How to make fashion supply chain sustainable

Sep 21, 2021

Consumers’ demand for transparency was one of the drivers leading to the creation of international standards for several industries, including fashion.

Certification standards applied by independent institutes partially responded to that demand: attaching an internationally recognized label to products which traceability allows us to assess if their supply chain is sustainable or not.

What is the next step?

For the transition from a linear to a circular model to be able to scale, environmentally friendly innovations are needed at the manufacturers’ stage of the supply chain.

Between Conscious Program was launched to bring growing awareness and contributing to such a transition with Between Research experience in the fashion industry.

Since 2018 BETWEEN CONSCIOUS PROGRAM has brought in the Chinese market European pioneers in a sustainable fashion. 

The sustainable community created by BETWEEN CONSCIOUS PROGRAM gathers more than 50 European professionals in 15 various fields, interconnecting the fashion industry from branding to trend research, design and development, marketing, and communication. Together with the correlated areas, the strong connection with people with the same sustainable approach to different topics allows BETWEEN CONSCIOUS PROGRAM to adjust specific proposals in a flexible way.

SUPPLY CHAIN - to promote and support sustainability through the whole supply chain, BETWEEN CONSCIOUS PROGRAM is to promote those Chinese suppliers who are already working in the sustainable system, furthermore, we involve in supporting traditional suppliers with new technologies, techniques, materials, packaging, or transportation systems.

The textile machinery industry is indeed a more than valid example. Reducing emissions, saving water in production processes, reducing the usage of hazardous substances. These are only a few examples of the improvements that technology solutions can provide.

Make the supply chain green

In the absence of an internationally recognized standard to measure environmental performance levels, Italian machinery manufacturers decided to promote a certification system with the aim to set up a global standard.

It is called Green Label and was developed by ACIMIT - the national association of Textile Machinery manufacturers grouping the majority of 300 companies producing textile machinery and related accessories in Italy.

https://www.green-label.it/en/green-label/

ACIMIT (the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers) is a private non-profit-making body that over its 70 years of life has been promoting and supporting the Italian textile machinery sector activity on the international stage with a sharp focus on digitization and sustainability of the industry. 

Italian Textile Machinery Export toward China was worth more than 300 million € every year, and it is now recovering after the stop due to the pandemic, with almost 100 million € of income in the first quarter of 2021.

In the first semester of 2021, ACIMIT associates registered a +111%  growth in orders for machinery export.

Green Label is a voluntary declaration: the certification process was designed by manufacturers themselves as an evaluation benchmark in order to make key performance data easy to consult. The main indicator is the Carbon Footprint (CFP): carbon dioxide emissions during machinery operations.

ACIMIT Sustainable Technologies project was carried on for more than 10 years leading to several steps forward. According to the latest stats, the use of certified machines built using the ACIMIT protocol led to saving 221.181 tons of carbon dioxide emission in one year. 

Textile machinery manufacturers who wish to use the ACIMIT green label must comply with the "Sustainable Technologies" project by adhering to and respecting a memorandum of understanding, as well as a rigorous compliance standard defined by ACIMIT”.

https://www.acimit.it/pub-e/eco1-e.htm

With the support of ITA, the Italian Trade Agency, the hope is that more and more suppliers in China (and all over the world) decide to invest in the purchase of machinery following such standards to contribute and make the fashion industry supply chain more sustainable.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/19AL2mdnorLNG9O7Dcq1cQ

BETWEEN can assist you to establish links and will become your best partner on the road of future development!

“Let’s make a difference! Together”

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