The NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights published Too Hot to Ignore: Extreme Heat in Garment Supply Chains (June 2026). The report draws on field research conducted across major garment-producing regions in India as a case study for extreme heat in the fashion sector.
Human Level’s Take:
- Heat stress is a growing worker crisis in the apparel and footwear sector. It’s already the leading cause of weather-related deaths globally, per the WHO, and can cause severe health impacts like kidney disease, diabetes, miscarriage and stillbirth, and increased infectious illness.
- In apparel hubs in South and Southeast Asia, where temperatures and humidity are both rising as a result of climate change, the risk to garment sector workers is high and growing. Even without direct sunlight, factors like heat-generating processes and machinery, crowded workspaces, limited ventilation and poorly insulated buildings can create unsafe working conditions.
- Heat stress is also a business risk, leading to more illness and accidents, absenteeism, reduced productivity and lower product quality. It can also disrupt production due to power outages, higher product defect rates, the need for reprocessing and delivery delays.
- Despite these real impacts on fashion value chains and resilience, the report finds that brands aren’t doing enough to combat the challenge. Some rely on supplier codes of conduct, leaving suppliers to manage the costs and implementation of heat protection alone, while others are still using purchasing practices that undermine worker protections and supplier profitability while generating more heat-related risk.
- What’s needed now is a shared responsibility model that fairly shares costs and implementation between brands and suppliers. The report outlines recommendations for brands, including working with suppliers to measure and monitor workplace temperatures for better data and informed action; co-investing in mitigation measures; improving purchasing practices and creating heat-related production contingency plans; bringing commercial teams into the conversation; and developing heat stress risk guidance that goes beyond awareness-raising.
- To tackle the scale of the problem, brands and suppliers will need to work collectively through multistakeholder collaborations and with governments and investors.
Some key takeaways:
- Heat stress is a major risk in garment factories: Heat stress is currently the leading cause of weather-related deaths, according to the World Health Organization. It creates serious, sometimes fatal, health risks like kidney damage, increased infectious disease, diabetes, stillbirth and miscarriage, and more. As global temperatures rise, workers are on the front lines of heat stress — and bear some of the greatest impacts. When the wet-bulb globe temperature (a measure of heat stress) is around 32°C, work becomes unsafe without frequent rest. At 35°C, exposure can become fatal even at low levels of physical exertion. In indoor factories, workers can experience extreme levels of heat even without direct sunlight, as a result of dense layouts, heat-emitting machinery and poor ventilation. This is a heightened risk for garment sector workers across South and Southeast Asia, a global centre for apparel production: between 2000-2019, 45% of global heat-related deaths occurred in Asia. India is one of the most-affected countries in the region, with high temperatures amplified by increasing humidity levels. According to a study cited in the report, by 2100, around 70% of India’s population could experience wet-bulb globe temperatures over 32°C, and 2% of the population could experience temperatures over 35°C. While policy solutions like Heat Action Plans are in motion across India, in practice their effectiveness has been limited, leaving heat stress an open risk for workers and companies.
- The business risk of extreme heat: Heat stress is quickly becoming a core supply chain risk, according to the report. In garment factories, it can be caused by a number of factors: heat-generating internal production processes; structural characteristics like metal roofs and walls, poor insulation and small spaces; ventilation constraints; and external environmental factors like increased nearby urbanisation and reduced greenery. The effects of heat stress have been demonstrated for apparel supply chains. Most significantly, it puts worker health and safety at risk, which can translate into business risk due to increased illness and accidents, and more absenteeism where workers have to choose between their health and their income. Heat stress also reduces physical productivity of workers and can undermine product quality and production resilience as a result of power outages, higher product defect rates, the need for reprocessing and delivery delays.
- How brands play a role in reducing heat stress risk: Despite the high risks for apparel supply chains, the report finds that brands have not stepped up to meaningfully address the issue. Some limit their involvement to publishing a supplier code of conduct and an occupational health and safety policy, while leaving suppliers the task of managing the heightened risk to workers. Others undermine worker protection practices through purchasing practices that pressure manufacturers to produce goods in a shorter timeframe and under lower prices. Given the scale and the systemic nature of the issue, heat stress is a challenge that cannot be managed independently by suppliers. The report underscores that brands have a shared responsibility to tackle the issue and offers seven recommendations for companies. First, recognise extreme heat as an occupational health and safety risk, measuring it and managing it the way that other OHS risks are. Second, require suppliers to measure and log internal temperature and humidity to track heat stress risk, sharing the costs of doing so with suppliers. Third, use co-investment and multistakeholder collaboration to ensure suppliers don’t bear the costs alone. Fourth, strengthen purchasing practices to create financial stability for suppliers, including longer lead times, predictable volumes, reduced supplier turnover, integrated production planning, and timely payment. Fifth, develop purchasing contingency plans that enable deadline adjustments, revised delivery schedules and support for alternative logistics, in order to ensure that suppliers do not need to maintain production levels when it’s unsafe to do so. Sixth, involve not only sustainability but also sourcing, procurement and supply chain teams in managing heat stress risk to ensure commercial decisions are in line with worker safeguards. Seventh, work together with suppliers to develop implementable heat-risk guidance for workers, requiring temperature monitoring and thresholds for protective measures. To guide investments, the report also outlines practical heat mitigation measures for suppliers to consider, ranging from structural and design modifications, to mechanical cooling systems, to administrative measures like shift modifications and work-rest adjustments, to worker welfare measures like drinking water and hydration support and sanitation.
