Sustainability in Europe | BCSD Portugal
29th of June 2021 | The BCSD interview made by João Wengorovius Meneses, Secretário-Geral do BCSD (Business Council for Sustainable Development) Portugal to Mafalda Pinto, was published. This interview debates on the new Action Plan for Circular Economy, launched in March 2020 by EU, which defines a new strategy for textiles with the aim of reinforcing competitiveness and innovation on the sector plus engage the market on a reutilisation of leftover fabrics.
When asked about the biggest challenges related to the management of production and awareness to the waste in the textile industry, Mafalda shared that
“The main challenge is finding ways of deleting, reducing and reapplying the waste at its origin and be less focused in finding solutions to solve the “problem”, this is, assuming that we can continue to create waste and that the Era for non responsibility will be our only way to live.”
Mafalda quoted that even though this transition into a circular economy has already began in some companies, the challenges are still quite big. The universe is broad and hard to control due to the endless phases and role players in this textile production process. The main challenge is directly related with the retail model, still used by most of the brand, when these buy unlimited quantities in the hopes of selling. There is the need of a strong bet in reeducating the consumer to having a conscious consumption behaviour, knowing on forehand that simply by engaging in fast-fashion this challenge will be even harder to reach.
It’s the consumers responsability to request and build a movement that will fight the textile waste, and is due to the brand to ensure the balance of environmental impact and well as economic and social impacts in the textile flow, nevertheless its crucial to promote the visibility of this impact amongst the communities in an innovative and educational way.
Along the interview, the business woman spoke about the upcycling collection created for Tommy Hilfiger, made with the brands own leftover fabrics and this was definitely an incredible accomplishment by Scoop but also shared her thoughts on two priorities on the EU agenda for the decade of 2020-30 which are the digital transformation and the transition into sustainability and how these align in the textile sector.
“The digital transformation, already a reality in many brands and industries, will allow, in a simpler approach the change of the design process and 3D development, drastically reducing the waste cause by the huge amount of samples created in the development of collections when this samples most of the time are useless and by consequence become waste.
More importantly is the application of this digital technology in retail: the online sales took over our way of consuming, evolving in a fierce way to the system of pre-order in which brands sell before the actual sale.
On the other hand, blockchain platforms that allow us to track the product, are calculating the hybrid and carbon footprint of each garment, as well as the full transparency of all the production chain associated at a environmental and social level”
The vision that Scoop is an important player in social responsability, sustainability and transparency of the block within the textile industry was also targeted in this interview and Mafalda confirmed that she holds as main goal the conclusion of the work that began in 2020, that consists on the digitalization of all the excedent material. So that there is an effective transition into a total industry of “close loop”, allowing us to ensure in real time the impact of each client/order and give it an immediate new life. Scoop believes the future will be circular and so analyses its impact on all stages and transforms waste in active, giving a new purpose to “waste” through upcycling or as an alternative recycling.
“Sustainability is a priority for Scoop and one of my passions”
To have access to the rest of the interview click here