The key factor in determining whether or not a product is sustainable is information: having precise data on both the materials it is made of and the supply chain is the first step towards being able to assess the eco-compatibility and social sustainability of a purchase we intend to make. With a view to taking a step forward in sustainable fashion, there are therefore two very important terms to bear in mind: transparency and traceability. Both refer to the production supply chain, a process that in most cases is unknown to the end consumer.

Where and how are our clothes made?

In the textile sector, retail companies rarely have vertically integrated production: this translates into limited control over manufacturers, material suppliers, or even the origin of the fibres used. Very often the brand has neither knowledge nor control over who physically produces the garments it then sells, let alone the consumers. To genuinely speak of sustainability in textiles, it is instead crucial to know the exact origin of materials and how they are produced. How much water is used? How much CO2 is produced? Are polluting chemical agents used? Do workers operate safely? Are they paid adequately?

The watchword: digitalisation

Having all of this information available in real time, coordinated across the different sectors involved, makes it possible to take decisions that are both optimised from a quality standpoint and responsible from an environmental and social perspective. This is where the partnership between two organisations committed to the digital certification of production chains comes in: The ID factory and Genuine way. The two companies have joined forces, combining their respective expertise: on one side, The ID factory's know-how in supply chain traceability in the textile industry, and on the other, Genuine way's ability to communicate the environmental and social values of production processes to consumers effectively and transparently through the use of blockchain technology.

"When there is transparency in communication, it is easier for consumers to make conscious purchases, but also for the brand to work with its supplier to improve social and environmental standards. The digitalisation of the entire production process, from the perspective of collecting and transmitting information, enables enormous steps forward," points out Martina Schiuma of The ID factory. We interviewed her.

Why is digitalisation so important in the context of traceability?
For us at The ID factory, the concept of co-evolution is crucial: we have always worked on digital traceability of products and supply chains, collaborating with external consultants for the environmental and social assessment of suppliers. Thanks to our collaboration with Genuine way, we now reach the end customer directly, providing even more information. Together we have implemented a kind of control dashboard covering the production phases and processes, but what is truly interesting is that this data has not been placed there because the brand supplied it to us — it is information entered directly by the operator in the factory. Whether they are in Portugal, Indonesia or Bangladesh, it was the operator who applied a QR code to the raw material containing all the specifications: we are talking about reliable primary data because it is the result of a supply chain collaboration process.

Is the system you have developed, with its QR code, aimed more at the brand or at the consumer?
We do not want to become a marketing and product communication tool, but rather a co-evolution tool: we are a certified B Corp and we want to cooperate with other B Corps with a view to generative business — that is, using the resources we have to create value for the future. Traceability is the instrument for achieving this result.

How does blockchain technology fit into this picture?
Technology is essential for communication: the blockchain is public, and therefore demonstrates a brand's commitment to making its certifications visible and consistently verifiable over time. When a brand loses a certification, the blockchain records it, as it does every future change. This is very important because transparency is not limited to a specific moment: if a brand makes a mistake or no longer behaves as it did when it obtained a given certification, users can see this because the blockchain records everything and, above all, cannot be altered.

What is the response from consumers at the moment?
For the moment it is a market still entirely to be explored: what we know is that conscious consumers no longer represent a niche. There is one figure that I find particularly revealing: 40 per cent of consumers today do not believe brands' claims — a lack of trust that can only be countered through a transparency tool.

Are brands collaborative when it comes to tracing information about their supply chain?
On our side, we started from one piece of data: two in 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 several retailers, and we see that there is growing interest in the subject of traceability, also in light of new regulations such as the Eu product passport. Before long, both in Europe and in the United States, transmitting information about one's products will no longer be optional. Fortunately, from this point of view there is a clear shift: we saw it at the Global fashion summit as well, where we launched our product passport.

What is the main advantage of the digital identity of garments?
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.