Textile Exchange matrix made open-source
US materials standards body Textile Exchange has open-sourced its Preferred Fiber and Materials Matrix (PFMM), making its data publicly available for the very first time.
The index primarily considers how various sustainability standards fare across 80 different qualitative and quantitative measures, organised by material category: cotton, flax, wool, manmade cellulosic fibres (MMCFs) and synthetics.
Importantly, this latest version of the PFMM does not include overall performance scores. Readers are instead invited to direct their attention to the scoring within impact areas.
Each eco-label is assessed against impact criteria for water, climate, biodiversity, human rights, animal welfare, chemicals, land, waste, resource utilisation, and more.
The organisation’s methodology has been based on denim and casualwear group Gap’s own tool since 2020. Textile Exchange says it is collaborating with members to not only obtain a greater quantity of relevant data for its inputs, but also finance “high-quality life-cycle assessment studies to help fill critical quantitative data gaps”.
Image courtesy of Textile Exchange.
