High street fashion retailer New Look is sponsoring an initiative to curb the textiles industry’s carbon footprint and speed up the adoption of hydrogen energy.
Digital tech outfit Digital Catapult is behind the Made Smarter Innovation Digital Supply Chain Hub initiative which sees four tech companies receive up to £100,000 in funding to tackle specific challenges.
New Look is supporting software provider Looper, with the retailer sponsoring Looper’s bid to develop a tool that will help to better understand the life cycle of its garments.
By aggregating performance measurements from product life cycle assessments (LCAs), the new solution will allow New Look to gather data on how eco-friendly its products are throughout their lifecycle.
By understanding each product’s environmental impact, from raw material extraction to end of life, New Look will be able to provide customers with more sustainable clothing options, and meet growing demand from environmentally-minded consumers.
Subscribe to Sustainability Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest sustainability news sent straight to your inbox every day
Other tie-ups include transport management company Loadar, which is working to develop a pricing engine to optimise truck fill and cut the carbon footprints of logistics providers. It is being sponsored by ShredStation, which specialises in safe and sustainable clothing disposal.
Meanwhile, technology startup MadeBy will look to develop a new solution that will track the flow of materials for different products across a textiles supply chain, in a challenge sponsored by QSA Partners.
Finally, energy firm Heuris Energy will be supported by HydroGenus, the hydrogen project developer, to overcome the financial and operational challenges that come with hydrogen adoption.
Heuris will look to develop a new solution that will solve the fragmented hydrogen supply chain for customers, and be deployed into.
New Look partnered with TrusTrace last November, to gain deeper insights across its Tier 4 suppliers and better support its ongoing sustainability goals. However, earlier this month, the fashion retailer said there is still “much to do” despite hitting its sustainability targets last year.
