The Monitor for Circular Fashion is a multi-stakeholder scientific and technological community that involves both leading companies in the Italian fashion industry and their suppliers. It is part of the SDA Bocconi School of Management Sustainability Lab and powered by Enel X. Candiani Denim is an ingredient brand of the project.
The Monitor for Circular Fashion and the transition to a circular economy
The Monitor for Circular Fashion aims to promote a transition towards circular business models in the fashion industry. Its tasks include:
- analyzing the evolutionary dynamics of the sector in the next ten years
- examining their impact and their adherence to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations
- identifying the leading qualitative and quantitative indicators in circular fashion
- defining a Circular Fashion Manifesto to give voice to the Italian fashion industry
The Circular Fashion Manifesto of SDA Bocconi’s Monitor for Circular Fashion
The Circular Fashion Manifesto is the response SDA Bocconi Sustainability Lab’s Monitor for Circular Fashion provided to The Sustainability Pledge of UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). The latter is a call to action addressed to governments, garment and footwear manufacturers, and industry stakeholders to undertake a toolkit of policy recommendations, implementation guidelines, and standards to increase traceability and transparency in value chains.
The Circular Fashion Manifesto identified seven activity areas to apply UNECE’s recommendations:
- eco-design
- raw material sourcing
- manufacturing of semi-finished products
- manufacturing of finished products
- logistics, warehousing, and transportation
- distribution, wholesale, and retail and e-tailing
- end-of-life services, such as recycling, reuse, and regeneration
All the companies involved in the Monitor for Circular Fashion are also committed to:
- collect the information needed to reduce the negative impact they have on the planet and support the transition towards sustainability
- improve traceability and transparency to make value chains circular and sustainable
- add circular business processes in their value chains
- measure and report progress towards circularity in their value chains using common indicators
- promote high-quality waste management
- increase public awareness and instruct all the relevant stakeholders on the benefits of circular and sustainable business models
- share experiences and collaborate with other multi-stakeholder circular initiatives
Monitor for Circular Fashion’s KPIs
The Monitor for Circular Fashion has the main goal of identifying some tailored KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that fashion companies could employ to check their progress towards circularity and value chain traceability. These KPIs were defined with primary and secondary information collected through a desk research of over 30 reports on sustainability and circularity in fashion, an online survey provided to ingredient brands, brands and retailers, and service-provider partners, and semi-structured interviews with service-provider partners.
The KPIs were validated and further refined by the specific committee, which suggested some guidelines to measure them. They were presented during the event Accelerating action for the sustainable and circular garment and footwear industry of the future held at the new SDA Bocconi Campus in Milan.
Enel X’s Circular Economy Report
Enel X provides a Circular Economy Report, drawn up using a methodology validated by the external certification bodies RINA and CESI and accredited by Accredia. It identifies the circularity level of a company and proposes some innovative solutions to increase it.
The methodology is based on over 60 KPIs and has two levels of analysis: Corporate and Energy-Site. The first one assesses how the company’s strategy addresses sustainability and circular economy, while the second level focuses on the energy flows of the company’s buildings.