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

Six Seasons, Four Summers: How to Solve Fashion's High Heat Problem

Read The Report

Cooling investments in Bangladesh’s apparel factories can be commercially viable, with an average payback period of one to four years, according to new research from Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute.

a washing image
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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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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

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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Global Labor Institute's Climate-Labor Work

GLI Climate-Labor Research

See all of our analyses on the intersection of labor rights and climate change.

GLI climate workers webinar
Read GLI's Climate-Labor Work

Latest Research and Events

Book "Private Regulation and Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains" Published

NCP Executive Director Sarosh Kuruvilla's book examines the practice of private regulation in respect of labor standards in global supply chains.
Sarosh Kuruvilla Book Cover
Book "Private Regulation and Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains" Published

New Conversations Project Partners with ILO on Grant

Improving working conditions in the dangerous and largely unregulated commercial fishing industry is the focus of the project.
An industrial fishing boat
New Conversations Project Partners with ILO on Grant

Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains

This paper, published as a chapter in the International Labor Organization's 2021 volume: Decent Work in a Globalized Economy, shares Professor Sarosh Kuruvilla and the New Conversations Project's new research on the limited progress of private regulation over a decade in multiple countries
Garment workers in an Indonesian factory
Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains

“Repeat, Regain or Renegotiate?” NCP Working Paper No. 2 asks What's the future of apparel?

Cornell NCP's Jason Judd and Lowell Jackson plot the decades-long, pre-pandemic trajectories of apparel industry consolidation, automation, e-commerce, sourcing patterns, and governance of labor practices against three possible scenarios for the industry in the post-pandemic era. This paper also appears as an ILO Better Work Discussion Paper.
Ho Chi Minh map
“Repeat, Regain or Renegotiate?” NCP Working Paper No. 2 asks What's the future of apparel?

Is private regulation working? Book launch with Sourcing Journal on May 25

New Conversations Project and the Sourcing Journal presents a live book launch and debate on Sarosh Kuruvilla's new book, Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains on Tuesday, May 25.
Sarosh Kuruvilla Book Cover
Is private regulation working? Book launch with Sourcing Journal on May 25

GLI Sourcing Journal Series

The New Conversations Project is publishing a limited series in the Sourcing Journal on latest research findings related to private regulation. These pieces are designed to de-code important new academic research for actors in the global supply chain.
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GLI Sourcing Journal Series

In The News

Media Mentions

Cooling Bangladesh's garment factories is cheaper than it looks

MSN
The cost of reducing heat stress for workers in Bangladesh garment factories has an average payback period of one to four years says a report from ILR’s Global Labor Institute; the report discusses the need for cooling both factories and workers’ homes. [Syndicated from Sourcing Journal]
Cooling Bangladesh's garment factories is cheaper than it looks

Costs to cool Bangladesh garment factories can be recovered within four years, study shows

Reuters
Investments to provide cooling in Bangladesh garment factories are commercially viable and pay back within four years says a report from ILR’s Global Labor Institute; the report “gives both buyers and suppliers a context for the scale of the intervention required,” explains Jason Judd, executive director of the institute.
Costs to cool Bangladesh garment factories can be recovered within four years, study shows

Bangladesh Sourcing Report Challenges Cheap Hub Narrative

Sustainable Business Magazine
The report “Higher Ground? Report 1: Fashion’s Climate Breakdown and Its Effect for Workers,” which was co-published by ILR’s Global Labor Institute, is referenced in this article about various challenges and solutions for the Bangladesh garment industry.
Bangladesh Sourcing Report Challenges Cheap Hub Narrative

Knitting Industry

A report from the Global Labor Institute, “Higher Ground? Report 1: Fashion’s Climate Breakdown and Its Effect for Workers,” is referenced in this article, which warns that without climate adaptation efforts, Bangladesh’s apparel export earnings could be around 22% lower by 2030 and 68% lower by 2050.
Knitting Industry

Top fashion brands have a supply chain battle against extreme India heat

Economic Times
A report co-created by ILR’s Global Labor Institute, “The Heat is On: How heat stress impacts the apparel industry, jobs, and worker health,” is referenced in this article about problems and solutions related to high temperatures in the garment manufacturing workplace. [Syndicated from Bloomberg]
Top fashion brands have a supply chain battle against extreme India heat

Gap Inc. Expands Human Rights And Gender Equality Efforts

Textile Insights
A report, “The Dindigul Agreement to End Gender-based Violence and Harassment Has It Worked?”, by Sarosh Kuruvilla, ILR professor and academic director of the Global Labor Institute, is referenced in this article.
Gap Inc. Expands Human Rights And Gender Equality Efforts