Fashion Brands, Ready for a One-stop Guide To Accelerate Your Sustainable Transformation with Digital Traceability?

Well, here is how you can accelerate sustainable transformation through supply chain traceability at scale.

TrusTrace, a market-leading platform for supply chain transparency and product traceability within the fashion and retail industries, has joined forces with Fashion Revolution and Fashion for Good to accelerate sustainable transformation in the fashion industry with the help of a one-stop guide. The collaboration has launched a comprehensive traceability Playbook that exposes where greater traceability and transparency are needed to catalyse change while helping fashion businesses build responsible supply chains suitable for a new era.

From a Nice-to-Have to a Must-Have

The comprehensive, open-source guide analyses the evolving market dynamics and incoming legislation moving traceability. The Playbook includes practical advice on leveraging traceability to achieve their goals. 

On the collective commitment, Shameek Ghosh, co-founder and CEO, TrusTrace, comments: “We’re at an inflection point as an industry, where sustainability is evolving from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must-have’ business imperative; a point at which one’s greenline is becoming every bit as important as one’s bottom line”. 

Ghosh continues: “However, with this evolution comes the need for knowledge – on how to most effectively manage this sustainable transformation – which is why we’ve teamed up with Fashion Revolution and Fashion for Good to develop this Traceability Playbook. Together, with some of the most knowledgeable, best-informed minds in the industry, we’ve created a resource for the fashion industry that will significantly support sustainable transformation.”

On a mission to drive the initiative and accelerate sustainable transformation in the fashion industry, the collaborators have worked together to combine knowledge and expertise. Doing so allowed them to develop a go-to manual. Written by sustainable fashion journalist Megan Doyle, the collaborators hope that it helps brands understand the basics of achieving supply chain traceability by democratising access to knowledge from leaders in the industry.

On the Traceability Playbook is a resource Liv Simpliciano, Policy & Research Manager, Fashion Revolution, comments: “The Rana Plaza tragedy inspired the creation of Fashion Revolution and the #WhoMadeMyClothes campaign, understanding that a lack of transparency costs lives and in order to achieve accountability, greater visibility is needed to drive industry transformation”. 

Simpliciano adds: “As part of this work, we are pleased to highlight practical case studies of brands’ disclosure on how they are addressing some of the industry’s greatest challenges across overconsumption, overproduction, decent work, circularity and carbon emissions. Transparency is the starting point, not the end in itself”. 

Besides offering traceability guidance and support, the Playbook also provides both up-to-date insights and concrete examples of good practice. For example, the Playbook includes case studies from innovative companies such as Balenciaga, Gucci, adidas, and more, as well as insights from thought leaders across the industry, including Amina Razvi from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition; Paul Foulkes-Arellano from Circuthon; and Baptiste Carriere-Pradal from Policy Hub – each providing in-depth insight into their specialist topics. 

On the step-by-step roadmap Katrin Ley, Managing Director at Fashion for Good, explains, “Improved traceability and data integrity are the bedrock of a circular supply chain enabling and incentivising sustainable enhancements”. 

Ley continues: “With the growing importance of an impact-driven supply chain, Fashion for Good is excited to contribute to an open-source playbook for the industry that promotes a collaborative approach of knowledge sharing, implementation and driving the change needed to transform the industry for the better.” 

Could The Traceability Playbook Be A Key Education Tool

Ultimately guiding and supporting fashion brands to understand the business case for traceability, one chapter explores key trends within digital supply chain traceability solutions and the importance of supplier education and technology innovation to drive more sustainable production practices. The guide also addresses the business drivers of traceability, including laws and regulations, communicating product-specific impact data and product-specific claims. 

The guide covers key topics such as the business case for traceability and transparency, the need for standardisation and decentralisation of data and the critical traceability trends driving the market. The guide also includes a ‘material school’ chapter, offering guidance on the impact of different materials. 

Maria Teresa Pisani, Economic Affairs Officer and Project Lead at UNECE, highlight: “Traceability and transparency are key to ensure that social, human rights and environmental risks are properly identified and addressed along global and complex value chains”. 

Could the Playbook be an enabler for the circular economy? Could it be the starting point for fashion businesses working towards responsible choices and circular business models? Well, anything is possible, but what I am sure of is that the Playbook is definitely a tool that could help the industry accelerate transformation at scale for the sustainable clothing industry of the future.

The Traceability Playbook will be launched on the 7th June 2022 during a side event of Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition.

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Founding Editor in Chief at FashNerd.com | editor@fashnerd.com | Website

Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta is currently one of the leading influencers writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She has also given talks at Premiere Vision, Munich Fabric Start and Pure London, to name a few. Besides working as a fashion innovation consultant for various fashion companies like LVMH Atelier, Muchaneta has also contributed to Vogue Business, is a senior contributor at The Interline and an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL.