Overview
With the introduction of new EU regulations for textile products in 2026, brands will have to transform themselves towards greater sustainability. The EU states: "without compliance, no business" (Pascale et al., 2022). In its "Apparel CPO Survey", McKinsey states that the availability of recycled materials, reverse logistics and design are key to circularity.
Based on these findings, the CUT project focuses on the following three areas of innovation:
Design & Material Strategy
Phase 1: Business partners work on design and material strategies and develop concepts for their pilot collections. In addition, the design and material strategies are used to develop recommendations within the value chain. In an initial reality check in the companies and their value chains, the concepts of the pilot collections are adapted and sharpened. A concept for the design recommender tool will be developed based on these developments. Peer coaching will be used to further develop the concept into a consolidated design strategy as a plausibility check for the supply chain.
Material Stream & Supply Chain
Phase 2: The focus is on implementing the pilot collections. The aim is to drive forward the establishment of the various value chains and the development of the material streams in accordance with the design strategy and to collect data for the competence matrix along the cascades. This involves tackling the stumbling blocks within the new value chain and finding solutions with the stakeholders. The collected data is transferred to a Transparency Tool (TT). Findings are reviewed with the participating companies and experts from research and practice, gaps are closed and documented in the circular TT. Closing the material loop is made possible by innovative fiber-to-fiber recycling technologies.
Circular Use Phase & Communication
Phase 3: The impact of the pilot collections is recorded using life-cycle-thinking and customer feedback on the pilot collections is collected and evaluated at the point of sale using citizen science methods. The circular pilot collections inform prosumers about sustainable product characteristics for a potential future product passport (compliant with EU regulations). A customer journey and awareness campaign convey which circular cascades the product serves. Circular business models are tested and researched both economically and ecologically. Users as stakeholders in this circular system form the missing link to close the loop. Finally, the collective knowledge transfer of the key learnings is carried out, considering all innovation steps.
