Sustainability in Fashion and Luxury

How do companies support sustainable supply chain movements nowadays? How do you measure environmental and social impact? What are the innovative solutions in sustainable supply chains for the fashion and luxury industry? 

Our Roundtable on “Sustainability in fashion and luxury,” moderated by Neha Malagi at PANGAIA, was an inspiring discussion on how innovative material science, digital transformation in manufacturing, data collection, and customer engagement help revolutionize the supply chain, making an earth-positive impact. 

It was a great experience to see so many industry professionals and innovators attending the aim10x discussion! We welcomed Severine Heim, Global Category Management Demand Planning Specialist for Fashion & Luxury at Dufry Group, Agnes Zsofia Nagy, Consultant, Juan Carlos Ortiz Lopez, Sourcing Private Labels Director at Liverpool, Kuan Yin Knoll, IT Sr. Director, Business Solutions Global Supply Chain at Tapestry, Sherry Fazal, Sr Manager, Business Solutions Global Supply Chain at Tapestry, Brandon Nelson, Global Planning Manager at Converse, Humberto Martinez, SVP of Supply Chain Operation at Beautycounter, James Geary, Director at Local Online Marketplace, Suf Oster, Retail Operations Manager at SCMP, Maikel Fontein, Marketing Manager at Unilever and Founder at Passionfruit.earth.

During the discussion, Neha presented PANGAIA’s “Digital Passport” use case, which provided analysis into why this was an important initiative for the company, how they went about implementing it, and a brief insight into the customer experience. What sets them apart is the depth of information shared with customers on the product’s lifecycle, right from cultivation all the way to garment manufacturing, along with the environmental impact at each stage. 

PANGAIA’s Digital Passport aims to: 

• support customers by educating and reshaping behaviors
• create change and set new standards in the industry
• promote circularity and help set up infrastructure for third party networks and manufacturing partners
• set up strong data management infrastructure for better decision making

What are the key initiatives companies can take to improve sustainable practices and achieve their sustainable goals?

• Measure and track environmental impacts of the supply chains
• Introduce Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Reporting
• Establish and actively support environmental and social initiatives 
• Improve transparency on raw materials and sourcing methods
• Introduce sustainable products in the product portfolios
• Commit to using recycled materials 
• Repurpose used products, re-wear, recycle, and upcycle
• Focus on re-fashion
• Use the Make to order (MTO) market strategy
• Use more sustainable chemical processes in manufacturing supply chains
• Improve planning to reduce waste, improve efficiency, optimize transportation, and improve financial performance

What are the challenges that companies face in their sustainable supply chain initiatives?

• Difficulties in collecting detailed information about environmental impacts (factories sometimes don’t make only one company’s products)
• Challenges in calculating and measuring social impact
• Lack of transparency of the raw materials used in the manufacturing processes
• Lack of end-to-end visibility of the entire supply chain

What are the best practices in setting the goals on ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) in your supply chain?

• Transparency is the key. Share your sustainable practices with all stakeholders
• Think forward. Set the time frame and measurable goals
• Transparent sourcing and procurement
• Tracking and visibility of the entire supply chain
• Collaborate with partners that enable digital transformation for sustainable solutions