A New Move to Expand Fashion Supply Chain Disclosure, Eyewear Embraces New Materials: Short Takes
Eyewear Chasing Plastic Waste: Eyewear industries are moving toward better materials, with FGX International’s Foster Grant (an EssilorLuxottica company) as the latest brand to partner with Eastman Chemical.
FGX adopted Eastman’s Tritan Renew (using 50 percent recycled polyester from plastic waste) and will roll it out across the entire iconic Foster Grant portfolio, and then expand to other FGX brands. The move comes shortly after Warby Parker announced a collaboration with the chemical company to curb waste in its lenses.
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Accessories aside, luxury and retail giants are gleaning impact assessments in line with the first quarter’s close. Just last week, The Neiman Marcus Group released its first Environmental Social Governance (ESG) report, “Our Journey to Revolutionize Impact,” sharing its progress to date, along with its 2025 ESG strategy. Nike also reiterated its impact goals.
Meanwhile, solution providers and those favoring supply chain transparency are building out tools to deliver on apparel’s lofty (and urgent) sustainability aims.
Meet the ‘Open Apparel Registry’: On Tuesday, the Open Apparel Registry (OAR), a nonprofit aiming to expand standardized supply chain disclosure in the apparel sector, saw expanded development.
Accessible via Openapparel.org, the OAR is a free, open data tool mapping garment facilities worldwide and allocating a unique ID to each. In essence, the registry added new data points like number of workers, parent company, type of product, type of facility and type of processing. A number of brands — among them Another Tomorrow, Antigua, C&A, Columbia Sportswear Company, Mountain Equipment Company (MEC), Ralph Lauren Corporation, Rapha and Ted Baker plc — voluntarily provided the data. Hundreds of organizations and facility partners are integral to the tool.
“As a luxury brand, we are proud to share data about our supply chain on the Open Apparel Registry, including the additional data points launching today,” said Tara St James, vice president of sustainability, supply chain and culture at Another Tomorrow. “As well as being vital for our own transparency commitments, we see great potential in openly sharing supply chain data to collectively create the change we hope to see throughout the global apparel industry.”
Courtesy Open Apparel Registry
New Impact Reporting: Separately, deadstock marketplace and tech company Queen of Raw released its “Impact Footprint Reporting Tool” where individuals and companies can now see their waste footprint within Queen of Raw’s existing blockchain tool, Raw Chain, and existing software Materia MX. The hope is for the new reporting tool to further streamline inefficiencies and reduce excess inventory in textiles.
“We’re thrilled to accelerate the pace at which buyers and sellers of materials participate in the circular economy,” said Phil Derasmo, Queen of Raw cofounder and chief technology officer. “By making sustainability metrics quick and easy to access, enterprises meet consumer demands for greater transparency and consumers make informed choices, track their sustainability progress and get rewarded for supporting the planet.”
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