New tech platform helps fashion industry tackle greenwashing

A new sustainability-focused tech platform, Impactbytes, has been launched to help companies meet their commitments to recently proposed EU legislation and substantiate their sustainability claims. It also offers e-commerce information and links sustainable companies with a broad audience.

According to Impactbytes, it is the first firm in the world to make the sustainability credentials of tens of thousands of items easily accessible. The business has created a smart data platform that gives fashion brands product-level analytics through a single interface.

Melissa Wijngaarden, co-founder of Impactbytes, said that they discovered that while many marketplaces and platforms aspire to promote more sustainable items, data on product sustainability across businesses is just insufficient. On the other side, many businesses are performing quite well in terms of sustainability but are not reaching a broad audience. They close this gap with Impactbytes.

In 2017, she co-founded Project Cece with Marcella Wijngaarden and Noor Veenhoven, an easily accessible online marketplace for ethical and ecological apparel. This site presently has over 40,000 goods from over 200 ethical fashion firms and 400 fair trade manufacturers. Following its success in the Netherlands, the firm expanded its operations to Germany and the United Kingdom.

The three then founded Impactbytes, a technological platform that now works with over 200 sustainability-focused e-commerce shops. The firm generates a data feed for verified sustainable products and connects them to a large audience. Partners like Kings of Indigo, Komodo, and Swedish Stockings may then market their verified sustainable items on the platforms.

Impactbytes also allows print and online media firms, such as magazines, bloggers, and influencers, to access their data from a single platform in order to locate and validate items and brands. Furthermore, the platform provides monetization options that enable media businesses to earn commissions by promoting environmentally friendly products and brands.

Impactbytes has now released its beta version from Berlin and is seeking funding to further develop the product and address the internet’s product sustainability data problem, as well as greenwashing in the industry.