Commercial, Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions  -  June 11, 2020

Google, WWF Sweden collaborate on textiles sustainability

A new project created in a partnership between Google and WWF Sweden is out to increase the sustainability of the fashion industry, which accounts for between 2 and 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, by analyzing data of responsibly-sourced raw materials.

Google Cloud first implemented a pilot project with Stella McCartney in 2019 that explored data associated with raw materials going through the clothing brand's supply chain. With this new partnership announced on June 10, Google will expand on this technology in collaboration with WWF Sweden, who will provide data and support in selecting relevant data sets to calculate an analysis of textiles' raw materials. 

WWF Sweden and IKEA worked on a similar tool in 2018 that analyzed the risk and impact of various textiles' raw materials. The data explored by the environmental conservation organization will be useful in this new project to increase the accuracy and relevance of raw materials assessments beyond just cotton and viscose, as was first announced.

"It's our ambition to create a data-enriched decision-making platform that enables analysis of the supply chain in a way that has not been possible before at this scale," Ian Pattison, Head of Customer Engineering, Retail, Google UK/ IE, said in a statement. "Partnering with WWF brings together Google Cloud's technical capacity, including big-data analysis and machine learning, and WWF's deep knowledge of assessing raw materials. Together, we can make supply chain data visible and accessible to decision makers, and drive more responsible and sustainable decisions."

Share this valuable information with your colleagues using the buttons below: