More tech providers join textile traceability pilot

A traceability pilot set up by Textile Exchange – a non-profit driving sustainability in the fashion, textile, and apparel industries – has welcomed new technology partners.

The Trackit platform was set up in answer to the challenge that only around a third of the companies operating in these areas who have sustainability targets are able to trace products and raw materials fully through their supply chains.

The system is built around a traceability standard developed by Textile Exchange, and stared up last year with the help of traceability technology provider TextileGenesis. Now, three more companies – TrusTrace, Peterson Technologies, and Retraced – have joined the pilot, which is set to run throughout 2025.

The overall aim is to help companies meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards and gauge the environmental impact of their products.

Trackit comes in two formats – Digital Trackit (dTrackit) to trace certified materials by digitalising transaction certificates, and Electronic Trackit (eTrackit) that traces certified materials online via electronic transactions.

dTrackit is targeted at organisations not yet ready for electronic transactions and allow brands certified to our standards to access their paper-based scope certificates, transaction certificates, and traceability data in one central place to ease the existing burden of manually collecting this data from suppliers, according to Textile Exchange.

eTrackit meanwhile – which went live last September, can track the volume of certified material for each product, rather than the entire transaction, online via electronic transactions. It can show real-time digital inventory as it is entered and ensures peer-to-peer validation of transactions within a closed-loop supply chain.

dTrackit currently uses Textile Exchange's own system, but eTrackit is designed to be vendor-agnostic. At the moment, eTrackit covers Textile Exchange's Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) and Global Recycled Standard (GRS), with others such as the Organic Content Standard (OCS) in development and being piloted.

In a statement, TrusTrace said that the pilot is an integral step toward a more collaborative system for traceability that can help companies meet sustainability goals and manage supply chain risk and compliance.

"Interoperability is key to a future where supply chains are traceable, circular and fair," said Shameek Ghosh, chief executive and co-founder of TrusTrace.

"The Trackit test pilot brings the industry closer to a shared ecosystem where technology providers complement rather than compete, ensuring better outcomes for brands, suppliers, and the planet."

H&M Group, Inditex, and Varner are among the brands supporting the pilot. It could help brands prepare for upcoming regulations such as the EU's Digital Product Passport (DPP) – which will be mandatory on textiles sold in the bloc by 2030 – as well as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires companies to report on their environmental and social impact.