Fashion focuses its climate change efforts on goals such as increasing use of recycled fabrics, reducing water usage, and cutting down its very high greenhouse gas emissions—fashion ranks third on greenhouse gases behind global food production and construction.

But fashion’s mitigation efforts largely ignore the effects of climate breakdown on the workers, communities and industries who produce the world’s garments. This is the problem of adaptation and it is not part of fashion’s plan.

In these two “Higher Ground?” reports from the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University and Schroders, we measure the present and future risks of exposure to extreme heat and flooding in some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries for apparel workers, suppliers, fashion brands and investors.

The aim of these two reports is, first, to understand the industry’s exposure to climate risks and the costs of climate adaptation for workers, manufacturers, buyers and investors, and governments. And, second, to inspire industry actors to formulate adaptation strategies that are large-scale and fit for purpose. We want to see these new measures and costs written into the business plans of the fashion industry, into collective agreements, and into budgets and objectives of regulators.