An International Textile & Apparel Sustainability Conference will be held from July 16 to 21, 2012 at Mauritius. The conference is in line with the Government of Mauritius’s vision to position the country as a sustainable island through its ‘Maurice Ile Durable’ (MID) vision.

For Mauritius, MID is a vehicle of sustainable development, social change & inclusive growth. It has embraced five broad sectors namely: equity, education, environment, energy and employment with spill-over effects in manufacturing and a multitude of people-centric services.

The ‘textile, apparel & fashion’ industry is one of the most vibrant & dynamic industries in the world in terms of creativity and diversity of product offerings. The industry’s output worldwide was about US$ 615 billion in 2009 and accounted for 4% of global merchandise exports.

However, the industry is a large consumer of scarce natural resources and as such it faces unprecedented challenges, and business as usual is not a viable option. Climate change, ever-increasing water shortages and surging raw materials prices threatens to undermine the innovation capacity of this industry.

Integrating sustainability, as widely reported, is not just good for business; it is essential if the industry is to continue to grow, innovate and create jobs in a world of increasingly constrained resources.

The conference will enable local & overseas participants to share research output, insights, ideas and keep abreast with the latest knowledge in sustainability frameworks & tools, carbon neutral manufacturing, process technologies, technical textiles, climate change, etc.

The conference will invite conceptual and empirical research presentations, and country-context case studies that principally highlight the practical implications of the research work.

Click here to access more details about the conference.