Going into Climate Week, I prioritized conversations on decarbonizing thermal energy, greener chemistry, and the environmental regulations shaping textiles. As part of Shahi’s ESG and Innovation team, I also looked for one thing across these discussions: whether suppliers were part of the conversation.

Supplier representation is actively growing. But in many of the rooms I attended, suppliers were still less represented than brands, investors, technology providers, and civil society. Participation can be challenging given travel costs, visa constraints, and competing commitments. Yet suppliers are central to translating industry ambitions into action. 

Given the role suppliers play in delivering this transition, how can the industry effectively collaborate to make progress when participation across the value chain is uneven?

The challenge, however, is bigger than the absence of suppliers or the absence of collaboration. Collaboration often starts after key decisions have already been made.

Collaboration needs to start earlier

The word “collaboration” is now common in climate conversations. But it can mean very different things.

It can mean asking a supplier for feedback on a standard or testing a technology. Or it can simply mean sharing a target or a data request. These forms of engagement are not necessarily collaborations.

Moving the needle and delivering action requires people responsible for delivering the change to be involved before the decision is made. For example, when developing roadmaps to phase out coal or transition to lower-impact materials, suppliers and factory teams need to be part of the conversation from the outset because they understand the operational constraints, infrastructure requirements, and costs that determine whether a solution can work at scale. This goes beyond collaboration to co-creating goals and roadmaps that are both ambitious and implementable.

Co-creation calls for treating each stakeholder as an equal participant in the design, conceptualization, and execution process. Suppliers should have a role in framing the challenge, setting the target and building the solution. 

Earlier Climate Week discussions centered on mitigation and decarbonization. Last year, adaptation and resilience moved closer to day-to-day business decisions. Extreme heat, worker health and resilience of factory operations became harder to separate from climate strategy.

Shift from Top-Down Directives to Co-Creation

This year, implementation felt more explicit. The focus was increasingly on what it takes to move from commitments to action. Climate Week itself described the challenge as what enables implementation. It pointed to infrastructure constraints, supply chain pressures, and misaligned incentives.

For the fashion industry, one of the biggest implementation challenges sits between organizations. It is a mix of a few challenges: 

• Different stakeholders often work in silos. Brands set targets, suppliers assess what can be delivered, technology providers develop solutions, and other stakeholders address policy, finance or implementation. These roles are necessary, but they can also create gaps between how a problem is defined, how a target is set and how a solution is ultimately implemented.
• The flow of decisions is often one directional. Targets, standards and requests move from one part of the value chain to the next, while information about operational constraints, costs and risks moves back later, if at all. By the time these constraints surface, significant decisions may already have been made.
• This is where handoffs become a problem. Actors often pass untested assumptions down the value chain. Costs can sit with a different stakeholder from the one setting the ambition. Risks can be transferred rather than shared. Solutions can then be assessed only after the problem and target have already been defined.

Collaboration has to change. It needs to move upstream, before the handoff, and involve the relevant stakeholders in defining the problem, setting the target, and building the solution.

Collaborate when the problem is framed

Today, the organization setting a standard or target often defines the problem before it brings suppliers in to implement it. This can miss critical information.

A supplier may know, for example, that switching from a coal fired boiler to an electric boiler or heat pump requires more electrical capacity than the facility currently has, or that a heat pump cannot deliver the temperatures needed for a particular manufacturing process without changes to the production system.These are not reasons to avoid the transition. They are inputs that should shape the problem from the beginning.

Problem framing should start with an understanding of all the factors that sit between ambition and reality. This requires assessing the technical, operational, financial, and human factors that determine real-world success.

We saw this in practice with heat stress. In September, the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) launched its Heat Stress Toolkit at Cascale’s Annual Meeting in Athens. Brands, manufacturers and worker advocacy groups developed the toolkit together, with manufacturers leading the work. Through the Fashion Producer’s Collective, Shahi co-authored the manufacturer guidelines, in a first-of-its-kind partnership shaped by the insights of manufacturers dealing with the practical challenges and constraints of heat stress every day. This collaboration created practical tools informed by factory-floor realities, brand perspectives, and stakeholder input. The toolkit builds on AAFA’s April guide, which calls for buyers and suppliers to share responsibility for the impacts of extreme heat.

Build targets from the factory floor up

Organizations at the bottom of the value chain often set targets and cascade them through suppliers. This can provide direction, but it does not always provide clarity. When brands pursue the same outcome through different requirements, methodologies or timelines, suppliers can face multiple approaches to solving the same problem.

Suppliers may then receive multiple requests for similar information, different reporting definitions or overlapping deadlines. The result can be more reporting without better decisions.

A stronger model requires alignment on outcomes, definitions, and expectations while allowing the pathway to reflect site-level realities. It starts with site level data and scenarios, then reconciles those findings with brand level ambition. The pathway to the target should reflect technical feasibility, commercial reality, and required capital..

The data model should follow the same principle. Wherever possible, brands and suppliers should work from shared definitions and shared datasets. They should not have to reconstruct the same information for every new request. Brands and suppliers should also align on interim milestones together. A supplier should know not only the end target, but what needs to happen in the next one, three or five years to reach it.

Share the risk of building the solution

The greatest test of collaboration comes when the industry moves from established practice to first of a kind solutions.

Each partner should have a clearly defined role, but the approach must also reflect the solution’s stage of development and the capabilities each partner brings. An early stage innovator may need a manufacturing partner to understand process requirements, access testing facilities, or adapt its technology to real operating conditions. A more established solution may be ready for direct testing within an existing production line. 

