The textiles and apparel industry, once considered far behind the building and consumer electronics sectors in sustainability, has taken the lead on the environmental front.

Though still in their infancy, the industry-wide efforts are a prime example of how open-source, cooperative action can yield promising results.

The Eco Index, an internal environmental assessment tool designed for apparel, footwear and equipment, grew from a seed of an idea that surfaced in August 2006 at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, a twice-annual trade show for outdoor industry businesses.

Five years in the making, the tool is accessible for anyone to test via ecoindexbeta.org, though there are a number of active subgroups still finalizing content. Methodologies for toxics & chemistry, equipment and materials efficiency in waste, and indicators for social responsibility and fair labor are being developed. Meanwhile, indicators for end of life, packaging and facilities are being revised.

The Eco Index provides a comprehensive framework for approaching sustainability throughout the supply chain.

Linda Greer, director of the Natural Resource Defense Council's Health and Environment Program and the woman behind the Clean By Design initiative, feels that creating the index is an amazing feat, but a bit misdirected.

"The development of the whole tool doesn't address the fact that more than 90 percent of the brands out there don't know where they get their materials from," Greer says. "That is a real problem. It's as if they are writing a giant SAT test and don't know the students to submit it to."

The lack of material transparency was one of the principal reasons behind the founding of Source4Style, a business-to-business online platform currently in public beta, which connects apparel brands directly to the source of their materials. [Editor's note: The author co-founded Source4Style with Benita Singh.] Sustainability information is built into a supplier questionnaire at the start, with the bulk of the questions modeled from the Eco Index's Material Indicators. The more information suppliers know about their own material, the better search functionality they will achieve once the site moves from public beta in a few months.

Beth Jensen, corporate responsibility manager of Outdoor Industry Association, the trade organization supporting the Eco Index, says the index provides a platform for brands and retailers to work with suppliers to gather information, leading to the ultimate goal of increased supply chain transparency.

"The companies in our industry recognize that they are not yet achieving the level of supply chain visibility they would ideally like to see, but that is why they developed the Eco Index," she says. "The index provides shared language and guidance around environmental impacts, a roadmap to discussing sustainability issues with and gathering data from suppliers.