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This collection has been built by a community of passionate researchers, students, and industry professionals as part of <a href="https://worldcirculartextilesday.com/" target="_blank">World Circular Textiles Day</a> (WCTD). 


World Circular Textiles Day takes place every year on 8th October.  Our vision is to galvanise the collective ambitions and goals of people, organisations and businesses to reach a fully circular textiles world by 2050. Our mission is to provide a framework for circularity stakeholders to develop and deliver a collaborative, evolving roadmap and to chart circularity’s momentum annually from the 8th of October until 2050.

What does fully circular by 2050 mean?
- Shared textile resources, in the form of products and raw materials, are kept in **continual circulation**.
- Virgin resources are **replaced with circular materials**.
- Dignity, equity, and equality for the **people** involved in all parts of the circular value chain.

We need to know where we stand today to chart how to get to 100% Circularity by 2050. What circular activity is currently happening in the textiles and apparel industry, and where in the world is it happening? The WCTD Collection aims to answer this question by building the world’s largest digital library of circular textiles case studies. 

World Circular Textiles Day is proud to be supported by our 2022-23 Circular Hero Partners:
[Lenzing](https://www.lenzing.com/), [Texaid](https://retailsolutions.texaid.com/), [Bank & Vogue](https://www.bankvogue.com/), [Usha yarns limited](https://ushayarns.com/), [The Conduit](https://www.theconduit.com/), and [Asia Pacific Rayon](https://www.aprayon.com/en/)

## Want to contribute to the WCTD Collection? Sign up and add your circular textiles activities.





World Circular Textiles Day

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Business case

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Operating networks and software that enable the exchange and broadcasting of information, such as entertainment and internet software, television, cable, satellite or radio broadcasting systems, and cellular, wireless and/or fixed-line telecommunications services

Software and Communications

Installing sensors to gather data from products and services to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Sensors, monitoring systems

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms

Increase standardised data collection

VISION:
Products and services are designed for multiple use and material value retention, with maximum positive impact.

DETAIL: 
Imagine a time when…products flow via optimal collection and distribution streams into reusable and repairable product platforms. Reuse and access models are dominant, and products are designed for multiple recirculation before biodegrading (if designed to do so), or being broken down into reusable raw materials for production. People only consume what they need. Production and consumption wastes have been fully eliminated and multifunctional, season-less and timeless fashions are the norm, yet still fulfil our human need for expression and creativity without constraint. All business models, organisations, governments and citizens play a role in maintaining a healthy, functioning circular ecosystem.

Products and Services

Impacts

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Industries

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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policies

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

It is 2050.  Full systems change has taken place. This wouldn’t have been possible without the immediate action and radical steps taken from 2020 onwards. Many targets had to be identified in the early 2020s and achieved by 2030 to ensure that the 2050 goal happened in full. A sense of urgency, turbo stakeholder collaboration, supportive government regulation and clear, data driven targets enabled the mindsets and systems change needed to transform to a fully circular textiles ecosystem.

A circular economics model underpins what we have created. It reflects and supports a living organism made up of makers, users and restorers, interacting across vibrant and interconnected networks. Checks and balances, alongside transparency and accountability, ensure a healthy system. Financial, environmental, and social metrics have the purpose of serving communities and the planet. There is shared ownership of profit and loss – across all three metrics – throughout the value chain.

This is what we’ve achieved over the last 30 years:

WCTD Themes

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Global sustainability initiative Fashion for Good reported the successful completion of its Viscose Traceability Pilot in time for World Rainforest Day on 22nd June 2021. The pilot is a consortium project with partners Bestseller and Kering and supported by Zalando to trace sustainable viscose in garments using innovator TextileGenesis’ blockchain tracing solution. 

Bestseller and Kering each contributed four garment styles, totalling around 23,000 product units, which were cataloged and successfully tracked on the TextileGenesis platform. The garments were made with varying compositions from 100 percent sustainable viscose produced by Lenzing, ENKA and Tangshan Sanyou to blends with generic fibres. They were traced through 25 suppliers from seven countries: Austria, Germany, Italy, Turkey, India, Bangladesh and China. 

“Fashion for Good initiates projects such as the Viscose Traceability Pilot to share knowledge and learnings attained in critical challenge areas with the entire industry. Specifically, we want to inspire all players, innovators, suppliers and brands, to work towards and implement changes with the potential to shift the needle. We’re calling for industry-wide collaboration to embed and build on traceability solutions within the value chain, and ensure the protection of natural resources and forests,” said Katrin Ley, managing director, Fashion for Good, in a press release.

“The Viscose Traceability Pilot we’ve joined, led by Fashion For Good, is one of the options we’re looking at to support us in reaching our goal of 100 percent traceability for our key materials by 2025,” added Christian Tubito, head of materials innovation at Kering.

Three key dimensions: flexibility, interoperability and scalability

Three key dimensions were determined to be proof points against which to measure the success of the TextileGenesis platform and the pilot: flexibility, interoperability and scalability. 
Flexibility was achieved using Fibercoins as blockchain-based digital tokens that provide a “digital twin” for sustainable fibres, thus capturing the broad, real-world complexity of vertically-integrated suppliers and covering steps from fibre production through to garment production, and highly fragmented supply chains. 
 

