Released in collaboration with Fashion for Good, TrusTrace, a global SaaS company with a market-leading platform for product traceability and compliance, today unveiled the second iteration of its industry playbook.
The Traceability Roadmap features interviews and insights from iconic brands like ASICS and Tapestry on implementing traceability to foster sustainable transformation, as well as expert insights from Kharon and Policy Hub into how the future regulatory landscape shapes the needs for traceability. Furthermore, it looks at how industry standardization and collaboration can be achieved, with expert commentary from GS1 and MACN, the Maritime Anti Corruption Network. The TrusTrace Traceability Roadmap was officially unveiled on June 27th at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen.
“In just a few short years, supply chain traceability has become recognized as the central tenet of sustainable transformation. Brands that want to communicate product information with consumers, adhere to certification criteria, abide by current and incoming regulations, and avoid greenwashing can only do so by tracing their complex network of suppliers and manufacturers. Yet despite its importance, there is still a lack of understanding on implementation,” said TrusTrace CEO and Co-Founder Shameek Ghosh. “Our first Traceability Playbook focused on why traceability is needed. Now, our new Traceability Roadmap provides the industry with a detailed guide on how it can be achieved, with learnings from global leaders in traceability.”
TrusTrace’s first industry playbook released in June 2022 – which quickly garnered thousands of downloads – outlined the business case for implementing traceability and the wider considerations for brands, including incoming regulation, material innovation and the circular economy. TrusTrace’s Traceability Roadmap hones in on the journey to implement traceability, including defining your needs, navigating legislation, ensuring your organization is aligned and ready, finding the right solution, implementing successfully, and standardizing and scaling traceability industry-wide. While primarily leveraging examples from the fashion industry, the guide can also be a useful reference for other industries currently grappling with similar supply chain challenges and legislation.
“The TrusTrace Traceability Roadmap serves as a guide for brands, suppliers, and ecosystem players to understand, and implement traceability effectively,” said Kathleen Rademan, Director of Fashion for Good’s Innovation Platform. “It helps companies choose useful digital and physical tracing solutions to meet their business, policy, and ESG needs.”
The chapters of the Roadmap are built to facilitate learning and include expected outcomes, theory, secrets to success, case studies, expert interviews and toolkits with downloadable templates and worksheets that brands can use to get started.
According to Kit Conklin, Vice President at Kharon, the playbook also offers unparalleled insights into a precedent-setting law that has put many industries on edge: the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA). “Since being instituted in June of 2022, the UFLPA law has catalyzed the adoption of traceability solutions for compliance,” Conklin said. “It’s imperative that brands across industries understand the impact, and what’s required of them, in order to comply. The Traceability Roadmap provides in-depth insights as to why and how brands can prepare for this game-changing law.”
The TrusTrace Traceability Roadmap also features an in-depth case study on the traceability programs of Tapestry and ASICS, and how the initiatives tie into their broader mission. Sherry Fazal, Senior Manager, Global ESG & Sustainability Solutions explains: “The long-term vision is to have traceability and transparency throughout the entire life cycle of a product. How we get there won’t be linear – that’s the important part. We learn, we tweak, we pivot. Our work in ESG is not an add-on or something that we ‘should’ have; it’s a key part of our business that is making us more resilient and forward-looking. ESG is part of our DNA as a company.”
Matthew Xu, ASICS CSR and Sustainability Lead, shares his insights from the Asics traceability program, which is treated as a company-wide transformation project to move from a linear to a circular business model: “Traceability plays a vital role in achieving transparency – not only to share our story but also to exchange best practices and foster collaboration in addressing challenges.”
According to Ghosh, he believes the new Traceability Roadmap will continue to support and guide brands on their journey to initiate and implement a traceability program – regardless of which solution they use. “As an industry leader, we want to support fashion’s decision-makers by defining the best practice for supply chain traceability,” Ghosh concluded. “Across the industry, everyone from the C-Suite to sustainability, legal, production and sourcing teams are facing unprecedented challenges and demands to change their supply chains for the better. Our aim is that this will help them get there successfully, faster, and through increased collaboration.”
