Globally, the fashion industry produces almost four times the environmental impact of the airline industry, with 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the production of apparel and footwear. The unsustainable ways in which fast fashion is produced is one of the leading causes of climate change. A lack of regulation and unchecked greenwashing from major companies only exacerbates its environmental impact. TrusTrace Certified Material Compliance aims to combat misinformation and improve transparency and traceability within the fashion industry.

Founded in 2016, TrusTrace offers an end-to-end product traceability platform for global fashion and apparel brands, centered around material compliance for both certified and non-certified materials. It gives brands granular visibility into product sustainability metrics. With industry leading certification and product mapping technology and automation, TrusTrace empowers brands and suppliers around the world to collaborate on product and materials traceability digitally with their SaaS product.

The solution provides a lot of information about a product’s material composition and supply chain transactions in one single place. Examples of the processes it can track are the calculation of material waste, a product’s origins, and the documentation of the percentage of certified vs non-certified material content. Hence brands can demonstrate their compliance with national and international standards and regulations.

TrusTrace developed its technology using a combination of AI, blockchain, IoT and software automation. This allows near-instantaneous updating of garment information, as well as the assurance that the details are immutable, traceable, and transparent. Other brands that TrusTrace has worked with include Fjällräven, Decathlon, Filippa K, and Coop.

Within the first three months of using the platform, Adidas has documented 1 million transactions covering 10,000 materials and styles across 500 facilities, proving the scalability potential of this new solution.

In working with Adidas, TrusTrace is able to support the company’s ambitions to move toward working with 100% recycled polyester by 2024, and implementing sustainability-centric technology, materials, design and manufacturing across 90% of the products by 2025. 

Photo taken by Daniel Storek on Unsplash