Denim Sustainability By the Numbers: A Snapshot of the Industry’s Progress and Remaining Challenges
EIM (Environmental Impact Measurement), the global reference platform for measuring the environmental impact of garment finishing, presents the second edition of its annual report, “Denim Industry Progress & Insights 2025.” The study analyzes over 100,000 real denim finishing processes, providing an accurate and up-to-date view of the industry’s evolution towards more sustainable models.
The textile industry, as one of the sectors with the greatest environmental impact, plays a key role in the transition towards more sustainable production models. To move forward, measuring, understanding and acting are essential. EIM acts as a compass for the industry, enabling the objective assessment of process impacts and supporting decision-making towards more eco-efficient production.
The report confirms that the denim industry continues to make progress in reducing its environmental impact. Currently, 66 percent of processes are already classified as low impact, reflecting a positive trend driven by process optimization and the adoption of more efficient technologies.
In terms of resource use, significant progress has been made in optimizing water and energy, although there is still room for improvement to reach more advanced standards. Water consumption remains stable at around 30 liters per garment, indicating a plateau after years of continuous improvement. Energy shows the strongest performance, with 85 percent of processes classified as low impact, driven by equipment modernization and automation.
However, the report highlights that chemical impact remains the industry’s main challenge, with 27 percent of processes still classified as high impact. Factors such as the use of generic chemicals, lack of transparency in formulations, and the persistence of legacy practices, such as pumice stones or potassium permanganate, continue to limit progress, despite the availability of more sustainable alternatives.
At the same time, worker health impact has improved significantly, with 68 percent of processes classified as low impact, driven by the increasing adoption of automated technologies replacing more harmful manual techniques.
“The industry has proven that it can improve when it measures its impact, but the next step requires accelerating the adoption of technologies and leaving behind practices that are no longer sustainable,” says Begoña García, creator of EIM and co-author of the report. “Today more than ever, we need reliable data to make informed decisions and move towards a real transformation of the industry.”
This second report further establishes EIM as a global reference standard to measure and track environmental impact in denim finishing. Its annual nature allows brands and manufacturers to benchmark performance, identify improvement areas and move forward together towards more ambitious sustainability goals.
Key Figures
- 66 percent of processes are now classified as low environmental impact.
- Average water consumption per garment is 30 liters, reflecting a stabilization of the industry after years of continuous improvement.
- 85 percent of processes are classified as low impact in terms of energy consumption, driven by equipment modernization and automation.
- 27 percent of processes are still classified as high chemical impact, making it the industry’s main remaining challenge.
- 68 percent of processes show low impact on worker health, thanks to the growing adoption of more responsible and automated technologies.
Key Findings
Sustainability is improving, but progress remains uneven.
The data points to steady progress driven by process optimization and the gradual adoption of more efficient technologies. However, improvements are not consistent across all environmental indicators.
Water and energy continue to improve.
The industry continues to make progress in reducing resource consumption. Water use remains stable at around 30 liters per garment, reflecting a plateau after years of continuous improvement. Energy delivers the strongest results, with 85 percent of processes now classified as low impact thanks to equipment modernization and automation.
Chemical impact remains the industry’s biggest challenge.
Despite progress in other areas, 27 percent of processes are still classified as high chemical impact. The use of generic chemicals, limited transparency around certain formulations and the persistence of traditional practices such as pumice stones and potassium permanganate continue to slow progress across the industry.
The challenge is adoption.
The report highlights a gap between the solutions already available and their implementation at scale. Technologies capable of significantly reducing the environmental impact of finishing processes already exist, yet adoption remains uneven across parts of the industry.
Automation is improving worker health.
The replacement of more aggressive manual techniques with automated technologies is helping improve working conditions and reduce impacts on worker health.
Why It Matters
- It is estimated that around 5 billion pairs of jeans are produced every year.
- The fashion industry faces growing pressure to reduce its environmental footprint and improve transparency across its supply chains.
- EIM provides an objective way to measure the industry’s environmental progress and compare performance using common benchmarks.
- Measuring environmental performance helps brands, manufacturers and suppliers identify opportunities for improvement and make more informed, data-driven decisions.
The full report is available for download and will be updated annually, reinforcing the industry’s commitment to transparency, continuous improvement and environmental impact reduction.