The manufacturer provides access to the facility, operating data and practical constraints. The brand provides a demand signal and, where appropriate, greater visibility on future business. Other financing partners may help bridge the gap between a technically proven concept and a commercially investable project.

Partners must agree on these roles and expectations before launching a pilot. Partners must align on the pilot’s clear objectives, who bears the cost and risk, what specific support each stage requires, and how to scale following success. For a first of a kind project, this means developing an approach suited to the specific technology and its readiness, rather than applying a standard pilot model to every solution. 

The industry should therefore agree upfront on what success means. A pilot should test more than whether the technology works. It should also test whether the model for deploying it can work at scale including performance, safety, reliability, total cost, operational integration, roles across the value chain, financing, and pathway to commercial adoption. The pilot should create the evidence needed to adjust that model before stakeholders commit larger investments.

Aligning Incentives and Reallocating Financial Risk

This matters most when adopting capital-intensive, transformative technologies that lack proof at scale. The manufacturer may need to commit significant capital, operational capacity, and time to a pilot while also taking on the disruption of integrating a new technology. If the immediate business case is weak and the pathway from pilot to scale remains uncertain, the incentive to take that first step can be limited. 

Supplier involvement therefore needs to extend beyond implementation to financing and program design. Support mechanisms need to reflect the actual barriers a supplier faces, rather than simply making a pilot possible. The objective should be to create the conditions for a technically proven solution to become commercially viable and scalable.

This also means thinking carefully about how risk is allocated. Shared risk does not mean every actor contributes equally. Meaning: Each stakeholder assumes the risks within its direct control, backed by targeted support and incentives that make the broader investment viable.

What does this mean for the fashion industry?

For brands, collaboration should begin before a target or standard is finalized. Bring suppliers into the problem definition. Understand the operational implications. Align commercial signals with climate expectations.

For suppliers, collaboration means bringing operational reality into the conversation early. Share site data, constraints, and investment requirements. Simultaneously, analyze what your facility can achieve, pinpoint your greatest opportunities, and define exact requirements for moving forward.

The goal should not be to explain why a target is difficult. It should be to show what conditions would make it achievable. This requires time and capability, which can be particularly difficult for smaller suppliers. Collaboration should be paired with support that helps build this capacity where needed.

For technology providers, the starting point should be the process rather than the technology. Solutions need to work under real operating conditions and account for integration, service, safety and total cost.

For industry platforms and financial partners, the role is not simply to make early investment less risky. It is to help share risk in ways that reflect the context of the project, the maturity of the technology, and the capacity of the supplier. Different suppliers and technologies will require different forms of support. The objective should be to create the conditions for successful pilots to move towards commercial scale rather than support pilots in isolation. 

A more useful definition of collaboration

Perhaps the most useful test is a simple one.

Who defines the problem? Who sets the target? Who carries the risk? Who benefits when it works?

If the answers sit with four different parts of the value chain, then collaboration needs to connect those decisions rather than simply bring everyone together for a conversation.

Climate action in fashion will require all of us to move faster. But speed will not come from asking each part of the value chain to move independently. It will come from building the transition together, earlier and with clearer accountability.

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Across Asian manufacturing hubs, textiles contribute roughly 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions while employing over 90 million people. The majority of whom are women. As delegates gathered, the opening discussions framed four foundational questions for the day: why proven green innovations struggle to scale? How to distinguish real operational risks from simple unfamiliarity? How can catalytic funding de-risk commercial investment? And how to shift from isolated facility pilots to industry-wide transformation?

Shahi’s Decarbonization Journey

Priydarshini Gouthi from the ESG and Innovation team opened the presentations by introducing the challenge of driving decarbonization across the value chain. Using Shahi Exports as a case study, she touched on the various efforts undertaken to mitigate emissions. These include building over 143 megawatts (MW) of captive renewable energy capacity, transitioning thermal boilers to biomass, implementing energy-efficient measures, and reducing water intensity.

Underpinning the climate transition efforts is a focus on driving innovation through the ‘scout- to-scale’ process. Shahi applies a structured five-stage pathway to identify, evaluate, test, and eventually scale the best solutions.

Decarbonization, Financing, and the Just Transition

Aravindan Srinivasan from AVPN moderated a discussion with Anant Ahuja (Shahi Exports), Christiane Dolva (H&M Foundation), Karan Kumar (Laudes Foundation), and Eshika Gombar (Good Business Lab).

The conversation opened with a shared call to demystify climate action, ensuring conversations stay accessible and grounded in shop-floor realities. Anant emphasized that while regulatory frameworks such as India’s Carbon Credit Trading Scheme and brands’ net-zero targets create urgency, the operational and financial burden of piloting new technologies falls heavily on manufacturers. Christiane Dolva and Karan Kumar highlighted that philanthropic foundations must deploy catalytic risk capital to absorb early piloting uncertainties, prove commercial viability, and overcome the bottleneck between pilot innovations and market-wide adoption.

The panelists stressed the importance of long-term co-creation between brands, innovators, and suppliers. Anant pointed to Shahi’s partnership with innovators, which required more than two years of iterative on-site trials before it could confidently set specific targets. Eshika shared evidence showing that environmental upgrades directly support worker well-being: replacing older lighting with energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures across 26 factories reduced electricity demand and lowered ambient heat on the shop floor. Similarly, operational adaptations such as structured hydration and rest breaks during extreme heat protect health and reduce on-site medical clinic visits without lowering production output. 

