Textile manufacturing is water energy and chemical intensive and shared systems at the cluster level such as common effluent treatment plants mean that non compliance by a single unit can jeopardize the environmental standing of an entire park. As global buyers, particularly in the EU and North America, increasingly enforce supply chain due diligence requiring traceable sustainability compliance at the production-site level, PM MITRA Parks risk losing export competitiveness without a robust, measurable framework.

A dedicated textile specific approach to sustainability rather than reliance on generic industrial benchmarks is essential for these parks to remain globally competitive, attract sustained investment, and build long-term resilience against tightening environmental and regulatory expectations.

The framework was jointly developed by the Ministry of Textiles and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), with the objective of embedding sustainability into PM MITRA Parks from the ground up resulting in the first textile-sector-specific sustainability benchmarking system for Indian industrial parks.

Parameters were drawn from three established systems UNIDO's Eco-Industrial Park Framework, the Industrial Park Rating System, and the Digital Operations Maturity Assessment and adapted to the specific demands of textile production. These parameters were tested against the concept layouts and operational plans of PM MITRA Parks and benchmarked against five internationally recognized textile parks representing different models of sustainability integration, from centralized effluent governance in China to innovation-led circularity in Sweden. The findings were translated into a structured, four-pillar framework with defined and auditable scoring thresholds for each parameter.

The objective is to provide a structured, measurable, and auditable mechanism that allows each PM MITRA Park to be assessed where it stands today and what it must do to meet both national policy objectives and global sustainability expectations.

The framework is designed to move sustainability from a one-time assessment into ongoing governance. It will be embedded into project from initial stage with approval and monitoring processes, used during design review, construction milestones, and annual operational assessments.

Every score is backed by specified documentary evidence certified operational data photographs plans governance documents, and compliance records making the framework repeatable and defensible for ESG reporting and global buyer due diligence. As digital infrastructure such as IoT sensors, SCADA integration, and centralized dashboards through Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) is deployed, the framework will evolve from a periodic audit exercise into a live compliance and performance management system — signalling ESG readiness to global markets as India expands its share of textile exports.