TrusTrace launches one-stop solution to enable near real-time traceability

TrusTrace, a platform for supply chain transparency and product traceability within fashion and retail, has launched a one-stop certified material compliance tool that enables near real-time traceability at a material level, which sportswear giant Adidas will deploy to help document its products’ sustainability credentials.

The new TrusTrace Certified Material Compliance tool covers the broad spectrum of requirements for material compliance including documenting the percentage of certified vs. non-certified material content, supporting different chain of custody models, and covering single component products to multi-component products.

TrusTrace states that the solution will serve as “a single source of truth” and bolster brand confidence in their compliance journey, as well as support brands looking to become more sustainable.

The one-stop tool will give brands visibility into product sustainability metrics, ensuring compliance with standards and regulations and enabling streamlined decision-making and tighter integration with suppliers worldwide. Fashion brands will be able to map and capture data in near real-time traceability from supply chain transactions as products move through the value chain to give greater transparency information that can it can easily share with customers, retailers and regulators.

TrusTrace strengthens traceability solution for Certified Material Compliance for fashion and apparel

TrusTrace adds that the solution directly addresses emerging industry methodologies and pending government regulations that will require brands to base sustainability claims on verifiable and precise data in a crackdown on greenwashing.

Shameek Ghosh, chief executive of TrusTrace, said in a statement: “In the midst of global greenwashing and challenges with unsubstantiated claims, brands and regulators are moving quickly to instil confidence among consumers that products are, indeed, as sustainable as they claim to be.

“Brands that want to establish near real-time traceability at the lot level by mapping the movement of raw materials to finished goods – and automatically calculate the sustainability metrics of those goods – now have a proven solution in TrusTrace Certified Material Compliance.”

TrusTrace offers fashion brands confidence to back up sustainability claims

Near real-time and material traceability is becoming pivotal for the fashion industry to comply with current and upcoming regulations, as the EU is considering regulatory initiatives such as requiring that claims are backed by common measurement methodologies, while France and Denmark have already crafted legislation on documentation requirements for ESG claims.

Ghosh said: “By linking all purchase orders to production steps, certificates, supplier declarations and quality reports on the TrusTrace platform, TrusTrace Certified Material Compliance helps brands manage risk and compliance and allows them to prove sustainability claims with confidence.”

Katrin Ley, managing director at Fashion for Good, added: “Real-time, fibre-forward traceability facilitates industry-wide standardisation of supply chain data, laying the foundation for accurate impact tracking, trustworthy certification and waste stream analytics for fibres, materials and products.

“All of these factors play a major role in authenticating sustainability claims, enabling the accurate measuring, and ultimately empowering improvements of ESG metrics within the supply chain alongside facilitating the credible flow of impact data to meet legislative requirements at a product level. For brands, supply chain due diligence and sustainability strategies need material traceability, provided by reliable, digital platforms such as TrusTrace, to build data-informed visibility of supply chain journeys to truly transition to more sustainable practices.”

The tool will also help identify material waste in the supply chain by intelligently calculating discrepancies between inputs and outputs, which will support greater efficiencies in production while keeping waste out of landfills or otherwise harming sustainability efforts.

Adidas named as an early adopter of TrusTrace Certified Material Compliance

One of the first companies to adopt TrusTrace Certified Material Compliance will be global sports brand Adidas to create further transparency on its sustainability goals. Adidas provided early input on the product’s technical development, focusing on a scalable, digital solution integrating seamlessly with enterprise systems like PLM, purchase order system and supplier management systems to minimise the need for manual intervention.

Adidas has set itself targets such as only using 100 percent recycled polyester by 2024 and ensuring 9 out of 10 of its articles features sustainable technology, material, design or manufacturing method by 2025. It will use TrusTrace’s new tool to track all certified materials.

Katja Schreiber, senior vice president of sustainability at Adidas, explained: “As part of its commitment to sustainability, Adidas has worked with TrusTrace to gain more visibility into our complete supply chain down to the materials level.

“The information gleaned from TrusTrace Certified Material Compliance will help us to create even more transparency of our sustainability efforts.”