Posted by Alfiya Yermukasheva
3 July 2025Written by Ben Parker, Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Future Fibres Network+, University of Exeter
What was the conference about?
The inaugural ITCC2025 was hosted by the School of Design and Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC) and held 25-26 June. A diverse and international group of stakeholders attended including academics, industry, policymakers and non-governmental organisations to share cutting-edge research around the sustainability of the textile and colour industry. Attendees represented a range of fields such as textile engineering, sustainable fashion, circular economy, colouring, advanced materials and environmental science, all concerned about the impact of the fashion and textile industry.
What happened?
Across the two days, a number of themed sessions were organised and comprised keynote talks followed by several shorter, related presentations. Panel sessions were also organised in which experts could share their knowledge as well as answer questions from the audience. The format was particularly good in platforming industry experts and with representation from early career researchers as chairs, panellists and presenters. A busy schedule was broken up by regular networking breaks for discussion and to view a number of excellent posters and stands set up around the venue.
Here are three take-home messages with strong applications to the Future Fibres Network+ (FFN+):
Textile production is increasing for clothing and additional and growing applications exist such as for surfaces and medical textiles.
Increasing textile production and use might have important implications for the environment and human wellbeing and so green chemistry, increasing recovery and recycling might be used to retain materials within the system and increase the value of fibres.
Numerous technological and non-technical solutions were presented including techniques to reduce water and energy use as well as recover dyes and wastes better.
Scalable techniques that reduce harmful chemicals, waste volumes and energy inputs will have important implications for the environmental impact of the industry. By reducing waste such technologies are financially as well as environmentally attractive.
Both non- (“natural”) and petroleum-based (“synthetic”) textiles can shed microfibres, leach chemicals and be ingested by organisms, all with negative consequences.
Non-petroleum fibres are understudied but receiving more attention as well as microfibre shedding during manufacture, arguably easier to target. Standardised data are needed, and starting to be collected, to better quantify the shedding, degradation and environmental impacts of materials to improve their design.
Overall, the central theme of the conference was a clear understanding of the sustainability challenges faced within the industry an acknowledgement of the solutions required. Interdisciplinary research and cross-stakeholder engagement were consistently recognised as key drivers of the changes required and are exemplified by the FFN+ and related subnetworks.
The conference team did an excellent job of organising the event and I am grateful to Professor Stephen Russell and the Network Plus in Circular Fashion and Textiles – Programme Co-ordination Team (PCT) for the keynote invitation.
ITCC 2025 page:
https://conferences.leeds.ac.uk/itcc2025/