Her insights came in the backdrop of GBL’s work with  MSMEs to adopt energy-efficient technologies that cut both costs and emissions. Hence, supporting decarbonization across the textile sector without compromising worker health. The session concluded with a call for stable state policies to help small and medium enterprises adopt clean technologies.

Factory Floor Immersion

After stepping out of the conference room, delegates walked the shop floor to observe apparel manufacturing firsthand. The guided tour followed a garment’s journey through: pre-production, sampling, fabric cutting and waste segregation, assembly, sewing lines, quality, finishing, packaging, washing, boilers, and the on-site Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP). 

Walking through the production lines gave delegates a tangible view of industrial scale and operational complexity. Attendees observed how material flow, thermal steam distribution, water recycling systems, and line balancing work together in real time. The tour highlighted how physical safety measures, and resource-efficient machinery operate alongside welfare facilities to create a safe, supportive, and dignified workplace.

The Ultimate Game of  Waste Management with Thumbi Labs

In the afternoon, Thumbi Labs led an interactive simulation that placed participants in the roles of enterprise decision-makers managing the post-consumer textile lifecycle.

Delegates experienced the direct friction between financial viability and environmental sustainability. The task: balance collection costs, logistics, and debt repayment against the risk of textile waste ending up in landfills. Managing capital constraints such as choosing between formal bank loans at 11% interest and informal credit at 36% interest revealed how access to finance dictates an enterprise’s ability to scale. The simulation made it clear that enterprises working in isolation quickly faced insolvency. Whereas, businesses that formed regional alliances, shared processing infrastructure, and coordinated collection networks successfully built viable, low-waste circular models.

The Road Ahead

The workshop closed with actionable takeaways on what the textile ecosystem must prioritize to move from ambition to implementation:

• Start: Involving manufacturers from the beginning to co-design transition roadmaps, realistic timelines, and procurement criteria.
• Stop: Re-diagnosing known industry challenges; move away from repetitive high-level reports and focus on financing execution.
• Continue: Building candid platforms for multi-stakeholder dialogue; expanding blended finance mechanisms that absorb initial risks; and supporting innovators on the ground.

Grounding climate conversations in the daily realities of manufacturing proves that true sustainability requires shared accountability. Shahi looks forward to working with more partners to build a low-carbon, resilient, and inclusive future for apparel manufacturing.

Watch the event glimpse here: https://player.vimeo.com/video/1225879618?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

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The four-day event was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Textiles, Shri Giriraj Singh. We had the privilege of welcoming him on the opening day for a walkthrough of our exhibit. The event brought together over 6,000 international buyers, 1,600 exhibitors, 1.3 lakh trade visitors, and industry stakeholders from 130 countries at Bharat Mandapam.

The Shahi Exhibit: Celebrating 52 Years of Manufacturing Excellence

We welcomed global buyers, policymakers, government officials, and peers to engage with our manufacturing capabilities, material innovations, and sustainability initiatives.

The exhibit featured a curated journey wall that traced our evolution over the decades. It highlighted Shahi’s growth from humble origins to a vertically integrated network of over 50 manufacturing facilities. It showcased our diverse product portfolio, high-quality garment construction across various knits, wovens, and next-generation low-impact materials.

Leadership Engagements

Shahi’s leadership team participated in key panel discussions and roundtables across conference tracks. They shared practical perspectives on global trade, manufacturing efficiency, policy prioritization, and sustainable sourcing.

Navigating Global Trade Uncertainty

‘India – A Trusted Partner in an Uncertain World: How Can Indian Companies Navigate a Rapidly Changing Global Trade Scenario‘

Building Globally Competitive Manufacturing Ecosystems

Harish Ahuja, Managing Director and Chairperson, emphasized that long-term capacity expansion must be guided by consumer demand rather than short-term tariff shifts. He highlighted India’s strong domestic fabric base, which enables over 90% domestic value addition, compared with 30%–40% in competing nations such as Vietnam and Bangladesh. He urged policy interventions to help manufacturers achieve sustainable double-digit margins and attract domestic investment.

Building Global Competitiveness in India’s Textile & Apparel Sector

At the panel discussion, Poorana Seenivasan, CEO of the Ladies Specialty Division, outlined key operational fundamentals. He noted that global competitiveness relies on building a supportive industrial ecosystem rather than individual corporate effort alone. Moving beyond low-cost labor, he urged manufacturers to focus on per-person productivity, process engineering, and technology adoption.

Decarbonization and Sustainable Sourcing

‘Dialogue for Sustainable Sourcing Solutions’

Speaking at the panel with Better Cotton Initiative, Anant Ahuja, Director of ESG & Sustainability, shared how sustainability must be integrated directly into core business decisions. He highlighted that the most scalable initiatives are those that improve both environmental and operational performance. This includes Shahi’s move to biomass energy, raising our carbon-neutral energy share, and the adoption of water-saving processing, such as Fibre52. He also stressed the need to simplify reporting frameworks and support upstream suppliers through long-term buyer collaboration.

Policy Reform and State Industrial Infrastructure

‘Crafting Uttar Pradesh’s Next-Generation, Green, and Global Textile Empire.’

