In Cambodia’s garment, footwear and textile sector, women accounted for 75.5% of the workforce in 2024. © 2024 Monyroath Kun / CARE Cambodia.

A garment is never simply an assembly of fibres. Its production requires energy, equipment, water, raw materials and international supply chains. It also relies on the work of thousands of people, on their living conditions, on the public services they can access and on the territories where factories are located. In Cambodia, this reality is particularly striking: the garment, footwear and textile sector is both a pillar of the economy and a space where energy, social and climate transitions intersect.

An essential sector under growing pressure

As the country’s largest formal employer, the sector provides regular incomes to a predominantly female workforce. For many women, factory employment has strengthened their financial independence and their ability to contribute to household expenses. Wages sent back to rural areas also support families and local economies far beyond industrial zones. A significant share of workers’ earnings therefore benefits rural communities as well.

But these advances coexist with persistent vulnerabilities. Women remain more concentrated in lower-skilled positions, have fewer opportunities for promotion and are more exposed to gender-based violence and harassment. People who have migrated from rural areas to cities also face a “double expense”: paying for housing and daily life near the factories while continuing to support their families in their home provinces. Rapid urbanisation is driving up rents and putting pressure on transport, services and infrastructure around production sites.

In other words, job creation alone is not enough to guarantee a just transition. These jobs must also enable people to live with dignity, provide effective access to existing social protection systems, and offer greater resilience to economic and climate shocks.

Reducing energy use: the first step in a broader transformation

Since 2016, Geres has been supporting Cambodia’s textile sector in adopting more sustainable energy practices. An analysis of 50 energy audits identified a number of very practical levers: optimising boiler settings, insulating steam distribution networks, repairing compressed-air leaks, avoiding idle motor operation, improving ventilation systems and adapting lighting to actual needs.

These measures show that part of the energy savings available to factories does not necessarily depend on heavy technologies. An uninsulated pipe, excessive pressure or a fan left running in an unoccupied area can generate substantial losses. The SimplEE application, presented during the multi-stakeholder workshop held in April 2025, helps factories use a small amount of consumption data to identify and quantify the most relevant energy-efficiency measures.

This technical expertise provides a strong basis for reducing factories’ costs and emissions. Yet energy efficiency alone does not define the sector’s resilience. An investment decision can affect the organisation of work; a new environmental requirement may place pressure on a factory if it is not supported by brands; and lower energy consumption does not automatically protect workers from heat, income loss or difficulties in accessing social protection.

Starting from lived realities to understand interdependencies

This is precisely what the study The Fabric of Impact brings to the discussion. Conducted by Geres, CARE France, CARE Cambodia and the Alliance for Conflict Transformation, with contributions from local stakeholders including the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, the research looks not at energy, climate, gender and working conditions separately, but at the ways these dimensions reinforce or undermine one another.

Social protection provides a good illustration. Among those surveyed, 98% were aware of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Cambodia’s national social security scheme. Yet this high level of awareness hides only partial knowledge of people’s rights: eligibility requirements, family coverage, maternity benefits and the procedures to access them remain poorly understood.

The gap between the existence of a system and its actual accessibility is particularly significant for migrant workers. Difficulties obtaining administrative documents, temporary or informal contracts, overly complex information and uneven service quality can all limit effective access to benefits. The study also found that only two factories in the sample offered support genuinely adapted to migrant workers’ needs, such as housing or transport assistance.

The focus therefore shifts: the question is no longer simply “does a policy exist?”, but rather “who can actually benefit from it, with what information, what resources and what possibilities for recourse?”

When climate change enters the factory

Climate change is not an external risk to industrial operations. It is already affecting health, incomes, mobility and productivity. Among the workers surveyed, 38% reported a loss of income linked to extreme weather events. During periods of intense heat, the study estimates daily productivity losses at 5.5%.

Another result is particularly revealing: 68% of respondents said they felt generally prepared for extreme weather events, but only 8% felt genuinely capable of adapting to them. This gap does not reflect a lack of individual willingness. Rather, it points to a shortage of practical knowledge, financing, equipment, suitable work organisation and institutional support.

The impacts are also gendered. In addition to paid work, women still carry a significant share of caregiving responsibilities. When a child or relative becomes ill during a heatwave or flood, their availability for paid work may decrease. Certain clothing norms, sometimes adopted to protect themselves from harassment, can also increase thermal discomfort. An adaptation strategy that ignores these realities therefore risks reproducing the very inequalities it seeks to reduce.

© 2024 Nasa Dip / CARE Cambodia

Building the transition through multiple voices

No single organisation controls all of these levers. This is why Geres works alongside CARE France, CARE Cambodia, the Alliance for Conflict Transformation, trade unions, factories, brands and public institutions. In April 2025, 76 participants came together to discuss and challenge the research findings during a multi-stakeholder workshop. Workers, factory managers, trade unions, local NGOs, government bodies, academics, brands and development partners all contributed to defining a shared vision for the sector by 2035.

Four conditions for change emerged from this collective work:

These conditions point towards a fairer distribution of responsibilities. Factories can act on energy consumption, thermal comfort, worker information and the implementation of protections. Brands need to align purchasing practices, environmental criteria and financing. Public authorities have a decisive role to play in social protection, urban planning, recycling infrastructure and adaptation standards. Civil society organisations and trade unions, meanwhile, help bring forward the experiences of those directly concerned and turn findings into negotiated solutions.

The challenge is therefore not to add a social component to an energy programme, or a climate component to a human resources policy. It is to think in terms of a single transition in which emissions reduction, competitiveness, rights, health and adaptive capacity progress together.

Towards a truly resilient textile industry

The Cambodian experience shows that a low-carbon textile industry will only be sustainable if it also protects the people who make it possible. Kilowatt-hours saved and tonnes of CO₂ avoided remain essential indicators, but they must be considered alongside access to rights, job quality, occupational health and the impacts of industrial activity on surrounding communities.

This is where Geres contributes: through energy expertise built as close as possible to industrial practices, serving a collective approach that combines its partners’ social and gender expertise, the knowledge of Cambodian stakeholders and the voices of workers themselves.

Because behind every garment, there is not just one transition to achieve, but an entire system to make fairer and more resilient.