In April 2025, Aii hosted a supplier-focused activation event in India to kick off decarbonization projects. Participants explored various projects and solutions with the goal of incubating the best fits during a 100-day sprint. Since then, we’ve been developing the Deployment Gap Grant (DGG), a new financial mechanism we’re now sharing with the textile sector.
Prior to the event, Aii worked with a select group of strategic suppliers to design a grant concept supporting the scaled deployment of proven solutions that are hard to implement and have long payback periods. This concept was presented at the India activation, where it was refined with a larger group of suppliers and introduced to brands for funding consideration.
Many impactful carbon-reduction projects cannot be implemented if the ROI exceeds two years.
In response, we co-created a grant mechanism that bridges the gap between suppliers’ two-year ROI threshold and the longer payback period of proven decarbonization technologies, enabling their wider deployment.
In the 100-day sprint, Aii has worked with suppliers not only to design the mechanism but also to define grant-eligible technologies and projects and create a reporting process.
Aii collaborated with brands to determine what their contributions to this mechanism could look like and how the funding should be disbursed. We also defined the benefits of a shared funding model: By pooling funds across brands, we aim to not only scale deployment of decarbonization solutions but also maximize the number of funded projects through collaboration. This is a cost-effective approach to mobilize brand funding to implement projects in supplier pipelines that remain stalled due to long payback periods.
Through our Fashion Climate Fund, Aii has contributed $1M of seed funding to pilot the mechanism with eligible suppliers that attended the India Activation Event. We are delighted to announce that we will be supporting the following projects:
We aim to use learnings from the 100-day sprint and our upcoming pilots to develop the Deployment Gap Grant into an industry mechanism for 2026. We are specifically looking to support processing retrofits that reduce process demand for energy and electrification projects.
When we launch in 2026, most of the grant funding will be reserved for suppliers connected to contributing brands, with a smaller portion available for the broader industry. Eligible projects will focus on technologies we have identified as key to prepare suppliers for electrification. We will communicate 2026 grant application information as it becomes available.
Aii continues to seek pioneering projects through our CSP Grant Funding. All suppliers, regardless of brand affiliation, are eligible for CSP Grants, which are designed to advance solutions that are not yet proven or require more demonstration before they can benefit from scaled deployment.
The Deployment Gap Grant is part of a suite of tools to support supplier decarbonization, as outlined in our Finance Playbook. Historically, the industry has lacked a tool that supported project viability for suppliers. Aii’s hope is that DGGs not only scale the deployment of impactful and proven solutions, but also, over time, decrease the cost of these technologies through increased deployment and sectoral learnings.
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