Supporting Textile Exchange in Updating its Fiber & Materials Matrix
The Situation
The Fiber and Materials Matrix (formerly the Preferred Fiber and Materials Matrix) enables owners of fiber and raw material sustainability programs to assess themselves against a shared framework and identify opportunities for improvement.
Brands and retailers can use the Fiber and Materials Matrix to explore a range of options within a material category, seeing what each covers (and what it doesn’t) to help inform their sourcing strategies.
Initially created by GAP Inc. with support from MADE-BY, it was gifted to and is owned by Textile Exchange, a global non-profit organization driving beneficial outcomes for climate and nature across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry.
In 2024, Textile Exchange partnered with Anthesis to update the Fiber and Materials Matrix methodology to ensure that it accurately captures the current landscape fiber and material production at tier 4, is user-friendly and accessible to a broad audience, and offers a self-assessment process for the raw material sustainability program participants.
This work entailed streamlining and simplifying the structure; including additional standard systems, branded fibers, and improvement programs; and adding an online self-assessment system.
This became the first phase of a two-year relationship with Textile Exchange. In 2025, we began the second phase where Anthesis supported Textile Exchange as the third-party review partner, ensuring that responses were supported by publicly available evidence prior to the revised Fiber and Materials Matrix release in early 2026.
Solution
Phase 1
The first phase began with a review of the fiber and raw material landscape and a gap analysis of the existing Fiber and Materials Matrix to identify opportunities for new, salient issues, and topics to be integrated . With this deepened understanding, we then streamlined the existing structure into the five core pillars of Climate, Nature, People, Animals, and Governance to align with Textile Exchange’s principles of preferred production systems including amended impact areas and indicators that included both quantitative and qualitative criteria. Criteria were aligned to industry frameworks where applicable, such as Science Based Targets for Nature, and were subject to further revisions following a consultation period with Textile Exchange stakeholders.
Once the updated structure and criteria was finalised, we updated the underlying methodology that sits behind the Fiber and Materials Matrix. This included a mechanism for applying different weightings to the criteria, with some indicators having a greater influence on the pillar scores than others. We also classified the applicability of indicators to each raw material category to ensure that programs are only assessed against criteria that is relevant to them. For example, a cotton program would not be assessed against the Animal pillar.
Lastly, we piloted the process through a series of mock assessments to test the criteria and methodology, before supporting Textile Exchange to update its user guide to explain the self-assessment process and evidence requirements for programs.
Phase 2
For the second phase, Anthesis was responsible for reviewing the self-assessments and evidence provided by the programs through an online survey platform. Prior to commencing the reviews, we developed a review process that was aligned with ISEAL’s Sustainability Benchmarking Good Practice Guide. This was to ensure that answers were interpreted fairly and consistently across programs with the support of Subject Matter Experts across Anthesis, and that queries requiring escalation were appropriately triaged within Anthesis and to Textile Exchange. The process also enabled two rounds of review to give programs an opportunity to clarify their responses or provide further evidence prior to scores being created.
Results
An Improved Matrix
In 2025, Anthesis reviewed the responses of over 45 programs. Then, in early 2026, the updated Fiber and Materials Matrix was launched with a simpler, streamlined structure and greater accessibility enabling a wider range of standard systems, branded fibers, and improvement programs, some from, additional material categories, to be included.
Unlocked Opportunities
The results can be used by brands and retailers to explore the raw material sustainability programs available within a given category, and assess what they cover, helping them to make more informed sourcing decisions. For the participating programs, the results enable them to identify opportunities to strengthen their programs to achieve beneficial outcomes at the raw material level.
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