Top fashion brands have a supply chain battle against extreme heat

A grid of about 800 sewing machines whir, rows of hissing irons let out clouds of steam and hundreds of workers move across a production floor at a vast clothing manufacturing facility in eastern India, some using laser-guided cutters to slice through giant rolls of fabric. Outside the sprawling site in Khordha, in Odisha state — a 40-acre campus intended to eventually pack in as many as 10,000 staff — temperatures on a late June morning hover around 34℃ (93.2℉), and feel far more extreme as hot, damp winds sweep in from the Bay of Bengal to deliver punishing humidity. The conditions appear all too familiar for supply chains across Asia that serve the $1.7 trillion global fashion industry, and in which tens of millions of employees — predominantly women — face increasingly severe impacts from extreme heat, frequently with inadequate protections inside their workplaces. Extreme heat is cutting garment factory productivity in India In India, scorching temperatures are driving higher employee absences and contributing to productivity losses of as much as 10% for garment manufacturers during the peak summer months, according to a June study by the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Production lines for the clothing industry have long been particularly susceptible to the effects of extreme temperatures — often combining large numbers of workers in close proximity, high volumes of heat-generating equipment, and basic or poorly ventilated buildings. “Industrial architecture was designed to keep the most economically important component in the factory safe — which was the machines,” said Vidhura Ralapanawe, executive vice president for innovation and sustainability at Epic Group, a garment supplier which opened its new Khordha campus in April with an ambition of tackling workplace heat. The wider clothing sector has been slow to address the impacts of surging temperatures on employees, according to Ralapanawe. “It’s like the crab in the boiling pot of water. You don’t see the problem because it’s happening so slowly,” he says. “By the time you realize the thresholds are crossed, it comes as a shock.” India has suffered through another blistering summer heat season in 2026, and accounted for all 50 of the world’s hottest cities identified in studies of global temperatures in April and May by AQI.in. Inside Epic Group’s climate-adapted garment factory in Odisha Step into Epic’s Trimetro campus, through airlock-style doors and past machinery blasting out a curtain of chilled air, and the tropical stew outside vanishes. Thick overhead pipes circulate cool gusts across production lines, while huge fans suspended from ceilings slowly push a continuous breeze toward workers, keeping the temperature inside closer to 28℃. Beneath the sweeping blades, Mamata Sahani, 23, and Madhusmita Das, 27, guide fabric through stitchers. Their faces are dry and collars free of sweat, and the pair joke together as the factory’s speakers broadcast a mix of Hindi film soundtracks and Odia devotional songs. In a previous job at a different factory there was minimal cooling equipment, Sahani explained. “We just had a few fans across the factory floor. During summers the tin roof got so hot that we felt we were baking,” she says. "I am able to work better here. It isn't hot, so I can focus on my work more.” Heat stress threatens 90 million apparel workers worldwide More than 90 million people are directly employed in the world’s apparel industry — roughly half of those in India — and face increasingly frequent and severe impacts from weather extremes, Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute and the International Finance Corp. said in a report last November. The analysis of 23 major global production hubs found that over the past two decades roughly three-quarters of the locations had experienced a 10% or more increase in the average number of days with temperatures above 35℃, and seen accelerating patterns of dangerous heat stress. In India alone, 87% of garment workers had experienced heat-related illnesses in the past 12 months, according to a study published in February by HeatWatch and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. “We need to stop treating heat as an inevitable cost of doing business and start engineering towards a future where productivity and human comfort or dignity are not compromised,” said Ying McGuire, chief executive officer of Cascale, a nonprofit focused on climate and labor issues in the consumer goods industry. Epic Group’s Trimetro facility was designed specifically to limit temperatures, rather than simply rely on cooling. Exterior walls are constructed from modified clay material, while the roof acts as a heavily insulated canopy with south-facing windows eliminated entirely. “If ambient heat is your problem, you have to have the most efficient thermal insulated building, you have to block heat coming into the building,” said Ralapanawe. The adaptations have also been influenced by the factory’s funding. A $100 million debt financing package from the IFC to support the producer’s manufacturing in India and Bangladesh includes strict targets on lowering greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater usage, while also increasing the share of women in management roles. An air conditioning system uses oversized pipes curved at 45-degree angles to reduce friction, allowing its chillers to use less power. Traditional biomass boilers have been replaced with more efficient industrial heat pumps that dry garments and produce chilled water as a by-product which can be used to cool the factory’s washing floor. In addition to harming workers, extreme heat and humidity can also damage equipment and spoil the garment assembly process. “We need to take care of the fabric like we take care of food,” said Vijay Subramanyam Renduchintala, a general manager at Epic Group. Delivering an entirely new campus has allowed Hong Kong-based Epic, which also operates manufacturing lines in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Jordan and Ethiopia, greater flexibility to deploy heat protections than is possible when adapting existing factories — the main issue across the garment manufacturing industry. “Many engineering teams will never get this freedom and flexibility,” Ralapanawe said. “When we build new, we can actually design it in a way to reduce the incremental cost and keep operational cost low. When I go and try to retrofit an existing factory, I can’t control a lot of those parameters.” Why global fashion brands must share the cost of heat adaptation Providing solutions to the sector’s heat challenges will require global brands to also take responsibility alongside manufacturers, and is likely to translate into higher costs for consumers, according to An Zhou, vice president of technology at the Apparel Impact Institute, a nonprofit. “Textiles is really a tight margin industry. Factories, especially in developing markets, don’t have enough money to take risks and make these kinds of changes,” she said. “The brands should think about how they can build a better business along with the factories.” And even with adaptations inside their workplaces, supply chain staff continue to face severe risks outside the factory gates. After her shift in Khordha, Das returns to a nearby village where her only cooling at home is provided by fans and there are frequent power outages. “It’s difficult to come back to work the next day when you haven’t had a full night’s sleep,” she said. Fashion brands from Uniqlo to Ralph Lauren begin acting on heat risk There are signs the global fashion sector is increasingly recognizing the impacts extreme temperatures pose across their supply chains. The American Apparel and Footwear Association, which represents more than 1,100 companies including Ralph Lauren and Levi Strauss & Co., in April issued new guidelines on heat stress, urging brands to share responsibility with suppliers. An initial phase of Epic Group’s Trimetro facility is producing clothes for Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo, which said long-term contracts can help suppliers take action to address factors like heat stress. “Our partners have the stability required to make facility and equipment upgrades for sustainability objectives, including reducing emissions, increasing the use of more sustainable raw materials, and raising workplace standards for the people who help make our clothes,” the Japan-based company said in a statement. In addition to heat protections, Epic’s campus has added porous grass pavers, pebble-lined drains and a 15,000-cubic-meter central lake to ward against flooding risks and Odisha’s slow-moving cyclones. The garment industry’s challenge from natural hazards is only likely to become more complex and costly, according to Ralapanawe. “It’s not possible to design a completely climate-resilient facility, with the kind of climate extremes that we are increasingly getting,” he said. “The more you stretch the limits, the more expensive it becomes.” By Azman Usmani

Top fashion brands have a supply chain battle against extreme heat

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Top fashion brands have a supply chain battle against extreme heat

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