On November 29, the second yearly report of the Monitor for Circular Fashion, created by SDA Bocconi School of Management and part of its Sustainability Lab and powered by Enel X, was released. The project was launched in 2020 to represent Italian fashion’s current sustainability and circularity and is continuously updated.
Sustainability claims and eco-design are the main topics
The 2022 edition of the Monitor for Circular Fashion had two main topics:
- the perfect features of sustainability claims, referring to what was defined by UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe)
- the essential eco-design principles, identifying how they can be implemented into value chains
Over the year, these topics were tested and validated thanks to eight pilot projects conducted by the companies in the Monitor community:
- Think leather (Holding Moda, Gab Group, and Quid), small leather goods made with scraps from leather processing
- Eco-designed jeans (Kering and Candiani Denim), jeans made from 100% certified organic cotton and designed following eco-design principles
- Trace me (Vitale Barberis Canonico and Quid), a shopper made in Italy using fabric recovered from traceable wool fibers
- Repairing T-shirt (Oscalito, Albini Group, and CRU LE), a T-shirt made of organic cotton and patches of recycled fabric from reclaimed materials, traceable from the cotton field to the store
- What if bag (OVS, RadiciGroup, and Quid), a bag made from a single fabric, 100% recycled polyamide 6 certified by GRS (Global Recycle Standard), and fully recyclable
- Component shoe (Candiani Denim and Vibram), a pair of shoes made using only five components, easy to be assembled at home, including an upper of recycled cotton denim and a sole of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified natural materials
- Soul (RadiciGroup, Save the Duck, and Vibram), a bimaterial backpack made of 100% recycled polyamide yarn, GRS-certified and compliant with the Oeko-tex 100 standard for responsible production, and 100% recycled rubber from ISO (International Organization for Standardization)-compliant factories
- M-pocket (Manteco and RadiciGroup), recyclable tablet cases made starting from scraps from industrialized processing
Temera digitalized the results of all pilot projects. They are accessible through a QR code.
“Implementing eco-design principles is an opportunity to accelerate the green transition”
“Implementing eco-design principles along circular fashion value chains is the real opportunity we have to accelerate the green transition in the coming years. Following the work done in the first two years, the Monitor for Circular Fashion will continue to welcome companies that wish to anticipate and drive sustainable and circular change in the textile, apparel, leather, and footwear value chains, starting with traceability and supply chain transparency”, stated Francesca Romana Rinaldi, Director of the Monitor for Circular Fashion.
Which are the opportunities and challenges of the Digital Product Passport?
The event was also the occasion for presenting the results of the project about the Digital Product Passport, conducted with the service provider partners of the Monitor for Circular Fashion (Dedagroup Stealth, PLM Impianti, and Temera). The aim of this tool is to provide everyone, from manufacturers to consumers and the people in charge of disposal, with information about a product.
Items can hence have an identity document, just like people, listing not only their components but also how they can be disassembled or repaired if they break, for instance. All information is then put into a database of the European Union, which gives a standard format to use for all the products sold on the European market. Among the challenges offered by the Digital Products Passport, on the contrary, we can find data secrecy for all the companies which want to protect their intellectual property.
