Sustainable fashion is not just a buzzword – it’s the future. Here’s how brands can use tech tools to measure and reduce their impact on the environment.
Fashion brands, retailers and manufacturers are now squarely in the spotlight when it comes to sustainability, from shipping miles to factory CO2 emissions to water and soil pollution. Today’s consumers are more aware than ever of the potential impact of their purchasing choices, and want to see real action and transparency from the names they trust.
For many fashion businesses, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions have proved to be a transformative tool for product development and launch, enabling greater control over every part of the product lifecycle from design to sourcing to retail in order to streamline workflows, reduce costs and speed time to market.
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The potential benefits of using PLM to monitor and manage sustainable initiatives are obvious. No other type of enterprise system links internal and external product teams to such an extent, offering unparalleled visibility and the opportunity to intervene at numerous points in the end-to-end product lifecycle to minimize environmental and social impacts.
However, until recently, most PLM solutions have not featured built-in tools to boost sustainability. This is now changing, as leading PLM providers seek to integrate technology that puts sustainability front and center throughout the product lifecycle.
Centric PLM™ and the Higg Index
Centric Software®, the PLM market leader, recently announced a groundbreaking partnership with Higg, the sustainability insights platform. Centric PLM, the leading PLM solution for the apparel industry, is now integrated with Higg to provide product designers with environmental impact data on material choices.
”Through Centric’s integration with Higg, designers gain access to material-level environmental impacts, which enables them to make critical decisions to develop more sustainable products,” says Higg CEO Jason Kibbey. “Conscious consumers are demanding both high-quality and environmentally-responsible products, and with Higg data, businesses can deliver on these expectations.”
"Through Centric’s integration with Higg, designers gain access to material-level environmental impacts, which enables them to make critical decisions to develop more sustainable products.”
With the click of a button, designers and product developers can send material choices from Centric PLM to Higg and receive impact scores for each material using the most robust and trusted sustainability dataset available. Higg offers rich, accurate data on impacts such as carbon footprint, water utilization and more, including product end of use options and impacts. An overall product score is automatically generated once the Bill of Materials (BOM) is complete. Regardless of where companies stand on their sustainability journey, brands, retailers and manufacturers of all sizes can access Higg data through Centric PLM.
Developed hand-in-hand with fashion customers
Like all of Centric Software’s innovations, the integration of Centric PLM and Higg has been driven by the real-world needs of the fashion industry and developed in partnership with customers.
“We pay close attention to the needs and challenges of our customers, and sustainability is a core issue for many of them right now,” says Saurabh Deshpande, Director, Product Management at Centric Software. “We have developed a close relationship with Higg, working together to provide brands, retailers and manufacturers with accurate sustainability data.”
With many Centric customers already using PLM to drive and monitor their sustainability commitments and programs, users of Centric PLM are looking forward to being able to gain even more efficiency, accuracy and transparency.
“It is important for us to be able to offer our customers full transparency regarding our products, where they are produced and what materials they contain,” says Åsa Andersson, Sustainability Manager at Peak Performance. “Centric Software’s solution makes it possible to continuously save all data at product level, so that we can then easily retrieve all data related to materials, which facilitates our sustainability reporting.”
“Centric Software’s solution makes it possible to continuously save all data at product level, so that we can then easily retrieve all data related to materials, which facilitates our sustainability reporting.”
“Centric PLM is a very important part of our digital transformation journey,” says Ranjan Mahtani, Executive Chairman of Epic Group. “Its interconnection with Higg will help Epic to analyze and understand the environmental impact of our products and help us make lower-impact, more sustainable product offerings to our customers.”
The ability to easily access and use the Higg index promotes standardized sustainability data collection across the industry, which is crucial for making the right decisions and having the right impact, according to Kathleen Buckingham, Director, Sustainability at tentree & veritree.
The ability to easily access and use the Higg index promotes standardized sustainability data collection across the industry, which is crucial for making the right decisions and having the right impact
“Without having standardized approaches, methodologies will not be comparable. With an agreed standardized system, companies can set benchmarks and be able to learn from their peers from a standardized methodology,” says Buckingham. “Since Higg delivers the industry standard for apparel, it can be trusted to reflect the latest science and specific needs. It will benefit from the input of a network of users and grow to suit the needs of the industry as the needs evolve. Having access to Higg built into Centric PLM will streamline the data collection and analysis process and reduce confusion regarding alternative systems.”
Growing sustainability and profitability
Using tools such as Centric PLM and Higg to maintain and push forward sustainability initiatives can be beneficial for both the planet and your bottom line, says Ron Watson, VP of Product at Centric Software.
“Increased transparency and visibility enable teams to make decisions taking environmental impact into consideration while also ensuring target product margins are met, using reliable data that is accessible on a single platform.”
“Centric PLM is a very important part of our digital transformation journey."
“When also coupled with other technologies such as 3D material libraries, avatars and prototypes as well as optimized processes such as efficient supplier collaboration, not only can a product’s environmental impact be lessened but so can overall cost of goods sold. Being sustainable doesn’t mean killing growth or profitability,” he concludes.
COP26 may be over, but we know the real work to slow down global warming is just beginning. As the climate crisis intensifies and consumers become more aware of the environmental impact of fashion, it’s more critical than ever to design, source, make and sell products in ways that cut emissions and minimize negative effects on our world.
Want to learn more? Join Centric Software, Inside Fashion and BSI Group and watch a replay of the recent online panel discussion on Carbon Neutrality: What Fashion Manufacturers Need to Know.
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