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Nobody’s Denim uses Good Earth Cotton which can be traced back to farm |
The success of transparency and traceability within the industry relies on each part of the supply chain sharing a common goal, a group of experts have asserted, urging brands and manufacturers to seek out like-minded partners.
A webinar hosted by Transformers Foundation as part of its Catalysts summit – its first as a non-profit entity – explored the area of traceability, its importance in future manufacturing and clothing retail, and how it could be done successfully.
The panel session featured Sedef Uncu Aki of Turkish denim manufacturer Orta, John Condilis of Australian brand Nobody Denim, and Shannon Mercer of Fibretrace, the largest cotton producer in Australia.
The three have collaborated on a project which sees Fibretrace’s Good Earth Cotton incorporated in the denim production of Nobody Denim’s jeans, allowing end-to-end traceability of the garment using blockchain technology.
Good Earth Cotton is carbon positive, meaning more carbon goes into the soil than is emitted into the environment. This is done through regenerative farming techniques.
The Fibretrace technology allows everyone, including consumers, to see where the cotton was farmed, where it was produced into a yarn, the final production stage and where it was purchased by the consumer.
Condolis explains though Asia was close by, it was important for him that the final garment production be carried out in Australia. But, he said, it was key to find a partner for this project with whom its goals were aligned”.
“Everyone has a right to know where their products have come from” – John Condilis
“The one thing that attracted us to Fibretrace and its Good Earth Cotton was the value proposition. What does it deliver? It was about our values of transparency, community, honesty, authenticity — all the things we wanted our consumers to know were critical. We are excited about launching it in September/October. People are excited to know where their garments have come from. We are creating software for the consumer to be able to access that data. Everyone has a right to know where their products have come from. The circle of fashion; that’s where it is heading. It’s extremely important. It creates transparency.”
Being a manufacturer that only operates in Australia, Nobody Denim’s order volumes were pretty low compared to what Orta is used to. But the value of the overall project was the selling point for Orta.
“I remember reading an article on Walmart using blockchain to trace lettuce. And I asked my directors how can we do this in cotton? It’s important to take a step back and assess whether the steps we take in our business only have a small impact or whether it impacts the wider supply chain. Right down to the consumer. This project was an opportunity to affect wider change. It is important for us to see the whole lifecycle of our products with a positive impact, that’s why it was compelling to pursue.”
Through its lifecycle assessment programmes (LCA), Orta measured the differences between using conventional cotton versus the carbon positive cotton and found the latter can reduce the carbon footprint of its product by between 32-50%.
Of course, there were challenges in implementation, Aki says.
“There are always challenges if you want to be a pioneer in the sector” – Sedef Uncu Aki
“There are always challenges if you want to be a pioneer in the sector. Since transparency is one of the key values for us, this was a really important project for us. It’s exciting to see how transparency and traceability have shifted from basic data sharing — because that is what we have been doing, sharing data with excel tables — to now, these techniques with codes and barcodes. With basic data, it’s always challenging for the brands to communicate with the consumers. With the aid of Fibretrace, we can now communicate and share the data with them easily.
“We are at the beginning, but I do believe this project can have a positive impact on the environment with the use of carbon-positive cotton as well, while tracing it back to farm. It’s a good example of resilient thinking we have discussed since the beginning of the pandemic which has forced us to reassess every practice and process in the textile world to ensure we are proactive, not reactive to the unforeseen forces.”
Mercer adds: “It’s about finding like-minded people with a common goal that makes projects like this work. John partnered with Orta for a reason; the work they do around sustainability and they wanted to share in that story as well. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds because John is not global in terms of volume and it meant us sending the cotton to Orta who had to hold the cotton, they had to run a special run and it wasn’t part of their day to day life because it wasn’t consistently feeding in Good Earth Cotton that was carbon-positive into everything they made. So there were hurdles there but those hurdles were overcome because the benefit of pioneering and trying to make it work and seeing how we could actually achieve it and scale it and roll it out was evident.”
In February, Denim conference Kingpins Transformers transitioned into Transformers Foundation, a non-profit entity focused on actively addressing and facilitating change in key areas of the denim supply chain. It sees the Foundation focus on social responsibility, sustainable cotton, responsible chemical management and consumer education.
