This March, I had the privilege of visiting manufacturer members in Pakistan alongside my colleague Jeremy Lardeau, SVP of the Higg Index at Cascale. It was the first of what we hope will be many “on-the-ground” visits this year — a chance to meet the people behind the data, see sustainability in action, and, most importantly, listen.
Pakistan is currently the world’s eighth-largest textile exporter, with deep expertise in cotton-based products like denim, knits, and homewear. Many manufacturers are large-scale, vertically integrated operations, and what we saw confirmed just how invested the community is in driving a more sustainable future.
A Look Inside Leading Facilities
Our trip included visits to two stand-out facilities: Artistic Milliners and Diamond Fabrics (part of the Sapphire Group) — both leaders in their field, operating across Tier 1 to Tier 5, with ownership of everything from cotton cultivation and spinning to garment manufacturing and finishing.
Artistic Milliners is a founding member of Cascale and one of Pakistan’s largest denim fabric and garment producers. They’ve made significant investments in decarbonization and circularity — not just within their own operations, but also through collaboration across the supply chain. A great example is their Circular Park in Karachi: a purpose-built 70,000 square foot facility fully powered by clean energy and equipped with cotton shredding machinery from French firm Laroche.
“This technologically advanced hub serves as our central collection point for both pre- and post-consumer textile waste, primarily cotton, utilizing state-of-the-art sorting and shredding machinery with a capacity to recycle up to 500,000 kg of waste monthly,” shared Artistic Milliners’ marketing lead Gibran Khaliq. “Our goal is to significantly boost the production of recycled fabrics, aiming to incorporate 20 percent recycled content into all of our materials, while also striving for net-zero energy consumption through solar power and creating a surrounding urban forest.”
Diamond Fabrics, a subsidiary of the Sapphire Group, is another leading denim fabric and garment manufacturer with fully vertical operations across Tier 1 to Tier 5. Our visit took place at their impressive Faisalabad site — and coincidentally, on World Water Day.
“To mark the occasion, we organized a tree plantation drive and celebrated International Water Day — a moment to reflect on the importance of water conservation. The Cascale team, alongside WWF Pakistan, shared their insights on water stewardship and sustainable industry practices,” recounted Saqib Shahzad, Head of Sustainability at Diamond Fabrics, in an accompanying LinkedIn post.
We also want to thank Mr. Saqib Shahzad for facilitating a roundtable discussion of leading Pakistan apparel and textile manufacturers. As senior director of manufacturer membership at Cascale, I found the conversations incredibly open and honest. It’s conversations like these that peel back the layers on our complex, interconnected industry, and provide the chance to see another’s perspective.
Conversations That Cut Through the Noise
As you can imagine, a lot of the same duplication issues persist — and only grow as new environmental reporting demands pile up. These challenges are incredibly frustrating for manufacturers who have built out sustainability teams and put in the time, money, and energy into compliance. When duplicate or one-off compliance requests come in, already resource-strapped sustainability teams are further tied up.
Couple this with the rising costs from increasing monthly environmental reporting and verification demands from customers (sometimes 200 to 300 audits or verifications at a time), and it’s no wonder facilities are maxed out.
It brought pause to consider the hidden cost manufacturers take on. How can we acknowledge the administrative and financial investments they make? Is it reflected in the daily FOB price discussions, and if not – why not? Maybe it even requires us to rethink how we conduct business.
A Vision Worth Backing
I know it seems like a lot to consider, but we have the power to shape the trajectory of our business relationships in every single purchase order. This is in ways subtle and pronounced.
The message from the Pakistan community to industry was clear: we must address audit and data upload fatigue, we must spread the costs and risks so it doesn’t fall squarely on manufacturer shoulders, and we must unlock financing opportunities that directly benefit them to make the necessary investments for low-carbon facilities and worker livelihood.
With collective action on these solutions through organizations like Cascale, Pakistan can turn the vision of being a sustainable industry leader into a reality.
