AGEC law: turning a constraint into an opportunity

brand information for consumers

Since January 1, 2023, the Agec law (anti-waste for a circular economy) requires marketers to communicate on each product a list of essential information to inform their purchasing decisions “product sheet relating to environmental qualities and characteristics »: the traceability of the production chain, the dangerousness of the substances present and the risks of plastic microfibers linked to the use of synthetic materials. The law also requires notification of the presence of recycled materials as well as the recyclability of each product.

Origin, health risks, environmental impact... Transparency is now displayed directly in stores to respond to the main concerns of increasingly demanding consumers. For brands, producers and importers, the pressure is increasing because the AGEC law foreshadows the arrival of another regulation in 2024: environmental labeling .

How to comply?

The challenge is significant but the solutions exist, digital and adapted to the size of each operator to activate passports produced on each label. This is what reveals the state of the art of the Transparency and Traceability working group of the BALI Chair presented to industry professionals during the last edition of Biarritz Good Fashion and accessible to all from the Chair website BALI.

Produced by Pantxika Ospital , PhD student in charge of the thesis “Transparency and Traceability” carried by Belharra Numérique , with the contribution of Bixente Demarcq , study engineer at ESTIA , and the support of Paris Good Fashion , the deliverable lists and analyzes for the first time the concepts, solutions and best practices
in Europe.

Objective: to enable marketers to see more clearly in order to choose the right tools.

We have produced a white paper on the theme of traceability based on the results of this study and our feedback as publisher of the e-SCM solution, dedicated to managing the supply process for brands in the fashion & luxury. You can download it below depending on your choice of language:

Summary of the study “traceability and transparency”

The product passport makes the link between traceability and transparency . This passport allows the information presented on the product label dynamically. It provides access to information on the origin, composition, repair and dismantling possibilities, as well as the treatment of products at the end of their life. This information helps promote circularity by facilitating maintenance, repair, resale, rental, dismantling and recycling.

Understand the challenges for the fashion sector

For products in the fashion and textile , transparency can be defined as accessibility to traceability information. In a globalized context in which brands outsource their production, traceability can allow them to better understand their supply chain to comply with the duty of vigilance and thus collect all the elements for a reliable audit trail.

This data collection is the main issue of traceability, the transparency of fashion companies relies on the reliability of this information. In return, this information could promote:

Logistics : monitor and ensure that production takes place under planned conditions (quantity, quality, time, costs) .
Legal of product and supply chain information. Be able to substantiate the brand's claims.
Customer information : providing information on the product, the manufacturers and their social and environmental conditions to enlighten the consumer.
Sustainable development : taking into account traceability data makes it possible to calculate life cycle analyzes (LCA) in order to evaluate the impact of the production of an item and to communicate to the consumer the environmental benefit of the item bought.

Technological means supporting traceability

There are several types of digital traceability solutions:

Classic office software ( spreadsheets, messaging) and internal storage of digitized documents. This solution is valid for companies with few references and a short supply chain.
Supply Chain Management software allowing traceability and monitoring on a range of products and a larger panel of suppliers.
Blockchain , transparent, secure, and operating without a central control body (definition
by Blockchain France). The Blockchain functions as a database accessible to all stakeholders, without an intermediary, which allows everyone to verify the validity of the chain. Its advantage is that the data entered there cannot be modified or falsified.
Fiber markers : verification of the information disclosed must be possible for the claims to be acceptable.
The origin of the raw material constituting a garment is key to traceability and being able to provide proof of this information is a guarantee of reliability for brands. Marking approaches are most often experimental or reserved for brands committed to 2021. The fibers can be marked before spinning and the markers are of different types: biotechnological, fluorescent, DNA. They are detectable during all stages of garment manufacturing, right through to the finished product. Furthermore, other technologies such as microbiome sequencing make it possible to identify the origin of cotton without adding a marker.

Technological means supporting transparency

Source: Report “State of the art of traceability and transparency solutions”, traceability working group, BALI Chair | Paris Good Fashion | Belharra Digital