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Supply Chain Audit

Structured vs Unstructured Data
Biz StrategyFuture TechSupply Chain

AI x Sustainability (3): Supply Chain Compliance with AI

Can AI help us to get to (better) grips with supply chain compliance? Supply chains are based on fairly complex partnership networks where every link ideally must meet strict efficiency and compliance standards. Supplier audits and legislation aim ultimately to ensure high standard, it is a not the least highly time demanding task to be successful at. AI offers the potential to support practical solutions for risk assessment, process optimization, and partner evaluation. Commercial providers are already jumping on the band wagon by providing ways to build 'digital twins' of real supply chains – hence opening them up for 'offline optimisation' - and of course highly sophisticated data analytics tools drawing from multiple disjoint data sources.
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Doughnut Economics
Biz StrategyGovernanceLabels

Tools of the trade for the Doughnut business? A status quo comparison

In an earlier post I asked: How can business, a business, downscale the Doughnut and make it operational? In this post I look at three tools that praise themselves of being either part, or even all, of the support a business needs on the journey to integrate the Doughnut Economics concepts. Namely: Science-based Targets (SBTs), the B Impact Assessment(BIA), and the Future Fit Business Benchmark (FFBBM). What are their fundamental differences and similarities? Are they indeed a tool to help on the path to keeping within the Doughnut boundaries?
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Graphics Traceability System
Future TechMaterialsSupply Chain

The new cool in traceability: DNA Tracers / Bio-based markers

Authentication and traceability backbone solutions have become a key technology for many a brand to prevent not only product forgery, but also to prove truthfulness of on-and-off product claims. What few realise: product authentication is just one half of a 2-part system (Figure 1) whereby authentication is applied to the product at its point of origin, and a traceability backbone ensures that the product reaches its destination – for example the end consumer – safely and untampered.
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Greenpeace-Detox-develops-market-for-BlueSign
LabelsOpinionsSupply Chain

A closer look at Detox Commitments

Detox has been a repeat topic on this blog. Most recently after my visit in May to Performance Days, but also previously. While slowly but surely more and more brands (17 at the time of writing) – and retailers – have signed a Detox Solution Commitment with Greenpeace, and hence work in some way or other with ZHDC (Road map to Zero), a key threshold was passed event most recently: With the Italian fabric mill Canepa, the first manufacturer has taken the pledge.
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Labels

Spotlight on labels: the SCS Responsible Source standard

n this post, I’ll be looking at the CSC Responsible Source standard, which aims very clearly at the issue of (un)ethical, (in)transparent supply chains. The standard exists for 2 very specific area of expertise: precious gems and metals; and man-made fibres and textiles.
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Brand ReviewSupply Chain

What if 100% of your customers hated you?

2 weeks after the Rana Plaza’s disaster in Bangladesh, the death toll has risen to 921 and the fire broke in another garment factory last night killing 8. But how have these fashion brands reacted to, possibly, the worst known disaster in the history of the global apparel industry?
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MaterialsSupply Chain

Is the leather industry next in line for a ‘Detox’?

In Medieval times the location of a tannery was heavily based on the requirements of a nearby river or stream, cattle which could supply the hide, and of course oak trees which would supply the bark needed for the tanning process. In the present, because of the demand for luxury at the cheapest possible prices, the industry is pushed out to where it is easier to ignore the moral and environmental reek.
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LuxuryMaterialsSupply Chain

Luxury & Endangered Species

The reaping (black market) trade in reptile skins for the luxury fashion and accessories market is an openly talked about, albeit ugly, reality of the present. The recently published UNCTAD BioTrade report and toolkit provides useful and pragmatic info for designers.
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