Dr. Rakesh Sethi, Chief Operating Officer, spoke at the Uttar Pradesh State panel. He advocated for giving the apparel sector equal policy priority with agriculture due to its capacity to generate mass employment. He also called for active private-sector participation in shaping industrial policy and building green manufacturing clusters.

Regional Growth & Investment Frameworks

Joseph M T, Assistant Vice President of Administration, addressed the Karnataka State Session. He highlighted Karnataka’s growing industrial potential, detailing how strategic state partnerships, infrastructure support, and localized cluster development can attract long-term apparel investments.

Spotlight on Next-Gen Innovation & Heat Stress

The Shahi ESG & Innovation team attended the PDS x Fashion For Good (FFG) Innovation Space Spotlight and Pitch Forum at Bharat Tex. The session brought together global innovators, brand partners, and supply chain leaders to explore emerging technologies. Our team engaged with early-stage solutions across circular materials, low-impact processing, and supply chain traceability, reinforcing our commitment to testing and scaling next-generation sustainable practices.

A side session hosted by Good Business Lab and Sattva brought together key stakeholders—including buyers, manufacturers, research organizations, and non-profits—to address the pressing urgency of heat stress in India. The consensus was clear: heat adaptation must evolve beyond a mere worker-welfare or compliance issue to become a core business resilience strategy. Participants highlighted the need for context-specific, data-driven preventive measures rather than one-size-fits-all fixes. Achieving this requires cross-sector collaboration to share learnings and scale practical solutions.

The Road Ahead

The event served as a platform to engage with international buyers, supply chain partners, and research institutions to discuss joint accountability across global value chains. A highlight was the ICRIER research initiative and book launch on global competitiveness, which included Shahi as a Case Study. The event also hosted dialogues with global bodies on co-investing in supply chain decarbonization, which reaffirms the core message shared across our panel sessions: building a resilient textile industry requires moving beyond transactional vendor relationships. 

As Bharat Tex 2026 concluded, we look forward to advancing the future of Indian apparel manufacturing by delivering high-quality products to the global market. 

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Shahi Exports co-commissioned and led the development of Bang for Buck—a collaborative project facilitated by the Fashion Producer Collective, alongside fellow manufacturers Elevate Textiles and Epic Group, with support from GIZ FABRIC and technical expertise from Grant Thornton Bharat. Quietly radical in its approach, this free, open-access tool covers 22 decarbonization technology measures. These are practical, proven interventions selected by suppliers to work within real-life constraints across diverse factory setups. The tool enables sustainability managers to calculate the exact emissions impact relative to financial ROI, giving them precise data and the language to justify green investments to stakeholders.

What makes Bang for Buck truly unique is the intensely collaborative process behind it. Suppliers weren’t brought in to simply “review” at the eleventh hour but were made co-designers from the very first page. Every assumption was named and debated out loud.

We didn’t just stop at asking how much a technology could cut emissions, but went on to dig deeper. Does this data actually exist within a standard manufacturing company? Who will own it? Is the output robust enough for a plant manager to stand in front of a CFO and win the argument? Even the final paper was written jointly, making sure the manufacturer’s voice remained primary.

The process ultimately revealed:

While technical realities like grid factors and local infrastructure vary by region, the core pressures manufacturers face are identical worldwide.

Whether in South Asia or Southeast Asia, suppliers grapple with accessing upfront capital, verifying technology performance, and communicating ROI. Bang for Buck engages with these realities and changes the traditional supply chain dynamic, proving that repeatable, supplier-led collaboration is not only possible but indeed essential for genuine industry transformation.

Read the Full Article on Substack

Download the Bang For Buck Tool Here

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Translating theoretical guidelines into daily shop-floor practice requires frameworks built by the people who run the facilities. In September 2026, at Cascale’s Annual Meeting in Athens, the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) formally launched the AAFA Heat Stress Toolkit.

Commissioned by AAFA and facilitated by the Fashion Producer Collective (FPC), this five-part toolkit translates broad heat-stress principles into ready-to-use manufacturer guidance, a companion implementation workbook, brand management protocols, and a standardized supplier survey.

Crucially, this initiative marks a historic shift in global supply-chain governance: manufacturers were at the center of authoring their own implementation tools. Members of Shahi’s team co-authored the manufacturer guidelines and workbook alongside peers at Elevate Textiles, Inc., Epic Group, and YKK Corporation, with additional review support from Crescent Bahuman Ltd, MAS Capital (Private) Limited, TAL Apparel, Yee Chain, and the Vaada Hope Foundation.

Rather than introducing another rigid compliance audit, the toolkit grants factory management teams the ownership and flexibility to adapt heat-mitigation protocols to localized microclimates, structural layouts, and real-time worker feedback. It also gives global brands a blueprint to support suppliers without duplicating administrative burdens.

Download the toolkit here.

The inside of an apparel factory feels completely different depending on where you stand. In the raw fabric warehouse, the heat can be heavy, stagnant, and dry. Walk fifty paces into the finishing section, and the equipment adds humidity, driving up the wet-bulb temperatures (the metric that dictates how effectively the human body can cool itself).  

Governments and global organizations have responded with a deluge of directives—by some counts, over 200 distinct heat stress reports and recommendations have been issued worldwide, including those from HeatWatch, the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. 

The variance in felt temperatures, coupled with the structural malleability of factories, presents a unique challenge: guidelines are everywhere but not uniformly applicable. 

At Shahi, we have spent time mapping out the operational reality of modern manufacturing. With more than 50 manufacturing facilities and over 100,000 employees, we are treating thermal comfort as an operational baseline. 

