Just a few years ago, extreme heat caused by climate change was something we only expected in the future. Now, it’s a serious danger for workers throughout fashion supply chains, making it harder for the industry to operate.
More and more dangerously hot days are hitting fashion factories, especially those in South and Southeast Asia, where extreme heat is worst. The sweltering temperatures affect everything from how many workers call in sick or faint on the factory floor. They also overwhelm power grids and make it harder for workers to think clearly or sew accurately.
As a new report from New York University’s Stern Business School points out, it’s heat stress—not just climate change in general—that’s becoming one of the biggest threats to fashion’s workforce and the industry’s ability to bounce back. The findings show that heat waves in India are already disrupting production, increasing absenteeism, and lowering product quality. In 2024, when temperatures in this garment-producing country stayed above 104°F for days in a row, workers experienced fainting spells, urinary tract infections, rashes, and worse period cramps.
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Extreme heat is putting factory workers in danger. What should brands do?
Heat stress highlights the conflict between fighting climate change and adapting to it. Workers are stuck in the middle.
By Bella Webb
The report gives brands a clear plan: set up mandatory heat-risk data collection and reporting, create separate policies for adapting to extreme heat, and support bigger investments in cooling and ventilation in factories.
But manufacturers can’t wait for brands to act. Faced with rising temperatures, many forward-thinking manufacturers have started rethinking their factory designs and figuring out how to keep their workers cool over the last few years, says Gauri Sharma, director of strategy and engagement at the Fashion Producer Collective (FPC), a manufacturer-led sustainability think tank. “Everyone’s trying to find what works for them, preparing guidance, making changes on the shop floor, and upgrading existing infrastructure,” says Sharma.
Now, efforts led by manufacturers are becoming more organized and outspoken. FPC members have been meeting regularly over the past six weeks to share challenges and solutions privately. Vogue Business was given special access to some of these discussions, and the findings are shared below. Additional case studies, gathered by researchers in India, Vietnam, and Cambodia, show examples of factories adapting on a tight budget (they say industry financing hasn’t caught up to this problem yet, instead focusing on cutting greenhouse gas emissions).
Some of the solutions proposed by manufacturers offer a glimpse into a climate-adapted future for fashion. But these solutions can only go so far. Tackling heat stress will require the whole industry to come together and take action.
The model factory
Garment factories weren’t designed for 120-degree heat. Most are simple corrugated or concrete warehouses. Some are shed-style buildings open on the sides. Many are packed with people and heat-generating machines like boilers, steam irons, and dryers, which can push indoor temperatures even higher than outside. Air conditioning is rare.
Major Hong Kong-based garment manufacturer Epic Group put worker comfort first when designing its new 33-acre campus, Trimetro, a net-zero model factory in Odisha, India. It employs 10,000 workers and can produce 20 million garments per year, according to VP of sustainability Vidhura Ralapanawe. It can run smoothly in temperatures of 120°F or more. “We’re really focusing on the conditions of people inside and outside the factory, and making that central to the design,” he says.
To keep the factory cool as outdoor temperatures rise, even in one of the world’s most heat-stressed countries, Trimetro’s buildings and wiWindows are positioned to avoid direct sunlight, roofs and walls are covered with high-performance insulation to cut cooling needs, and the surrounding grounds are shaded by native plants and trees, which lower outdoor temperatures by nearly 18°F—a strategy Ralapanawe calls “microclimate management.”
Epic Group’s model net-zero factory, named Trimetro, is designed to withstand floods and extreme heat.
Photo: Courtesy of Epic Group
Ralapanawe is realistic that Trimetro sets a standard most manufacturers can’t meet without major investment. The company secured a low-cost $100 million loan from the International Finance Corporation to build it.
Still, Trimetro is inspiring the industry and Epic’s other facilities to rethink the future of fashion supply chains. “We’ve learned so much about designing air conditioning, buildings, surroundings, and interconnected systems,” Ralapanawe says, noting that Epic has already adopted Trimetro’s high-grade insulation in its other factories.
Trimetro’s incubation center.
Photo: Courtesy of Epic Group
Starting with the basics
While Epic shows what a purpose-built factory of the future can look like, there are simpler, more affordable steps that can be taken right now. Within the FPC working group, recent discussions have focused on how manufacturers can effectively track temperatures and create internal protocols, says Sharma. “People are trying to adapt to these temperatures and develop guidelines.”
Jimmy Summers, VP of environment, health, safety and sustainability at Elevate, a large Tier 2 company, is leading by example. His company first created a standalone internal heat-stress protocol in 2018, since operating dye houses in hot countries like Sri Lanka and Cambodia made indoor temperatures an unavoidable issue. “We run dye houses in some very hot locations, and dye houses are the hottest places in textile manufacturing,” says Summers.
Elevate set a company temperature threshold of 88°F. When temperatures exceed this, managers activate a heat-stress action plan, which includes rescheduling heat-generating processes for cooler times of day, switching to power tools for heavy work, and reminding workers to hydrate more and take more breaks. The company also regularly measures indoor temperatures, which, as the NYU Stern report notes, is the foundation of any industry approach to heat stress.
Industry guidance may also require wet bulb measurement, which tracks humidity, radiant heat, air movement, wind, and ambient temperature. In the meantime, experts say simpler tools can be effective for getting started. “You could easily begin by using cheap thermometers and logging indoor air temperatures and humidity levels throughout a day and year,” says Sarah Krasley, a visiting fellow at Cornell’s ILR Global Labor Institute and author of a January report on heat stress. It’s important to measure different areas of the factory, Krasley adds, since a spot near a boiler will be much hotter than a sewing line.
The industry is now working to standardize heat index thresholds in factories. In April, the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) published its first voluntary heat-stress guidance for members. VP Nate Herman says the group is urgently developing implementation guidance and a standard survey for suppliers “to better understand the daily obstacles they face and identify the key resources they need.”
