Global Order

Please join us for GLI’s day-long 2025 conference, where we will focus on the state of labor standards and work in the new era of global trade.
Garment workers in an Indonesian factory
December 4 GLI Conference: More TLC? Trade-Labor Connections in the New Global Order

EU Forced Labour Regulation to the rescue: Can the EU’s Forced Labor Regulation confront the gendered face of forced labor?

As the EU is set to implement their Forced Labour Regulation in 2027, questions remain about how exactly it will tackle forced and child labour. Visiting Fellow Samira Rafaela interrogates that question by looking at the case of forced labor in the Indian sugar industry in this policy brief.
Sugar cane stands in a field in India
EU Forced Labour Regulation to the rescue: Can the EU’s Forced Labor Regulation confront the gendered face of forced labor?

Brand Purchasing Practices and Labor Outcomes in Apparel and Footwear Supply Chains: The Case of Multi-Buyer Suppliers

This report looks at the purchasing practices of global companies by looking at the purchasing data of two major global suppliers to see how that effects the labor conditions at these two suppliers.
flat digital image of the world showing the concept of connection points across continents
Brand Purchasing Practices and Labor Outcomes in Apparel and Footwear Supply Chains: The Case of Multi-Buyer Suppliers

W(h)ither Trade and Labor? What’s Next in the World of Transnational Labour Governance?

Join us in Geneva alongside the ILO annual meeting for a public debate (and a drink!) co-hosted by the Graduate Institute’s TASC Platform and Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute. It’s Friday, 6 June 2025, 18:30 – 21:30 CEST, at the InterContinental Hotel, Geneva, just down the street from the ILO.
The Geneva Graduate Institute and GLI logos are stacked on top of each other
W(h)ither Trade and Labor? What’s Next in the World of Transnational Labour Governance?

GLI and Human Rights Watch Q&A: European Union Forced Labor Regulation

The EU’s new Forced Labor Regulation will require companies to identify and eliminate forced labor in their operations and supply chains, Human Rights Watch and GLI say in a question-and-answer document about the new law.
Three European Union flags fly from flagpoles
GLI and Human Rights Watch Q&A: European Union Forced Labor Regulation

In The News

Media Mentions

How Climate Change Will Shape Fashion Supply Chains in 2026

Vogue
“The technology to cool workers is not complicated, and the costs are manageable in most countries,” said Jason Judd, executive director of ILR’s Global Labor Institute, sharing his expertise about how the garment industry is addressing climate change and heat stress in factories.
How Climate Change Will Shape Fashion Supply Chains in 2026

Justice for Jeyasre: how a brutal murder led to a better deal for garment workers in India

The Guardian
Sarosh Kuruvilla, academic director of the Global Labor Institute, provides an analysis of the Dindigul labor agreement and comments on why Natchi Apparels may be having difficulty finding new clients.
Justice for Jeyasre: how a brutal murder led to a better deal for garment workers in India

Can the fashion industry adapt to a warming world?

Context
“Workers toiling in 35 or 40 degrees Celsius and high humidity is the return of the literal sweatshop,” says this article about the garment industry and climate change, co-written by Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute. The article cites the institute’s “Higher Ground?” report and offers solutions.
Can the fashion industry adapt to a warming world?

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

Impacts of Climate Change on Global Apparel Production

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

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

2024 GLI Conference Highlights

Samira Rafaela
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