Understanding Baselines

Intense, dry pre-monsoon heat has always been a seasonal reality in northwestern and central India. However, climate change has fundamentally altered the baseline, requiring action to adapt to this new normal and to identify interventions across a diverse range of climates. 

In April 2026, global interest in heat stress reached an all-time high. While Google searches for “what is heat stress” grew by 50% over the last five years, technical queries for “heat stress training” jumped by 140%. As global weather patterns continue to shift, what people are asking is “How do we deal with it?” and as the jump in the query really indicates: “How do we do it at Scale?”

The decade spanning 2015–2025 was the hottest on record for India, with 2024 tracking as the warmest year since 1901 (+0.65°C above the 1991–2020 average). As nighttime temperatures rise, it can also become harder for industrial buildings to dissipate the heat accumulated during the day. This creates a compounding thermal trap before the next morning shift even begins. A recent study in the Delhi-NCR region indicated a 37% increase in worker absenteeism during peak summer heatwaves.  At Shahi, we ground our climate strategy in this internal baseline: mean factory floor temperatures can reach 35°C (95°F) during peak summer months. 

Heat stress in India is not necessarily episodic; rather, it is the new, everyday reality we are grappling with. Hence, extensive contingency or extreme planning is necessary but not sufficient. Shahi’s focus is on driving year-round thermal comfort through a combination of measures. 

Building Blocks: What are we working with?

Mitigating heat stress at scale requires balancing significant capital with daily operational friction.

Shahi’s newer manufacturing units are intentionally designed using built-in heat-reduction measures from the ground up.

These include high ceilings, a limited number of floors to avoid vertical stacking, greenery planning, and more. Our extensive campaign to replace conventional lighting with energy-efficient LEDs achieved up to 50% power savings and reduced average indoor shop floor temperatures by 2.4°C, directly improving worker comfort and productivity. 

Retrofits and upgrades in older buildings improve heat reduction and air circulation. This includes applying high-grade heat-reflective roof paint and installing automated insulated panel sheets to block radiant heat in existing brownfield structures. We are rapidly closing the gap toward our goal of 100% renewable electricity, with 68% of electricity currently coming from renewable sources.

“It is clear to us that while a minimum threshold is set by the central policy; however, we must recognize that no two facilities or regions are identical.  This is where a centralized guideline must have a high-agency-driven, decentralized flexibility to determine the right set of measures at each facility.” — Jayraman Ramesh, Head of Governance

Worker Wellbeing: Beyond Contingencies

With a clear baseline, we integrated mitigation measures directly into our Occupational Health & Safety Management (OHSM) framework. 

Hyper-Local Microclimate Analysis

Ambient outdoor forecasts do not accurately reflect the internal dynamics of an industrial facility. Thermal conditions vary significantly across factory sections, including Sewing, Finishing, Packing, Cutting, Washing, Boiler rooms, and Effluent Treatment Plants. Shahi’s maintenance and engineering teams conduct targeted internal floor tracking systematically throughout the day across all operational zones. As temperatures rise, factory managers ensure that cooling systems are operational and that air circulation patterns and hydration supplies are in place.

“A thermometer measures the temperature, but our workers tell us the actual impact. By integrating heat mitigation into our existing Occupational Health & Safety Management (OHSM) and worker-voice platforms, we ensure that safety protocols are driven by real-time human feedback, not just static legal compliance.” — Chithra Prasad, Head of Social Sustainability

Access to Care and Work Protections

Besides technical controls in place to manage ventilation, our on-site Health Centers and rapid-response first-aid teams step in. Shahi training protocols require responders to know how to distinguish between Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke and treat them. 

Importantly, all hydration and cooling breaks are flexible and entirely non-penalized, protecting workers from operational or efficiency pressures. Moving beyond just plain water to distribute Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS), buttermilk, and traditional, nutrient-dense ragi malt via factory canteen interventions. Employees also participate in peer-monitoring networks to look out for early warning signs in their immediate teammates.

Vulnerable Profiles and Residential Accommodations

An effective heat management strategy should extend past active production lines to protect vulnerable individuals and cover residential facilities.

• Housing Audits: We conduct rigorous audits of all residential facilities for migrant workers to ensure proper cross-ventilation and compliance with occupancy limits. 
• Maternal Health Management: Pregnant workers are proactively relocated away from heat-generating lines or high-density machinery, re-stationed directly under active cooling vents, and given extra, structured rest periods.
• Creche Climate Standards: On-site childcare facilities must comply with thermal standards and ensure that children receive frequent water breaks, suitable food, are dressed appropriately, and are kept out of direct sunlight.
• Outdoor Work: Workers follow shift limitations during high-temperature warnings and receive training on working in high-temperature conditions. Heavy physical outdoor work is avoided between 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM.

Amplifying Worker Voice through Digital Feedback

While technical logs provide helpful baseline numbers, capturing the direct feedback and experience of the workforce is critical for identifying localized operational issues. Shahi bridges this gap by leveraging Inache, our proprietary digital worker-voice platform. Using anonymized digital channels, Inache enables operators to directly flag real-time floor conditions such as a broken fan matrix, a malfunctioning water purification station, or localized stuffiness on a specific line. This combination of technical monitoring and anonymous reporting transforms heat mitigation from a top-down policy into an active, responsive feedback loop.

