UK and Ireland-based fashion retailer New Look has partnered with tech company TrusTrace to support its sustainability strategy and enhance supply chain traceability.
Part of the retailer’s ‘Kind to Our Core’ sustainability agenda includes reducing its overall carbon footprint – and one way of making inroads into this efficiently is to encourage suppliers to track emissions and other eco-goals.
By working with TrusTrace, New Look hopes to gain greater visibility across its supply chain and suppliers, while identifying responsible sourcing and business continuity risks. The name of the game is supply chain traceability, and as Green Retail World has previously highlighted, all sustainability strategies need to start with efforts to improve transparency and efficiency.
Sue Fairley, head of sustainability at New Look, commented: “We’re thrilled to partner with TrusTrace to gain deeper visibility through to our Tier 4 suppliers, helping us to further mitigate any supply chain risks.
“We’ve already made incredible progress through our ‘Kind to Our Core’ sustainability programme – as evidenced in our recently released 2023 Sustainability Report – and it’s just the beginning.”
New Look’s ‘Kind to Our Core’ work has already yielded positive results, according to the retailer.
Since the launch of the sustainability strategy, the retailer said it has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18%, while its Scope 3 purchased goods and services fibre products emissions have fallen by 22%. In addition, New Look has achieved ‘progressive level’ with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition one year ahead of schedule.
New Look submitted new Science Based Targets in October 2023, including a near-term target of reducing carbon emissions by 46% by 2031 across Scope 1 and 2, and Scope 3. These targets are aligned to the 1.5 C pathway, as mapped out in the Paris Agreement.
The long-term target for New Look is to become net zero by 2040 for both Scope 1 and 2, and Scope 3. Enhancing supply chain traceability is a key component in achieving this goal.
TrusTrace CEO and co-founder, Shameek Ghosh, remarked: “New Look is the first major UK retailer to join forces with TrusTrace, marking a major milestone in our pursuit to make global supply chains traceable, circular and fair.
“TrusTrace facilitates data collection from Tier 1 through to Tier 4, enabling New Look to access granular, validated product data to support its sustainability goals.”
On the tech itself, Ghosh added: “Through its open architecture, the platform will integrate with retailer, manufacturer and supplier systems, as well as other third-parties, such as certification agencies, lifecycle datasets and other sustainability solution providers, to provide granular insight into New Look’s supply chain.”
TrusTrace is one of several companies – which includes fellow tech company Segura – that is helping retailers and brands with supply chain traceability and then enabling improvements. Indeed, it was officially announced today Pentland Brands is partnering with Segura to map its entire multi-brand, multi-tier supply chain – from the first tier to raw materials – across its global operations.
As previously reported by this publication, Segura will help Pentland Brands track its suppliers’ sustainability progress and measure and manage compliance. The data captured, via the Segura platform, is expected to help consumers with their buying decisions, too.
Sara Brennan, positive business director at Pentland Brands, said that investing in “the right sustainability tools” is an “essential” part of helping the company reach its green goals.
[Image credit: Green Retail World]
