Textile Exchange Opens Nominations for Its 2026 Climate and Nature Impact Awards
Textile Exchange, the global nonprofit organization focused on sustainable fiber and raw material production, has opened nominations for its annual Climate and Nature Impact Awards. The deadline is July 3, 2026. The awards recognize individuals and partnerships across the textile supply chain — brands, retailers, farmers, producers, suppliers and recyclers — for work toward a regenerative and equitable raw materials economy. Winners are honored at a ceremony during the Textile Exchange Conference; the 2025 edition was held in Lisbon, Portugal.
The award categories cover emissions reduction, ecosystem restoration, regenerative land management, textile-to-textile recycling and financing models that make preferred materials commercially viable. The emissions award is dedicated to Ryan Young, Textile Exchange's late chief operating officer and the architect of its Climate+ strategy.
Past winners give a sense of the projects the organization wants to scale. Victoria's Secret was recognized for building a fully traceable US cotton program with four family farms in Alabama — three women-owned, one Black-owned — using direct contracts so that farmers receive full profit for their fiber. South African wool farmer James Brodie won the 2025 Regenerative Land Leadership Award for work in the Karoo region that restores soil health, biodiversity and water systems. Patagonia-based Ovis 21 was highlighted for regenerating degraded grasslands and developing a standard for grassland restoration.
The announcement also profiles Recover and Intradeco Apparel, which are collaborating on a recycled cotton fiber hub in El Salvador, and Materra, whose multi-year regenerative cotton offtake agreements with more than 5,000 farmers in India won the 2024 Collaboration in Action Award. Australian wool farmers Di and Ian Haggerty won the 2024 Ryan Young Climate Leader Award for regenerative farming in Western Australia.
What the Winning Projects Reveal About the Textile Raw-Materials Transition
The Awards as a Signal, Not Just a Ceremony
The examples the organization chooses to highlight point to a broader shift in how textile brands are trying to source raw materials. Victoria's Secret's model is not philanthropy; it is a commercial structure in which the brand knows the growers by name, farmers avoid intermediaries and cotton is traceable to specific farms. If such approaches prove workable at scale, other brands may adopt direct-source programs.
Recycling Infrastructure Is Moving Closer to Manufacturing
The Recover-Intradeco partnership is an instructive case: it pairs recycled cotton fiber technology with existing apparel manufacturing capacity in Central America. Locating recycling near garment production shortens lead times and reduces logistics-related emissions, two factors brands weigh when increasing recycled content.
What the Announcement Does Not Tell Us
Textile Exchange lists winning projects but does not disclose quantitative results such as emissions reduced, hectares restored or fiber volumes recycled. Because nominations are self-reported, the profiles reflect what the projects claim rather than independently verified performance. The winners are best read as indicators of direction, not as audited outcomes.
How to Engage: Nomination Deadline and What Strong Entries Look Like
Organizations and individuals in fiber and raw material production can submit nominations for themselves or others before July 3, 2026, using the form on Textile Exchange's website. Entries are strongest when they demonstrate measurable outcomes — emissions reductions, hectares under regenerative management, soil health data or volumes of recycled fiber produced — because the award descriptions repeatedly emphasize data-backed progress.
Brands looking for a practical starting point can examine the profiled models: Victoria's Secret's direct, traceable cotton contracts, Materra's multi-year offtake agreements with farmers, and Recover and Intradeco's infrastructure-led recycling partnership. For producers and recyclers, the common pattern across winners is collaboration — working directly with brands or manufacturing partners rather than pursuing isolated projects.
Comments 0