More than Mitigation: The Path Forward

Mitigating heat stress undeniably extends to broader macro-level issues the world grapples with. As our baseline establishes, for each region on a floor, the intervention to reduce heat generation at the source will require a host of innovative solutions. Shahi is partnering with our value chain to dive deeper and find solutions.

Let’s be candid: true partnership requires acknowledging what is difficult. When heat-stress metrics trigger safety protocols, it directly impacts the baseline mechanics of a factory.

The Operational Friction                    

• Production Strain: With average working hours declining by 0.4 hours and overtime dropping by 32%, meeting strict delivery targets while maintaining mandatory rest cycles requires deep alignment with buyers.               
• Architectural Limits: Retrofitting older buildings presents physical limitations, facing a scarcity of scalable, commercially viable cooling technologies.
• The Data Maturity Gap: The difficulty of tracking subjective, behavioral human outcomes with the same mechanical precision used for carbon or water data.

The true value of guidelines is their clear focus on joint accountability and shared responsibility. Upgrading heavy factory engineering infrastructure, installing large HVAC systems, or automated insulation retrofits requires significant capital. These expenses are long-term supply chain investments, not isolated supplier overheads. 

An Integrated Approach for Brands and Suppliers: 

• Shared Capital Allocation: Executing co-investment programs to fund advanced structural cooling improvements and clean energy infrastructure.
• Flexible Sourcing Timelines: Adjusting production metrics and delivery windows during extreme regional heatwaves so factories can manage safety adjustments without facing commercial or logistical penalties.

“Climate adaptation is one of the most complex challenges facing manufacturing today. Building resilience will require suppliers to reassess both operational costs and factory design, while working closely with brand partners to align on practical, long-term solutions. Adaptation cannot be treated as a traditional compliance exercise where investments are simply mandated. Meaningful progress will depend on shared commitment, coordinated action, and strategies that are both effective and economically sustainable.” — Anant Ahuja, Director ESG & Sustainability

Progress Over Perfection

As global trade policies adjust to new climate realities, international buyers and retailers must prioritize progress over perfection. There is a need to place a higher long-term value on verified operating logs, transparent development roadmaps, and honest, continuous improvement than on static, flawless data points.

At Shahi, our approach to heat stress guidelines is driven by proactive operational discipline and worker-centric sustainability beyond compliance. We view comprehensive frameworks as valuable references for benchmarking our internal progress, improving our data systems, and deepening our partnerships. Our ultimate commitment remains clear: to deliver world-class apparel products to the global marketplace without compromising the safety, thermal comfort, and fundamental dignity of the employees who drive our factory floors.

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• One in four sewing machine operators found to have uncorrected vision impairments
• The intervention gave a 3x return on investment over a three-month trial period
• Adoption of vision correction glasses grew by 24% over the trial period
• Shahi Exports, India’s largest apparel manufacturer to expand the vision correction programme for 100,000 workers across all its factories

About the Study

The RCT undertaken across shopfloors of Karnataka-based factories operated by Shahi Exports provided free glasses to 344 sewing machine operators. These workers were experiencing Presbyopia, an age-related decline in near vision, affecting their work on the factory floor and their quality of daily life. This condition affects 1 in 4 sewing machine operators in the selected factories. 

Implemented by VisionSpring, the intervention provided vision screening and free glasses at under ₹1,000 ($10) per worker. Factories saw a net benefit of ₹4,000 ($43) per worker in just six weeks. These returns in projection are equal to ₹15,000 ($162) over a year. The findings point to a clear business case:

A modest, one-time investment in worker wellbeing delivered measurable gains in factory performance within weeks.

Shahi Exports, India’s largest textile manufacturer, is committed to expanding vision correction programmes beyond presbyopia across its operations, with a target to reach 100,000 workers.

Workers also reported measurable benefits of improved vision, demonstrating significantly better visual function scores within 12 weeks of receiving glasses. Furthermore, adherence to wearing glasses increased significantly, from 41% in week 4 to 65% in week 12. This suggests that workers who experienced benefits were more likely to continue using the glasses consistently. Clearer vision also has direct quality-of-life effects: the ability to read a mobile phone, help a child with schoolwork, or manage daily tasks independently.

Achyuta Adhvaryu, Co-Founder, Good Business Lab, noted,

“When employers invest in something as fundamental as a worker’s ability to see, the returns flow in both directions, to the worker and the business. This study demonstrates that simple, low-cost intervention, such as providing vision correction glasses, can yield productivity results comparable to other proven, but significantly more expensive, performance-linked incentives or training initiatives. I am truly excited that Shahi Exports has decided to scale this program, and I hope other firms recognize that addressing such a basic physiological barrier is a powerful, yet often overlooked, way to drive both worker well-being and long-term business growth.”

Eye Health Impact at Scale

If scaled across the estimated 53 million garment workers in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Cambodia, universal vision correction could add billions of dollars in annual output while directly improving workers’ quality of life. Globally, the study estimates a potential $27 billion annual productivity gain for the textile and garment sector.

Anant Ahuja, Director of ESG and Sustainability at Shahi Exports, added,

“Eye health is an imperative life function. The findings of the study are promising and signal a growing belief that strategic investment in worker wellbeing not only improves workers’ lives but also strengthens the business. We are now expanding the reach of this benefit to all workers across our factories.” 

With the size and importance of the garment industry, especially in low- and middle-income countries where access to eye care is limited, a productivity improvement on this scale could be felt across entire economies. The garment industry is also an important source of employment for women, especially in South Asia. At under ₹1000 ($10) per worker, vision correction is among the lowest-cost, highest-return investments an employer in this sector can make.