Trial and error at a northern India knitwear factory
Driven by oppressive heat and lost productivity, some manufacturers are already moving beyond workplace protocols to modify factory walls, roofs, and systems. According to the NYU Stern report, structural upgrades and improved ventilation are among the most effective ways to lower indoor temperatures in garment and textile factories.Retrofitting factories to deal with heat is much harder than building new ones designed for a hotter climate from the start. Without clear industry standards, many factories are taking a step-by-step approach—trying cheaper solutions first to see what works, then adding more as needed.
Researcher Lucy Siers, who wrote the NYU report, points to Poppy’s Knitwear in India as a good example of this layered strategy. After heat waves in 2022 and 2024 left workers exhausted, the company first installed evaporative coolers that use water to cool the air along the factory walls. To improve results, they added coolers to the ceiling to help circulate the chilled air. Next, they put in heat-reflective roofing to stop the sun’s heat from coming through, and false ceilings to create a gap between the hot air above and the workers below. They also moved high-heat equipment like pressing machines closer to windows for better ventilation.
When Siers visited in September 2025, these upgrades had been completed in five of the factory’s eight production units. Even before the hottest part of the year, indoor temperatures had dropped by about 2–3°C. Worker absenteeism went down, and productivity went up.
Factories are making these changes because they have to. In places like India, outdoor temperatures during heat waves can be deadly. And they’re finding that even small investments in cooling can help keep workers on the job and avoid major slowdowns. Since many workers’ homes are also very hot, a cool workplace is becoming a real advantage.
At An Giang Samho, a footwear factory in Vietnam with 11,000 workers, longer summers and hotter nights pushed management to find new ways to cool the building. But the factory’s open-sided design makes it hard to cool, and they can’t just close the sides because shoemaking involves gluing and printing, which means they need to manage chemicals and fumes carefully.
As a workaround, Samho installed large exhaust fans powered by renewable energy and placed smaller fans at workstations. They also started carefully measuring temperatures in the factory to figure out which areas needed the most attention. Then, working with solar company SkyX Solar, they added panels and insulation to the roof—which brought indoor temperatures down by 5.4°F. Finally, they placed ice machines around the factory for workers. Union representatives said this was especially meaningful because it seemed like it was done purely to make workers more comfortable, not just to meet buyer demands.
In her research, Krasley also visited Sabrina Garments, a clothing factory in Cambodia with 6,200 workers. Management had spent less than $250,000 to install evaporative “water curtains” and large exhaust fans to keep temperatures comfortable, even when outdoor temperatures rose above 104°F.
Krasley said she was surprised to learn that factories felt these modest investments paid off reliably—by helping keep workers from leaving and boosting productivity.
Aligning standards and incentives
Even the most innovative factory can only do so much on its own. Whether it’s adding insulation, trying new cooling technologies, or redesigning production floors, manufacturers operate within a supply chain shaped by brand requirements, tight deadlines, and very thin profit margins. As heat waves become more common, many say the next step will require the rest of the industry to move forward together.
“Many suppliers have reached their limit—both financially and in terms of what they can do alone,” one expert noted.”Expertise and know-how about what they can do without buyer involvement,” says Siers.
Buyer support will be essential. That doesn’t necessarily mean funding expensive upgrades or new buildings—at least not yet. Immediate help could come through purchasing practices that recognize the realities of extreme heat. Siers says brands should work with suppliers on production planning, allowing more flexibility during predictable periods of extreme heat. “Responsible purchasing practices, such as fair delivery timelines and ensuring planning is somewhat collaborative, so suppliers have the capacity to deliver,” can make it easier for factories to implement heat protections, she adds.
Finally, while manufacturers welcome a coordinated industry approach to heat stress, they say solutions will need to vary by region and factory, based on what’s effective and feasible. “It is so contextual,” says FPC’s Sharma. “It depends on where you’re located, your heat risk, what kind of factory you are, and what sort of budget you have.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about how fashion manufacturers are dealing with extreme heat written in a natural tone with clear answers
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 Why is extreme heat such a big problem for fashion manufacturers
Extreme heat makes factories dangerous for workers and damages machinery It can also ruin materials like dyes and fabrics leading to production delays and higher costs
2 What are some simple lowcost ways factories are coping with the heat
Theyre using things like reflective roof paint to bounce sunlight away installing industrial fans and misting systems and changing work hours to start much earlier in the morning when its cooler
3 Does extreme heat affect the clothes themselves
Yes High temperatures can cause dyes to dry unevenly fabrics to shrink or warp and glues or adhesives to melt It also speeds up the breakdown of natural fibers like cotton if theyre stored in hot humid warehouses
4 Are there any new technologies helping factories stay cool
Yes Some factories are using smart sensors that monitor temperature and humidity in real time Others are installing solarpowered cooling systems or using evaporative cooling instead of expensive air conditioning
5 Is this just a problem in hot countries like India or Bangladesh
No Extreme heat waves are now hitting traditional manufacturing hubs in Italy the US and China Any factory without proper climate control is at risk regardless of location
AdvancedLevel Questions
6 How are manufacturers changing their supply chains to handle heat
Some are geographically diversifying moving production to cooler regions or higher altitudes Others are building in heat buffers by ordering raw materials earlier to avoid monsoon or heatwave delays
7 What is heatready clothing design and how does it help manufacturing
Its designing clothes that need less processing For example using materials that dont require highheat setting or switching to waterless dyeing techniques that avoid hot water baths This reduces the factorys overall heat load
8 How are factories protecting workers from heat stress without stopping production
Theyre using heat stress monitors to trigger mandatory breaks Some are installing cooling vests and neck fans for workers and creating cooldown rooms with