New Partnerships for CanopyStyle Close the Traceability Gap
Published:
by: Amanda Carr
- CanopyStyle
- Blog article
Canopy is so pleased to announce our latest partnerships with Fashion for Good and TextileGenesis.
On December 1, we joined Fashion for Good and TextileGenesis , along with CanopyStyle brand partners BESTSELLER and Kering, in a new pilot project focused on bringing greater traceability to the viscose supply chain. Progressive brands have long been on a quest to trace the impacts of their materials and to know whether that production is driving deforestation and forest degradation. The goal of this new initiative is to remove that uncertainty and improve traceability from viscose fibre producers to consumers. The traceability pilot not only introduces a Blockchain system for understanding fibre flow, but it is underpinned by a decision to only allow products from viscose producers who have earned a ‘green shirt’ in Canopy’s Hot Button Report . Together Canopy, Fashion for Good, and TextileGenesis are dovetailing our expertise and building a system with integrity for garments complete from forest floor to store.
At Canopy, creative collaboration is a core value, absolutely central to our approach to shifting supply chains and protecting the world’s forests. What we look for in our collaborative partners is a foundation of alignment – are we both committed to ambitious standards that lead to action and success in resolving our global climate and biodiversity crisis? But alignment is just the first step. Many of the most exciting collaborations, we believe, come from the power of our differences and exploring how to build powerful partnerships that harness our diverse approaches and complementary expertise.
Canopy was first introduced to the remarkable team at Fashion for Good via a mutual strategic advisor. We’ve been fortunate to be part of the Fashion for Good community since their grand opening in Spring 2017 in Amsterdam. Since then we’ve sought out ways to leverage each other’s’ work in whatever way we can. Fast forward to the present day, and we now have a formal MOU and are supporting this traceability pilot is our first step together in this new partnership. Together we are confident we have complementary skills and approaches to bring circularity in the fashion sector to the next level.
Enter traceability solution provider, TextileGenesis, who we met thanks to an introduction from Fashion for Good. Within minutes of meeting, TextileGenesis’ CEO saw the value of requiring all products in their system to be CanopyStyle ‘green shirt’ only, and began quickly exploring other thresholds including, FSC-certification, and the use of Next Generation fibres. While more work remains to fully integrate CanopyStyle requirements into the platform, the foundation is strongly in place.
Building integrity of environmental performance into the front end of this traceability system promises to be an exciting differentiator. Being able to trace a t-shirt back to the exact acacia or eucalyptus tree in a plantation or to a single fir tree in the Boreal is a remarkable feat – but traceability for traceability’s sake only gets you so far. If the goal of a traceability tool is to help you assess and reduce risk and improve your sustainability performance, then a traceability system needs to exclude wood or plantation fibre that has replaced an orangutan’s home, forced communities off their land, drained carbon-rich peat domes, or pushed endangered caribou further to the brink.
In building these fundamentals in up front with these new partners, we can ensure integrity of both the product, and the information that this specific traceability tool provides, to brands who are striving to meet sustainability targets. As an embedded quality of all our partnerships, it promises to deliver other ambitious projects and explorations. That’s a win-win for business, people, and the planet.
On December 1, we joined Fashion for Good and TextileGenesis , along with CanopyStyle brand partners BESTSELLER and Kering, in a new pilot project focused on bringing greater traceability to the viscose supply chain. Progressive brands have long been on a quest to trace the impacts of their materials and to know whether that production is driving deforestation and forest degradation. The goal of this new initiative is to remove that uncertainty and improve traceability from viscose fibre producers to consumers. The traceability pilot not only introduces a Blockchain system for understanding fibre flow, but it is underpinned by a decision to only allow products from viscose producers who have earned a ‘green shirt’ in Canopy’s Hot Button Report . Together Canopy, Fashion for Good, and TextileGenesis are dovetailing our expertise and building a system with integrity for garments complete from forest floor to store.
At Canopy, creative collaboration is a core value, absolutely central to our approach to shifting supply chains and protecting the world’s forests. What we look for in our collaborative partners is a foundation of alignment – are we both committed to ambitious standards that lead to action and success in resolving our global climate and biodiversity crisis? But alignment is just the first step. Many of the most exciting collaborations, we believe, come from the power of our differences and exploring how to build powerful partnerships that harness our diverse approaches and complementary expertise.
Canopy was first introduced to the remarkable team at Fashion for Good via a mutual strategic advisor. We’ve been fortunate to be part of the Fashion for Good community since their grand opening in Spring 2017 in Amsterdam. Since then we’ve sought out ways to leverage each other’s’ work in whatever way we can. Fast forward to the present day, and we now have a formal MOU and are supporting this traceability pilot is our first step together in this new partnership. Together we are confident we have complementary skills and approaches to bring circularity in the fashion sector to the next level.
Enter traceability solution provider, TextileGenesis, who we met thanks to an introduction from Fashion for Good. Within minutes of meeting, TextileGenesis’ CEO saw the value of requiring all products in their system to be CanopyStyle ‘green shirt’ only, and began quickly exploring other thresholds including, FSC-certification, and the use of Next Generation fibres. While more work remains to fully integrate CanopyStyle requirements into the platform, the foundation is strongly in place.
Building integrity of environmental performance into the front end of this traceability system promises to be an exciting differentiator. Being able to trace a t-shirt back to the exact acacia or eucalyptus tree in a plantation or to a single fir tree in the Boreal is a remarkable feat – but traceability for traceability’s sake only gets you so far. If the goal of a traceability tool is to help you assess and reduce risk and improve your sustainability performance, then a traceability system needs to exclude wood or plantation fibre that has replaced an orangutan’s home, forced communities off their land, drained carbon-rich peat domes, or pushed endangered caribou further to the brink.
In building these fundamentals in up front with these new partners, we can ensure integrity of both the product, and the information that this specific traceability tool provides, to brands who are striving to meet sustainability targets. As an embedded quality of all our partnerships, it promises to deliver other ambitious projects and explorations. That’s a win-win for business, people, and the planet.
