Arvind to enhance transparency using blockchain technology

India’s renowned apparel manufacturer, Arvind has teamed with Textile Genesis, a blockchain solutions provider, to improve its supply chain visibility and transparency.

Textile Genesis‘ platform requires stakeholders at each level of the supply chain to enter manufacturing data, which establishes oversight into proceedings.

Textile Genesis’ new partnership will allow them to create digital “Fibercoins™” for their sustainable collections, giving brands and retailers full value chain traceability and visibility, as well as ESG (environmental, social, and governance) credentials of Supply Chain Partners from fiber to retail.

Fibercoins™, which offer the capacity to trace and manage the textile goods across the apparel supply chain by generating a digital twin of sustainable fibers at the point of origin, are stated to be tailored to meet the needs of the apparel sector.

As the manufacturer, Arvind also issues a digital ‘Fibercoins™’ per kg of fiber to the buyer at the point of origin (in ginneries for cotton and production plants for man-made cellulosic fibers, for example), which mirrors the transaction of a physical good in the supply chain and makes these fibercoins virtually visible to all brands and their customers.

These are blockchain-based digital tokens that are used to digitize the physical volume of sustainable materials. They are not based on any crypto-currency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) to protect enterprises from legal and financial danger.

It’s worth mentioning that Textile Genesis’ technology is a distributed online ledger that can’t be modified, altered, or transferred.

Aamir Ahktar, CEO of Arvind, said that there is a clear response from customers that they are asking for transparency in supply chains. They are hesitant to purchase goods manufactured from raw resources sourced from conflict zones. This is why they’ve chosen to collaborate with Textile Genesis to provide blockchain-based traceability in their denim.

Ahktar added that this effort will be expanded to include items from Arvind Limited’s other divisions. This traceability is not restricted to raw materials, even in their current form. Other inputs such as recycled water, green energy, Higg Score are also traceable.