A challenge that the fashion industry is facing today is the increasing consumer demand for more sustainable products. According to a study from Deloitte, 28% of consumers have stopped buying certain products due to ethical and environmental concerns. The same study highlights that 46% of consumers are looking for more clarity on the origin and sourcing of products. 

In order to meet this consumer demand, brands are increasingly considering sustainability in their processes. One of the initiatives adopted in the textile industry is to use more and more “sustainable” materials such as organic and recycled materials. To source these types of materials, brands rely on certification schemes that guarantee that the material can carry the mention “organic” for instance. Therefore, we will refer to these materials as “certified materials” in this document.  

When brands use certified materials in their product composition, they want to make claims about it to inform the consumer and use it as a competitive advantage. We refer to these claims as “material claims”. But now, brands must comply with specific regulatory requirements regarding sustainability claims. To prevent greenwashing, brands now must make specific claims (like material claims) and back them up with the relevant documentation. 

In order to do this, brands need to gather the proof at the level of a Purchase Order (PO). Brands must match each PO with the relevant certificates for the material used to fulfill that PO. The task of data collection and reconciliation with finished product is currently done manually. For enterprise brands, who annually raise millions of POs, this task becomes tremendous and almost impossible to fulfill without errors.

Brands need scalable and automated tools that can process millions of POs yearly. To meet this need, TrusTrace has developed the Certified Material Compliance (CMC) solution. It is a proven automated compliance management platform, built specifically for enterprise fashion brands. It automates the linking of proof to PO, guaranteeing that the material ordered is the actual material contained in the product. CMC gathers the relevant certificates so that brands can make accurate and trustworthy material claims with evidence in hand. For some customers, CMC already assures millions of POs per year, covering a broad range of certified materials such as recycled polyester and organic cotton.