SDA Bocconi School of Management and Enel X partner to launch the Monitor for Circular Fashion

SDA Bocconi School of Management and Enel X partner to launch the Monitor for Circular Fashion

A pioneering project in Italy to create the first industry-wide circularity report

SDA Bocconi School of Management and Enel X today announced the launch of the Monitor for Circular Fashion, part of the SDA Bocconi Sustainability Lab: an ambitious, first of its kind project, that will provide a picture of the maturity status of the circular economy in the Italian Fashion Industry.

The Monitor for Circular Fashion is willing to engage a representative cross-section of the Italian fashion industry across the whole supply chain, in collaboration with the sustainability consultancy Eco-Age.

Already, the initiative has been joined by some of the industry’s key players that shared significant inputs, including Candiani Denim, Dedagroup Stealth, Intesa (Gruppo IBM), Manteco, RadiciGroup, Save the Duck, Vibram, Vitale Barberis Canonico, Vivienne Westwood, and YKK.

This community of companies, chosen for their sustainability and circularity credentials in the Italian fashion industry, is already on a virtuous path, sharing ideas on the opportunities and challenges of circularity. They are specifically focusing on applying best practices to identify and develop new applicable and measurable circular solutions.

One of the main points concerns the key role of transparency and traceability in supply chains, seen as the way to substantiate the sustainability and circularity claims before all the stakeholders, including consumers.

As a key output of the initiative, based on an innovative circularity assessment methodology developed by Enel X and the know-how of SDA Bocconi School of Management Sustainability Lab’s research team, a seminal Report will be launched in September 2021, revealing the sector’s macrotrends, measuring how Italian fashion companies apply Circular Economy principles along the value chain, highlighting best practices, gaps, and ultimately proposing an ambitious plan of how to integrate circularity into one of Italy’s biggest export industries.

A circular approach allows the take-make-waste paradigm to be radically changed thanks to the application of five circular business models (*Sustainable input, Life Extension, End of Life, Product as a Service, Sharing Platform*) ensuring products and materials are kept in use for as long as possible, redesigning the manufacturing, logistic, distribution processes and the customer journeys with the objective of making more efficient the use of resources. The move to a circular system will continue to speed up the global economy’s journey toward a sustainable future.

The Monitor for Circular Fashion also takes part and commits to spreading the Call to Action of the UNECE project “Enhancing Transparency and Traceability of Sustainable Value Chains in Garment and Footwear sector” and the European “Circular Economy Action Plan”.

“The scientific approach is essential to enhance and grow the numerous pilot projects in circular fashion. With the Monitor for Circular Fashion we want to support companies in measuring circularity performance, identifying the main KPIs for each circular fashion business model. In the open dialogue with Institutions and Policy Makers, the Circular Fashion Manifesto will give voice to the best practices of the Italian fashion system”. Says Francesca Romana Rinaldi, Coordinator of the Monitor for Circular Fashion at SDA Bocconi School of Management Sustainability Lab.

Nicola Tagliafierro, head of global sustainability at Enel X, said: “The Circular Economy is at the heart of the Enel X’s strategy, thanks to sustainable business opportunities it is able to generate, and which has allowed Enel Group to position as the leading global utility in the Dow Jones sustainability index. For this reason, we have decided to make our experience and know-how available to support one of Italy’s most important and strategic industries, with the aim of making the sector increasingly circular and an example for the global market.

Quote from Livia Firth: “I am very excited that Eco-Age is playing a strategic role in amplifying the key outputs of the research and in engaging new partners for the SDA Bocconi Monitor for Circular Fashion powered by Enel X, to place Italy at centre of the global discussion on sustainable fashion.”

Find out more at: www.sdabocconi.it/circularfashion