About Good Business Lab

Good Business Lab Foundation (GBL) is a non-profit organisation that works to improve the lives of low-income workers. We design and test evidence-based solutions for well-being and economic stability, and promote the adoption of effective practices that create dignified and inclusive work environments. GBL’s work spans five focus areas: Climate, Health, Livelihoods,  Gender, and the Workplace, and reflects a growing portfolio of evidence across labour-intensive sectors such as retail, automotive, construction, and platform work. To know more about GBL, visit goodbusinesslab.org

About Shahi Exports 

Established in 1974 by Sarla Ahuja, Shahi Exports is one of India’s largest integrated apparel manufacturers and exporters. The company operates over 50 manufacturing facilities across eight Indian states and employs nearly 100,000 people. Serving leading global fashion and lifestyle brands, Shahi combines vertically integrated operations with a diversified product portfolio. Shahi continues to invest in manufacturing innovation, responsible sourcing, ethical operations, and environmental sustainability. For more information, visit shahi.co.in.

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Together, the partnership brings Fibre52®’s patented biochemistry platform with Shahi’s manufacturing scale to advance more resource-efficient cotton processing within large-scale textile production. 

Cotton pretreatment is one of the most resource-intensive stages in textile manufacturing. Fibre52® introduces a drop-in, low-temperature pretreatment system that uses ZDHC MRSL v3.1 and OEKO-TEX®-approved chemistries. The process can preserve the natural wax and softness of cotton fiber while eliminating the use of caustic soda and reducing resource intensity compared to conventional pretreatment. 

Since early 2024, Fibre52®’s trials at Shahi progressed through a structured validation process of 5MT, 20MT, and, more recently, 100MT fabric trials. The results demonstrated reductions of approximately 25% in water consumption and 49% in steam consumption compared to conventional pretreatment systems. 

As part of the scale-up roadmap, Shahi plans to transition approximately 25% of its knit processing capacity to the Fibre52® pretreatment system, representing close to 3,000 tons per annum. This marks the shift from controlled trials to industrial adoption within a large, vertically integrated manufacturing environment. 

Shahi and Fibre52® are advancing this collaboration as a long-term innovation platform. The focus is on expanding applications, deepening integration across product categories, and reinforcing scalable pathways for lower-impact textile manufacturing.

Laura Thornquist, President of Innovo Fiber, Fibre52®’s parent company, said:

“What makes this partnership unique is not just the technology, but the alignment of vision. Shahi and Fibre52® came together with a shared commitment to rethinking cotton processing at scale. When innovation capability and manufacturing discipline work in sync, real transformation becomes possible.”

Anant Ahuja, Director of ESG & Sustainability, Shahi Exports, said:

“This collaboration reflects the value of close partnership. The Fibre52® team brought a different approach, and Shahi focused on how it could work within our production environment. Together, this has progressed from early validation to measurable production outcomes. It is encouraging to see how sustainability and performance can come together at an industrial scale.”

About Shahi Exports

Shahi Exports is one of India’s largest integrated apparel manufacturers and exporters, supplying leading global fashion and lifestyle brands. The company operates a broad network of textile and garment manufacturing facilities and continues to invest in manufacturing innovation, responsible sourcing, and resource-efficient production.

About Innovo Fiber and Fibre52®

Innovo Fiber LLC is a US-based technology company and the owner of the Fibre52® cotton pretreatment platform. Fibre52® is a patented system designed to prepare cotton for dyeing while preserving the fiber’s inherent qualities, while reducing the resource intensity compared to conventional cotton processing.

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The FY 2024–25 progress report covers the period from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, and primarily focuses on Shahi’s operations in India. 

Decisive Climate Action: A Major Shift in Energy

Shahi achieved significant milestones in its environmental journey this year. Driven by a crucial strategic decision to replace coal with sustainable biomass across its facilities. This move directly contributed to achieving a 51% carbon-neutral energy mix, up from 36% in the previous year, and surpassed internal targets earlier than projected.

Harish Ahuja, Managing Director and Chairperson, Shahi Exports Pvt. Ltd., commented,

“Our transition from coal to sustainable biomass was a bold and necessary step, helping us achieve 51% carbon-neutral energy across the company, up from 36% just last year. This progress does not happen by chance. It is a result of detailed planning, relentless execution, and our firm belief that we can and must do better as we transition toward a more responsible energy future.”

Investing in People and Community Well-being

The company placed significant emphasis on social responsibility, delivering substantial progress in employee development, empowerment, and community engagement:

• Upskilling and Training: The organization provided over 1 million hours of employee training and delivered technical skills training to 75,000 women.
• Worker Health: More than 17,000 workers participated in the company’s health camps.
• Worker Voice: Shahi ensured 100% access to Inache, its digital worker-voice tool, enhancing workplace communication and transparency.
• Community Outreach: Initiatives dedicated to driving education, health, environment, employment, and empowerment outcomes in communities served over 475,000+ individuals.

Expanding Influence Through Collaboration

Recognizing that industry-wide change requires partnership, Shahi broadened its collaborative footprint this year:

• Industry Innovation: Shahi co-founded the Fashion Producers Collective, an initiative focused on supplier-led research to drive systemic improvements.
• Global Stewardship: The company continued its dedicated work within The Fashion Pact and further solidified its alignment with international governance standards by joining the OECD Advisory Group on Responsible Supply Chains and the Coalition for Reproductive Justice in Business under UNFPA.