“Once a fibre is produced, every kilogram of that fibre is represented in the platform by one Fibercoin. Supply chain players can transfer these digital coins in parallel to the production of textile products as they move through the supply chain”, explained Fashion for Good.

Textile Genesis platform operates across all standards, platforms and industries

Interoperability was achieved by the fact that the TextileGenesis platform is able to operate across all standards, platforms and industries, aggregating and incorporating these into a single system, for example Lenzing’s and ENKA’s unique physical traceability techniques. This allows brands visibility over their products and demonstrates its industry wide application. 

“This was a true cross-industry consortium approach with broad engagement of brands, sustainable fibre producers, textile suppliers, and key industry stakeholders. In this pilot, we demonstrated that the digital supply chain traceability and physical tracer verification are complementary (not substitutes), and along with the traceability data protocol form the building blocks of a holistic system. Our vision is to become the industry’s technology backbone where fibre-to-retail supply chain transactions of all sustainable materials can be verified and tracked in a robust, reliable and scalable manner,” commented Amit Gautam, CEO and founder of Textile Genesis.

Simultaneously on-boarding the 25 suppliers in a short span of four to six weeks, who were able to independently use the system after a single training session, demonstrated the scalability of the platform in terms of rapid on-boarding of suppliers and ease of use.  
“With an estimated 30 percent of viscose sourced from endangered forests, the validation of TextileGenesis’ solution is an important step towards transparency in the value chain, and ensuring fibres originate from renewable sources. Proving the flexibility, interoperability as well as scalability of the TextileGenesis platform has prompted participating brands to explore further implementation of the technology, expanding the scope for viscose to also include other fibres,” said Fashion for Good. 

Taking the project beyond viscose

Given the success of the pilot project, Fashion for Good is now planning to scale the TextileGenesis platform and solution together with its partners beyond viscose to include other sustainable fibres such as organic cotton and recycled polyester. 

“Six other fibre players will independently be engaged in pilots for sustainable viscose, recycled polyester and organic cotton. Lenzing and Tangshan will continue to be engaged in the scaling phase of these pilots. This roadmap will also leverage TextileGenesis’ partnership with Textile Exchange, whom they are supporting to digitise traceability in their certifications, including recycled polyester, responsible wool or down and later organic cotton,” explained the organisation. 

“In this pilot, Bestseller has successfully traced more than 22,500 styles. We believe in the potential of this solution and have just agreed to an upscaled second pilot where we will double the number of supply chain partners – including spinners, weavers and manufacturers – and trace one million styles through a fibre-based approach. Starting out with viscose, we are now looking into organic cotton as well as the compatibility with Bestsellerś existing digital systems – achieving one success at a time,” confirmed Camilla Skjønning Jørgensen, sustainable materials & innovation manager at Bestseller. 


