TrusTrace, a platform for supply chain transparency and product traceability in the fashion and retail industries, announced the launch of its new traceability ecosystem, which will help the firm achieve its goal of accelerating sustainable transformation in the fashion industry.

The ecosystem's goal is to develop powerful integrated solutions through seamless data integration and knowledge exchange in order to address critical supply chain transparency and sustainability concerns. Higg, Open Apparel Registry (OAR), circular.fashion, Renoon, and Haelixa are among the first companies to join the ecosystem. TrusTrace's position as the mission-critical, one-stop operating system for brands aiming to solve major supply chain traceability and sustainability challenges,  will be bolstered by this series of collaborations.

Shameek Ghosh co-founder and CEO, TrusTrace, said that they’re tremendously excited to launch the traceability ecosystem in conjunction with such a strong collection of respected industry professionals. He has long believed that sustainability is impossible without traceability and that a challenge of this magnitude necessitates extensive collaboration. TrusTrace's open architectural platform allows them to effortlessly interface with other sustainability solution providers in this ecosystem, allowing them to provide holistic solutions for some of the garment industry's most pressing sustainability issues.

The traceability ecosystem brings together a series of key partnerships in order to provide powerful solutions for both companies and eco-conscious customers. Higg, a sustainability insights platform, and the Open Clothing Registry, a worldwide apparel open-source database, kick off the first phase.

With the fashion sector rapidly shifting toward goods and supply chains that have a lower environmental impact, there is a greater demand for detailed and reliable upstream supply chain data. TrusTrace clients will be able to understand the social and environmental effects of their supplier facilities and goods thanks to the Higg relationship, which will make data sharing between TrusTrace and Higg easier.

Users will be able to see the footprint of different materials in one place and analyze supply chains and material combinations. Customers will be able to use the Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM) and Facility Social & Labor Module (FSLM) against their supplier facility profiles on TrusTrace, giving them a single view of all sustainability data for that facility.

It is critical to be able to quickly identify a facility across these numerous systems, using one common industry-standard facility ID, in order to facilitate seamless data sharing about facilities with different certification authorities, audit bodies, and other industry solutions. TrusTrace will map all of its 8000+ supplier facilities using an industry-standard unique OAR ID in collaboration with the Open Apparel Registry, allowing brands to unify facility information across different systems such as Higg, ZDHC, and other certification bodies. This partnership helps to streamline and improve facility-level information by addressing the lack of standards in facility information across multiple databases.

Jason Kibbey, Higg CEO, said that there is a genuine demand for comprehensive tools and contextualized data to assist bring visibility and insight to untracked regions of the supply chain. Their work with TrusTrace reflects their shared belief that the most effective method to develop the greatest tools for capturing deeper insights into the chain of custody is through collaboration. They're bringing substantial new capabilities to both platforms that will help their clients achieve their sustainability goals faster.

Natalie Grillon, Executive Director, Open Apparel Registry, said that every time another organization chooses to programmatically connect their information with the factory database, it gives a major boost to industry collaboration and correct factory identification. The more data they publicly share across their databases, the more organizations of all sizes will be able to access and engage with the data that is essential to the collaboration and transformation that so many in the industry are seeking.

The ecosystem's second phase will begin in early 2022, with a focus on physical traceability and circularity.