As Shahi moves forward, its objective remains to drive people and planet-positive practices that secure long-term value for all stakeholders and establish new performance benchmarks for responsible manufacturing.

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Anant Ahuja, Director ESG & Sustainability at Shahi Exports & CEO and Co-founder at Good Business Lab, and Andrea M. Wojnar, Representative for UNFPA India and Country Director for Bhutan, sealed the commitment at a ceremony held at the UN House in New Delhi.

A Strategic Investment in Workforce Resilience

This partnership marks our formal commitment to integrate sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) into our business policies and practices. It’s a declaration that investing in women’s reproductive health is a smart business decision that boosts workforce resilience, productivity, and gender equality.

The Coalition, a multi-stakeholder platform led by UNFPA, aims to mainstream the SRHR agenda within the private sector globally.

Anant Ahuja commented on the significance of the agreement: 

“Joining the Coalition for Reproductive Justice in Business is a great moment for us. This MoU reflects a core belief we hold: that the health, dignity, and autonomy of our women employees are fundamental to our success. We are excited to collaborate with UNFPA India to set a new standard for corporate responsibility and advance women across our workforce and the value chain.”

UNFPA on the Role of the Private Sector

The private sector, as one of the world’s largest economic forces, is uniquely positioned to drive positive social change through inclusive policies.

Andrea M. Wojnar highlighted the collaboration:

“The integration of women’s health and rights into corporate strategy is crucial for achieving gender equality and unlocking economic potential. Shahi’s commitment as a champion demonstrates forward-thinking leadership that directly addresses the barriers women face. We look forward to leveraging this partnership to drive measurable impact on critical areas like menstrual health, gender-based violence prevention, and access to comprehensive reproductive health information.”

Key Commitments Under the Partnership

As a champion of the Coalition, Shahi will undertake concrete actions, focusing on:

• Policy Advancement: Implementing enhanced, family-friendly policies related to menstrual health, maternity and parental support, and flexible working arrangements.
• Health Access: Working towards providing information and access to comprehensive reproductive health services and support.
• Gender-Based Violence (GBV): Strengthening workplace mechanisms and zero-tolerance policies to prevent and respond to gender-based violence and harassment.
• Measurement: Utilizing the framework to track, report, and continuously improve performance on SRHR indicators within the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting.

Shahi is committed to fostering a supportive, stigma-free environment. The goal is to enable every employee to exercise their right to make autonomous decisions about their bodies and futures.

About Shahi Exports: Shahi is India’s largest apparel manufacturer and exporter. The company operates more than 50 state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities across 8 Indian states. It has a diverse workforce of nearly 100,000 people. Their vertically integrated operations, diversified product range, and strong commitment to ethical operations and environmental sustainability have established Shahi as one of the most preferred garment manufacturers in the world.

About UNFPA India: UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. UNFPA’s mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services. UNFPA has been partnering with India for over 50 years, ensuring rights and choices for all and helping build a future where every woman and young person can thrive.

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Mrs. Sarla Ahuja (Didi Ji) often recalls how her younger child was so spirited and full of energy that she decided to start working from home to balance her responsibilities as a mother and a professional. In the 1970s, women’s participation in the economy was largely confined to agriculture and the informal sector. During this time, Mrs. Sarla stepped into the unfamiliar world of exports. It was a time of protectionist policies, and the idea of “working from home” was hardly imagined. She made a choice that was born out of care and necessity. It soon became the first stitch in the fabric of what would grow into one of India’s largest apparel manufacturers, Shahi.

A New Kind of Beginning

The India of 1974 was a time of transition, when women’s voices in business were still rare and often overlooked. Opportunities were limited, but so was the fear of trying.

Sarla Ji’s curiosity, determination, and willingness to think differently laid the foundation for something much larger than herself. It began as a personal venture and soon evolved into a platform for thousands of women to earn a livelihood, gain confidence, and redefine what leadership looks like in the textile industry.

Capturing Five Decades of Purpose

Fifty years later, that spark remains a defining part of us.

To commemorate this extraordinary journey, we are proud to launch ‘The Spark: 50 Years of Shahi’. The book is a visual and emotional chronicle that captures the essence of who we are and how we came to be.

The Spark retraces the beginnings of a small homegrown enterprise and follows its evolution into India’s largest apparel manufacturer. Inside, you get a peek into rare photographs, personal reflections, and memories from the people who built Shahi. It tells the story of a company that has always been shaped by its people. Their skills and ideas drove its success. Their persistence and dedication kept it growing. 

The Story of a Generation, and Many More

The pages echo the voices of those who have been part of Shahi for decades. They hold the spirit of people who joined as young trainees and today lead teams of hundreds. Their stories of grit, innovation, and belonging remind us that progress never happens overnight. People build it slowly, stitching it together, one thread, one milestone, one person at a time.

This is more than a record of our history. It is a shared reflection, a chance for each of us, across eight states, to see ourselves in a story larger than our own.

A Book That Belongs to Everyone

The book is, at its heart, a collective memory and a bridge across time, departments, and generations.

Whether you have been part of Shahi for years or just joined, you’ll find the pages peppered with something familiar. They tell a story of perseverance, people, and purpose.

Today, we launch the book as both a tribute and an invitation. It asks us to remember where we began and to carry forward the same spirit and intent that started it all.

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