 22th June 2021
AMSTERDAM – Today, on World Rainforest Day, Fashion for Good celebrates the successful completion of the Viscose Traceability Pilot, a consortium project with Fashion for Good partners BESTSELLER and Kering to trace sustainable viscose in garments using innovator TextileGenesis’ blockchain tracing solution. With an estimated 30% of viscose sourced from endangered forests, the validation of TextileGenesis’ solution, is an important step towards transparency in the value chain, and ensuring fibres originate from renewable sources.
Proving the flexibility, interoperability as well as scalability of the TextileGenesis platform has prompted participating brands to explore further implementation of the technology, expanding the scope for viscose to also include other fibres.
 “Fashion for Good initiates projects such as the Viscose Traceability Pilot to share knowledge and learnings attained in critical challenge areas with the entire industry. Specifically, we want to inspire all players, innovators, suppliers and brands, to work towards and implement changes with the potential to shift the needle. We’re calling for industry-wide collaboration to embed and build on traceability solutions within the value chain, and ensure the protection of natural resources and forests.” – Katrin Ley, Managing Director, Fashion for Good
Facilitated by Fashion for Good, the consortium project is a collaboration with BESTSELLER and Kering with support from Zalando. BESTSELLER and Kering each contributed four garment styles, totalling around 23,000 product units which were cataloged and successfully tracked on the TextileGenesis platform. The garments, made with varying compositions; from 100% sustainable viscose – produced by Lenzing, ENKA and Tangshan Sanyou, to blends with generic fibres, were traced through 25 suppliers from seven countries; Austria, Germany, Italy, Turkey, India, Bangladesh, and China.
“At Kering we believe that innovation is crucial to reach our sustainability targets. Part of the work we’re doing at our Materials Innovation Lab since 2013 is to identify materials that can lower our impact on people and the planet while continuing offering our Luxury Houses fabrics and textiles that meet the highest standards of quality for their collections. The Viscose Traceability Pilot we’ve joined, led by Fashion For Good, is one of the options we’re looking at to support us in reaching our goal of 100% traceability for our key materials by 2025.” – Christian Tubito, Head of Materials Innovation, Kering
THREE KEY PROOF POINTS PROVIDED
Three key dimensions were determined to be proof points against which to measure the success of the TextileGenesis platform and the pilot; flexibility, interoperability and scalability.
FLEXIBILITY: CAPTURING REAL-WORLD COMPLEXITY
The TextileGenesis platform uses Fibercoins as their blockchain based digital tokens which provide a “digital twin” for sustainable fibres. Once a fibre is produced, every kilogram of that fibre is represented in the platform by one Fibercoin. Supply chain players can transfer these digital coins in parallel to the production of textile products as they move through the supply chain.
Thanks to this tokenisation model, the platform demonstrated its flexibility in capturing the broad, real-world complexity of vertically-integrated suppliers, covering steps from fibre production through to garment production, and highly fragmented supply chains. This provided new insights on product flow while also illustrating the importance of combining both physical tracers and digital components, to amplify one another towards a more robust traceability system.
INTEROPERABILITY; COMBINING THE DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL
With many traceability technologies on the market today, the TextileGenesis platform is able to operate across all standards, platforms and industries, aggregating and incorporating these into a single system. This allows brands visibility over their products and demonstrates its industry wide application.
The incorporation of physical tracer certificates demonstrates the interoperability of the platform, that is its ability to communicate and aggregate information from other systems. Through this consortium project, future upgrades of the TextileGenesis platform will integrate Canopy Hot-Button Ranking data and next generation viscose lines which will not only be available to the participating pilot brands, but to all other brands using the platform.
As part of this pilot, the unique physical traceability techniques used by Lenzing and ENKA were incorporated onto the platform and, for the first time ever, different physical traceability techniques were integrated in a single platform at the garment-level.
SCALABILITY
Simultaneously on-boarding the 25 suppliers in a short span of four to six weeks, they were able to independently use the system after a single training session – indicating the scalability of the platform in terms of rapid on-boarding of suppliers and ease of use.
“In this pilot, BESTSELLER has successfully traced more than 22,500 styles. We believe in the potential of this solution and have just agreed to an upscaled second pilot where we will double the number of supply chain partners – including spinners, weavers and manufacturers – and trace one million styles through a fibre-based approach. Starting out with viscose, we are now looking into organic cotton as well as the compatibility with BESTSELLER’s existing digital systems – achieving one success at a time.” – Camilla Skjønning Jørgensen, Sustainable Materials & Innovation Manager, BESTSELLER
EXPANDING IN VISCOSE AND SCALING INTO OTHER FIBRES
Due to the success of this pilot, the TextileGenesis platform and solution will be scaled with Fashion for Good partners beyond viscose to include other sustainable fibres such as organic cotton and recycled polyester. Six other fibre players will independently be engaged in pilots for sustainable viscose, recycled polyester, and organic cotton. Lenzing and Tangshan will continue to be engaged in the scaling phase of these pilots. This roadmap will also leverage TextileGenesis’ partnership with Textile Exchange, whom they are supporting to digitise traceability in their certifications, including recycled polyester, responsible wool or down, and later organic cotton.

“This was a true cross-industry consortium approach with broad engagement of brands, sustainable fibre producers, textile suppliers, and key industry stakeholders. In this pilot, we demonstrated that the digital supply chain traceability and physical tracer verification are complementary (not substitutes), and along with the traceability data protocol form the building blocks of a holistic system. Our vision is to become the industry’s technology backbone where fibre-to-retail supply chain transactions of all sustainable materials can be verified and tracked in a robust, reliable and scalable manner.” – Amit Gautam, CEO and Founder, Textile Genesis
Read more about the project and its outcomes on the Fashion for Good Resource Library 

  Our vision is two fold: creating radical transparency from fiber-to-retail, and ensuring authenticity & provenance of sustainable textiles against generics.   TextileGenesis™ platform is an outcome of intensive “grass-root” discussions with the entire apparel supply chain from fiber producers, fabric mills, dyeing house, cut & sew, to retail brands.   It's custom-built for the premium and sustainable textiles such as wood-based fibers, premium cotton, specialty filaments, silk, wool and cashmere.  Our technology secures brand reputation against fakes, creates article level transparency from fiber-to-retail, and drives value-chain inventory optimization. 

India

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Fashion for Good is a global initiative to inspire change and drive the collective movement to make fashion a force for good. We work directly with the fashion industry to innovate towards solutions that are better for people and the planet and empower behaviour change through our sustainable fashion Museum. 

Fashion for Good

TextileGenesis™ is a pioneering traceability platform custom built for the apparel ecosystem.  


TextileGenesis

<p>Traceability and transparency are key factors in accelerating the transition to a circular economy in the textile industry. However, the supply chain is complex, and to meet the requirements to achieve the right traceability and transparency, it is necessary to extract information from the fibre production, passing through the production of clothing, covering the entire life cycle of the garment. To meet these requirements, the TextileGenesis platform was used in a pilot for viscose traceability in partnership with FashionForGood and the Bestseller and Kering brands. As a result of the pilot project, brands were able to catalogue and track around 23,000 units of products through the TextileGenesis platform, thus providing greater visibility, interoperability and scalability throughout the supply chain.</p>