Madrid summit brings 250 textile and apparel leaders together to confront compliance, data gaps, and textile waste.
The Move! Sustainability Fashion Summit 2026 took place recently in Madrid, Spain, gathering approximately 250 professionals from across the textile, apparel, and footwear value chain. Discussions focused on circular systems, textile waste, business resilience, and the operational realities of sustainability.
Key Takeaways
- Sustainability is now compliance, not choice
Across sessions, a clear shift emerged: sustainability is moving from strategic differentiator to business requirement. Evolving regulations are pushing companies to treat it as a baseline for operation, not a marketing edge.
- Data and infrastructure remain bottlenecks
Fragmented data systems and limited infrastructure continue to slow progress toward circularity. Speakers pointed to ongoing challenges with traceability and harmonized measurement as major barriers to scale.
- Collaboration is non-negotiable
Industry leaders emphasized that addressing textile waste and scaling solutions will require coordination across the entire value chain. No single player can close the loop alone.
From Ambition to Operations
Speakers from H&M, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, ReHubs, Pangaia, and the Regenerative Fund for Nature shared perspectives on circular business models, post-consumer textile waste, regenerative production, and the infrastructure needed for industry-wide transformation.
Several discussions highlighted the gap between circularity goals and current operations. While brands are investing in resale, collection, and recycling, challenges persist around traceability, data fragmentation, and limited recycling capacity. Industry experts noted that textile-to-textile recycling remains below 1% globally, underscoring the scale of work ahead.
Roundtable conversations also examined the link between sustainability investment and business performance. Participants noted that consumers continue to prioritise quality, design, and value, with sustainability increasingly expected as standard rather than a primary purchase driver.
The Road Ahead
The summit reinforced what many in the industry already know: progress depends on credible sustainability data, harmonized measurement tools, and deeper collaboration across suppliers, brands, and recyclers. With regulation tightening, the conversation is shifting from “why” to “how”.
