The circular economy in the textile industry requires systems that offer traceability and transparency throughout the supply chain so that stakeholders can identify and measure their environmental and social impact at each stage of the chain, as well as assist in the decision-making process, in defining new circular business models, and in providing clear information to consumers. For example, it is estimated that 30% of viscose comes from threatened forests. In this context, the digitisation of the supply chain is a key point to achieve the level of traceability that the textile industry demands, enabling materials to be traced in a robust, reliable and scalable way.

In the pilot project carried out for the tracking of viscose, it was identified that, in addition to blockchain technology, other features such as real-time transactions, data protocol standardisation, forensic auditing and integration with ESG standards are needed. The TextileGenesis platform uses the concept of Fibercoins to enable the application of blockchain-based digital tokens to sustainable fibres. This concept is called “digital twin”, which allows the representation of each kilogram of fibre to be digitally produced on the platform. From this possibility, supply chain players can manipulate, interact and transfer these digital coins to the production of textile products as they move along the chain. In this way, the platform allows aggregating information related to fibres in a single place, allowing brands to track and have greater visibility of their products.

The pilot project was carried out in collaboration with the brands' Bestseller and Kering, with viscose fabric. Each brand contributed four garment styles, totalling approximately 23,000 units of products that were tracked and catalogued on the TextileGenesis platform. The garments were then tracked simultaneously by 25 suppliers from seven different countries: Austria, Germany, Italy, Turkey, India, Bangladesh, and China. In this way, these suppliers were able to take a broader view and successfully track garments using a fibre-based approach. Thus, the solution showed the importance of combining methods from both a physical and a digital level, improving traceability and transparency systems. In addition, the tokenisation model also presented the possibility to add flexibility, interoperability, and scalability in complex supply chains by allowing, capturing and managing real-time information from different suppliers.