Interloop launches Looptrace platform to improve cotton traceability

Interloop is making significant progress toward fulfilling its long-term commitment to ethical manufacturing, its most recent technological advancement could be it’s most significant yet. In order to enable end-to-end traceability for items made from cotton, from their origin at the farm throughout the production process, the fully integrated manufacturer of seamless sportswear, hosiery, denim, clothing, and other products has created Looptrace.

The Looptrace platform, which was launched in September 2021, is designed to enable supply chain participants to track, trace, and access transparent raw material information, assisting Interloop and its partners in achieving common sustainability goals.

This system is designed to capture and exchange all significant data on demand at every stage of the supply chain. It is based on the company’s premise that “you cannot manage what you do not measure.”

The platform was created in collaboration with IT consulting and services company Octans Digital after Interloop received feedback from brand partners who requested items that could be tracked for supply chain visibility, traceable for environmental effect, and transparent.

Yaqub Ahsan, chief information officer at Interloop, said that the company is dedicated to leveraging digital technology to provide a traceable, trackable, and transparent supply chain for its products.

Looptrace focuses on three areas and communicates with all partners about them. The material (the raw material utilized in the product from its source) is the first region that has been finished. The following two areas are now being developed: the machine (the path the product has taken for all phases of value addition); and the man (the team of people that have worked on the product).

Faryal Sadiq, vice president, sales and marketing, Interloop, said that cotton is an essential component in their goods and is essential to their company, both in its virgin and recycled forms. It is employed in a wide variety of textiles and materials that are then combined into a wide variety of goods. The economic well-being of communities all over the world depends on cotton cultivation, which is grown using a variety of techniques, some of which are more environmentally friendly than others. Because of these factors, they are dedicated to using their scale to influence the cotton industry for the better.

Sustainable cotton growing, according to Interloop, entails maximizing water efficiency, optimizing inputs and chemical use, enhancing soil health, and placing a high priority on moral working conditions. However, they may now add to these measures by including farmer partners in Looptrace.

There are now about 8,000 farmers involved in this initiative, but as Interloop adds additional farms, the number is constantly increasing. Each farmer in the system has a distinct information profile that includes their name, town or area, and the produce.

Currently, Looptrace offers cotton yarn origin-tracking services. However, Interloop intends to extend it such that it can identify the source of a finished good. Order-level tracking and environmental footprint transparency at the SKU level are additional capabilities that are being developed for brand partners.

The firm started Interloop Organic Kapas (ILOK), an initiative intended to create a local organic cotton supply chain in Pakistan, to help it achieve transparency and material integrity. Despite being one of the nations that produce the most cotton in the world, Pakistan only contributes 1% of the world’s organic cotton.

The goal of Interloop is to encourage the growth of organic cotton in Pakistan, which has numerous established environmental and social advantages for the local supply chain, including reducing the impact of climate change, improving soil health, conserving water, preserving biodiversity, and enhancing farmer livelihoods.

Interloop has so far piloted ILOK with 2,000 farms and intends to eventually raise this number to 6,000 farms. The producer is working with the Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA), a farmer-focused organization that promotes and defends the social and environmental wellness of communities that grow organic cotton. Under the auspices of OCA’s Farm Programme, Interloop will begin a pilot project that will enhance farmer livelihoods, safeguard their lands’ biodiversity, and advance organic and regenerative farming.

Ahsan added that the ability of their supply chain partners to likewise achieve high levels of environmental and social performance. Their vision for transparency is broader and includes visibility into their own manufacturing processes, quality data, and compliance with their facilities. Their suppliers are currently being added to the platform, and all of their facilities are listed on the Higg Index.