Monitor for Circular Fashion: a new perspective of circular economy

The Monitor for Circular Fashion, part of the SDA Bocconi Sustainability Lab, was launched on March 25th by the SDA Bocconi School of Management and Enel X: an ambitious, first-of-its-kind project that will provide an image of the maturity status of the circular economy in the Italian Fashion Industry.

In partnership with the sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, the Monitor for Circular Fashion is able to engage a representative cross-section of the Italian fashion industry across the entire supply chain.

Candiani Denim, Dedagroup Stealth, Manteco, RadiciGroup, Intesa (Gruppo IBM), Save the Duck, Vibram, Vivienne Westwood, Vitale Barberis Canonico, and YKK are among the companies that have already joined the project and contributed significant feedback.

This group of businesses, selected for their sustainability and circularity credentials in the Italian fashion industry, is already on the right track, exchanging thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of circularity. They’re concentrating on using best practices to find and implement new circular ideas that are both applicable and measurable.

One of the main points is the importance of supply chain accountability and traceability as a means of substantiating sustainability and circularity arguments in front of all stakeholders, including customers.

A seminal report will be released in September 2021 as a key product of the initiative, based on a groundbreaking circularity assessment methodology developed by Enel X and the know-how of SDA Bocconi School of Management Sustainability Lab’s research team for the identification of industry-specific KPIs. This will be revealing the sector’s macro trends, assessing how Italian fashion companies apply Circular Economy concepts through the value chain, identifying best practices and gaps, and finally proposing an ambitious strategy for integrating circularity into one of Italy’s largest export industries

With the application of 5 circular business models (Sustainable input, Life Extension, End of Life, Product as a Service, Sharing Platform), a circular approach enables the take-make-waste paradigm to be fundamentally modified, ensuring goods and resources are kept in use for as long as possible, redesigning production, logistic, delivery systems, and consumer journeys with the circular approach. The transition to a circular economy would accelerate the global economy’s progress toward a more sustainable future.

The UNECE project “Enhancing Transparency and Traceability of Sustainable Value Chains in the Garment and Footwear Industry” and the European “Circular Economy Action Plan” both have calls to Action that the Monitor for Circular Fashion participates in and contributes to spreading.

The coordinator of the Monitor for Circular Fashion at SDA Bocconi School of Management Sustainability Lab, Francesca Romana Rinaldi says that to improve and develop the various pilot projects in a circular fashion, a scientific approach is needed. They want to help companies measure circularity efficiency and define the key KPIs for each circular fashion business model with the Monitor for Circular Fashion. The Circular Fashion Manifesto will give voice to the best practices of the Italian fashion system in an open dialogue with institutions and policymakers.

The head of global sustainability at Enel X, Nicola Tagliafierro said that because of the sustainable business opportunities it can create, the Circular Economy is at the heart of Enel X’s strategy, which has helped the Enel Group to place itself as the leading global utility in the Dow Jones sustainability index. As a result, they’ve agreed to put our expertise and know-how to work in support of one of Italy’s most relevant and strategic sectors, with the aim of making it more circular and setting an example for the rest of the world.