Digitalization and blockchain, sustainable fashion is tech

With QR codes and blockchain it is possible to make a lot of information on garments available and easily usable:sustainable fashion passes through digitalisation.

The key factor in determining whether or not a product is sustainable is represented by information:have timely data on both materials that compose it both on the supply chain it is the first step in being able to evaluate the eco-compatibility and social sustainability of a purchase we intend to make.With a view to taking a step forward in the field of sustainable fashion there are therefore two very important terms to keep in mind: transparency and traceability.Both refer to the production chain, a process which in most cases is not known to the final consumer.

Where and how are our clothes produced?

In the textile industry, retailer companies rarely have one vertically integrated production:this translates into little control over producers, material suppliers, or the very origin of the fibers used.Very often the brand has neither knowledge nor control over who actually produces the garments it then markets, let alone consumers.In order to truly talk about sustainability in textiles, it is crucial to know the exact origin of the materials and how they are produced.How much water is used?And how much CO2 is produced?Are any chemical pollutants used?Do workers operate safely?Are they paid adequately?

Password:digitalisation

Having all this information in real time, coordinated between the different sectors involved, allows you to make choices that are both optimized from a quality point of view and responsible from an environmental and social point of view.This is where the partnership between two companies involved in the digital certification of production chains comes in: The ID factory And Genuine way.The two companies have joined forces merging their respective skills:on the one hand, expertise in terms of traceability of the industrial supply chain in the textile sector of The ID factory, and on the other the ability of Genuine way to effectively communicate to the consumer the environmental and social values ​​of the productions in a transparent manner through the use of blockchain technology.

“When there is transparency in communication it is easier for the consumer to make informed purchases, but also for the brand to collaborate with its supplier to improve the social and environmental standards.The digitalisation of the entire production process, from the point of view of the collection and transmission of information, allows enormous steps forward", he points out Martina Schiuma by The ID factory.We interviewed her.

Why is digitalization so important in the field of traceability?
For us at The ID factory the concept of co-evolution is crucial:we have always worked on the digital traceability of the product and the supply chain by collaborating with external consultants regarding the environmental and social assessment of the supplier:thanks to the collaboration with Genuine way we reach the customer directly by providing additional information.Together we implemented a sort of control dashboard on the production phases and processes, but the really interesting thing is that this data was not put there because it was the brand that provided it to us, but it is information that is entered directly from the operator in the factory.Whether it is in Portugal, Indonesia or Bangladesh, it was the operator who applied a QR code on the raw material with all the specifications:we are talking about reliable primary data because they are the result of a supply chain collaboration process.

Is the system you have developed with the related QR code oriented more towards the brand or the consumer?
We do not want to become a product marketing and communication tool, but a co-evolution tool:we are a certified B-corp and we want to cooperate with other B-corps from a generative business perspective, therefore using the resources we have to create value for the future.Traceability is the tool to achieve this result.

How does the blockchain tool fit into this scenario?
Technology is essential to be able to communicate:the blockchain is public, therefore it demonstrates the brand's commitment to making its certifications visible and constantly verifiable over time.When a brand loses certification, the blockchain records it, like any future changes.This is very important because transparency is not limited to a certain moment:if a brand gets something wrong or no longer behaves as it did when it obtained a certain certification, users can see it because the blockchain records everything and, above all, it cannot be changed.

What is the response from consumers at the moment?
For the moment it is a market totally worth exploring:what we know is that conscious customers are no longer a niche.There is one piece of data that I think is particularly revealing:40 percent of consumers today do not believe in brand claims, a lack of trust that can only be combated through a transparency tool.

Are brands collaborative when it comes to tracking information about their supply chain?
On our side, we started from one fact:two out of five brands want to adopt, by 2022, tools to produce a product passport.We work with 15 partners, including the PVH group, the Hugo Boss group, Geox and with various retailers and we see that there is an ever-increasing interest in the issue of traceability also in light of new regulations, such as the EU product passport.Soon, both in Europe and in the United States it will no longer be optional to communicate information about your products.Fortunately, from this point of view there is an evident change:we also saw it at the Global fashion summit, where we launched ours product passport.

What is the main advantage of the digital identity of leaders?
In our case the QR code, which is a smart tag, is applied directly by workers during the production processes, and can be retrieved at any time.