The Garment, Footwear, and Travel Goods (GFT) sector is the primary driver of Cambodia’s economic growth. However, there has always been a trade-off between economic expansion and detrimental environmental effects. The energy consumption of factories, mostly fueled by fossil fuels, significantly influences this environmental impact.

Switch Garment was designed to address such environmental effects by exploring sustainable energy opportunities in the GFT sector of Cambodia. The project was funded by the EU SWITCH-Asia Grants Facility and jointly implemented by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the Textile, Apparel, Footwear & Travel Goods Association in Cambodia (TAFTAC), and the Group for the Environment, Renewable Energy and Solidarity (Geres). Three main components of the project are Regulatory Measures, Factory Assessment and Capacity Building, and Access to Finance. Key activities of the project include:

– Developing a regulatory tool or guideline for sustainable energy implementation in the GFT sector of Cambodia and providing necessary training to related stakeholders.

– Developing a monitoring tool to report progress on the implementation of the regulatory tool developed.

– Conducting 50 energy audits and training 200 factory employees.

– Conducting analyses and surveys to develop a financing scheme for sustainable energy in the GFT sector of Cambodia.

The project aims to promote the competitiveness of the Cambodian garment sector and decrease the industry’s environmental impact through the adoption of sustainable energy practices and facilitating investments in clean energy technology.

Direct beneficiaries of the project include 50 garment industries, 4 ministries, TAFTAC and Cambodia Garment Training Institute (CGTI), 3 local banks, and 5 energy service providers. The project directly provided capacity-building activities for 200 factory employees, 10 CGTI trainers, 12 government staffs, and 30 staffs from energy service providers. In partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD) and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the project also provided training to 125 additional factory staffs on energy management and 80 factory employees on improved working conditions.

The garment industry constitutes roughly 10% of the country’s GDP and 56% of its exports in 2022. Over 2.5 million people in the nation depend on the sector, including 770,000 jobs, the majority of which are hold by women.

Nevertheless, the growth of the garment sector has resulted in significant use of natural resources and negative environmental impacts. To make the garment sector sustainable, fundamental changes are needed by mainstreaming resource efficiency and a circular economy to mitigate these detrimental effects. The Cambodian Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) aim to reduce GHG emissions from the industrial sector by 9.1% and from the energy sector by 21.3% by 2030. The government has also recently adopted the National Energy Efficiency Policy 2022–2023 (NEEP), setting a target to reduce energy consumption in the industrial sector by 20%.

Reducing GHG emissions through sustainable energy interventions requires an enabling environment. This involves a proper policy framework, adequate institutional capacity, technical standards, equipment supply chains, and access to finance to implement such measures. Against this background, the project supports manufacturers in adopting sustainable energy interventions to reduce environmental impact and production costs, thus enhancing competitiveness.

Firstly, the project delivered energy audits to 50 garment industries and provided training to 328 garment employees on sustainable energy practices. Following the recommendations from the energy audits and leveraging the knowledge gained from the capacity-building program, 22 out of 50 garment industries invested USD 2.63 million in sustainable energy interventions.

The project also brought together development financial institutions, local banks, and energy service companies to facilitate better access to finance for Cambodia’s garment industries. Additionally, it conducted detailed policy analysis to develop a voluntary regulatory tool for garment industries, titled the Model Green Factory Program (MGFP).

Under the leadership of TAFTAC, the MGFP is designed to support the implementation of further energy audits and capacity-building programs beyond the project period, thereby helping to achieve the national targets set in the National Energy Efficiency Policy 2022–2030.