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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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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

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

Recent Publication by Sarosh Kuruvilla: Shifting Modes of Labor Regulation in Global Supply Chains

This essay outlines changing modes of regulation of labor conditions in global apparel supply chains, which are concentrated in Asia; assesses the effectiveness of 25 years of private voluntary regulation by global firms; and examines critically the implications of new European regulation now mandating what was previously a voluntary corporate activity.
Sarosh
Recent Publication by Sarosh Kuruvilla: Shifting Modes of Labor Regulation in Global Supply Chains

Event: Higher Ground? Fashion's Climate Breakdown and its Effect for Workers by the Global Labor Institute and Schroders - Organized by Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Please join us at Columbia Threadneedle Investments in London for a presentation on the Higher Ground? reports by the Global Labor Institute and Schroders. Angus Bauer (Schroders) will be joined by Jason Judd (Global Labor Institute) to present the paper, followed by a panel discussion with expert reactions.
Five people crossing polluted stream over narrow bridge.
Event: Higher Ground? Fashion's Climate Breakdown and its Effect for Workers by the Global Labor Institute and Schroders - Organized by Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Global Labor Institute Conference 2024

Will global labor’s spring arrive early, or are we destined for more of the same? The Global Labor Insitute’s 2024 Conference takes place Feb. 2, 2024 - Groundhog Day - in New York City. 
570 Lexington Avenue
Global Labor Institute Conference 2024

"Higher Ground?" In the News

See highlights of coverage for the Higher Ground? reports authored by the Global Labor Institute and Schroders.
Flooded Street
"Higher Ground?" In the News

Webinar: Higher Ground? Fashion's Climate Breakdown and its Effect for Workers

A multi-stakeholder panel discussion about the Global Labor Institute and Schroders' Higher Ground report, which looks at the impact of climate breakdown on apparel producing countries and workers.
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Webinar: Higher Ground? Fashion's Climate Breakdown and its Effect for Workers

Higher Ground? Fashion’s Climate Breakdown

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. Our second report examines company-level climate risk, cost, and financing for adaption and just resilience.
Textile workers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Higher Ground? Fashion’s Climate Breakdown

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?

2030 is Nearly Here. Can Fashion Still Make Good on Its Climate Promises?

Sourcing Journal
“This is not a technical problem but a political one” said Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute, about the fashion industry’s progress with adapting to climate change.
2030 is Nearly Here. Can Fashion Still Make Good on Its Climate Promises?

The COP30 Deal Won’t Solve Fashion’s Climate Problems

The Business of Fashion News
Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute, recommends that the fashion industry should “get their act together” with regard to heat and climate change, “because workers are suffering from heat stress and, in turn, so are margins.”
The COP30 Deal Won’t Solve Fashion’s Climate Problems

Do the Labor Provisions in Trump’s Southeast Asian Trade Deals Have a Point?

Sourcing Journal
Kelly Fay Rodriguez, visiting lecturer at ILR’s Global Labor Institute and former special representative for international affairs at the Department of State, analyzes the importance of labor provisions in trade agreements and discusses how these provisions can best be enforced.
Do the Labor Provisions in Trump’s Southeast Asian Trade Deals Have a Point?