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

Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?

Join us in Bangkok, Thailand at Thammasat Business School as we present new analyses and responses to heat’s impacts for workers, manufacturers, apparel brands and governments in South and Southeast Asia.
Workers walking across a precarious bridge over scant water
Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?

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.
Read the full report

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

"Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Expert on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises" Live Debate

Join us on Wednesday, February 8th at 9:00 a.m. for a live debate on the Cornell Global Labor Institute’s third and last paper on COVID-19 supported by the ILO: “Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Experts on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises.”
garment workers in a factory
"Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Expert on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises" Live Debate

Op-Ed Fashion’s Business Model Isn’t Fit for Climate Change

This op-ed by Jason Judd and Sarosh Kuruvilla explores how the business model of fashion is failing to meet the complex problems posed by climate change.
A man walks through rain and dye outside a dyeing factory in Bangladesh. (Getty)
Op-Ed Fashion’s Business Model Isn’t Fit for Climate Change

Many Lessons, Difficult Path to Solutions

A new working paper by the Global Labor Institute delves into the lessons learned by the apparel industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores how to better handle future crises.
garment workers in a factory
Many Lessons, Difficult Path to Solutions

Global Apparel Supply Chain Factory Workers Walk When Wage Codes Are Violated

Research from Professor Sarosh Kuruvilla shows that factory workers in the global apparel supply chain are more likely to quit over low wages than other poor working conditions.
Garmet workers sewing in a factory
Global Apparel Supply Chain Factory Workers Walk When Wage Codes Are Violated

Corporate Codes of Conduct and Labour Turnover in Global Apparel Supply Chains

Research on private regulation of labour issues in global supply chains has focused extensively on whether supplier factories comply with the codes of conduct of global companies. Less is known about how such compliance relates to the preferences and behaviours of workers at export factories.
Colored Bolts of Fabric
Corporate Codes of Conduct and Labour Turnover in Global Apparel Supply Chains

Announcing the Global Labor Institute

NCP is now the Global Labor Institute at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
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Announcing the Global Labor Institute

In The News

Media Mentions

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

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
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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
Read the reports

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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