Business pilots evaluation 2018

TCBL HANDBOOKS

BUSINESS PILOTS EVALUATION 2018

Co-funded by Horizon 2020

ANNEX 2 TO TCBL D 6.9, 30 June 2018

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TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. 2 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 4 THE TCBL EVALUATION............................................................................................................. 4 The Case studies in the TCBL evaluation ........................................................................... 4 Evaluation Overview ........................................................................................................... 6 The Content of this Handbook ............................................................................................ 8 THE NATURAL FIBRES BUSINESS PILOT ........................................................................... 10 CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES ............................................................................ 10 KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘EXPANSION AND EXTENSION’ ................................... 11 RESULTS ACHIEVED ................................................................................................................ 14 CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING ............................................................................................ 16 NEXT STEPS ........................................................................................................................... 17 THE ECO-FRIENDLY PRODUCTION BUSINESS PILOT ...................................................... 19 CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES ............................................................................ 19 KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 1&2 ‘SET -UP’ AND ‘EXPANSION’ ................................. 21 RESULTS ACHIEVED ................................................................................................................ 23 CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING ............................................................................................ 24 NEXT STEPS ........................................................................................................................... 25 THE SHORT RUNS BUSINESS PILOT ................................................................................... 28 CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES ............................................................................ 28 KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘EXPANSION’ ............................................................ 30 RESULTS ACHIEVED ................................................................................................................ 33 CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING ............................................................................................ 35 NEXT STEPS ........................................................................................................................... 36 THE INDEPENDENTS BUSINESS PILOT ............................................................................... 38 CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES ........................................................................... 38 KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘DISSEMINATING AND CREATING A NETWORK’............ 38 RESULTS ACHIEVED ................................................................................................................ 41 CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING ............................................................................................ 42 NEXT STEPS ........................................................................................................................... 42 THE BIOSHADES BUSINESS PILOT ..................................................................................... 45 CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES ............................................................................ 45 KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘TESTING FOR SCALABILITY’...................................... 47 RESULTS ACHIEVED ................................................................................................................ 49

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING ............................................................................................ 49 THE DIGITAL HERITAGE BUSINESS PILOT ......................................................................... 53 CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES ............................................................................ 53 KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘TESTING’ ................................................................ 56 RESULTS ACHIEVED ................................................................................................................ 58 CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING ............................................................................................ 60 NEXT STEPS ........................................................................................................................... 60 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... 62 LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................... 62 DOCUMENT INFORMATION ................................................................................................... 63 Revision History ................................................................................................................ 63 Statement of originality ...................................................................................................... 63 Copyright ........................................................................................................................... 63 Disclaimer .......................................................................................................................... 63 Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................. 64

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INTRODUCTION This handbook is part of a set of documents produced by the TCBL evaluation in mid-2018 as part of its formal annual reporting process. It presents the results and findings to date from the work with and analysis of the TCBL Business Pilots from an evaluation perspective. Also publically available is a shorter document which presents a snapshot overview of some of the key themes picked up by the TCBL evaluation in the last year.

THE TCBL EVALUATION TCBL is an ambitious and innovative project. A large-scale change effort, it intervenes into the European textiles and clothing (T&C) sector by seeking to create, in an emergent manner, an ecosystem based on open sharing of knew knowledge. Evaluation is critical to supporting this change process as it offers insights and tools that allow individuals, participating enterprises and TCBL as a whole to learn and improve.

In TCBL, evaluation therefore does not just come at the end (as a retrospective tool to assess performance) but is embedded in the project process to support a cycle of continuous data collection, learning and improvement. It therefore has a broad scope and seeks to: help with the design and development of the TCBL change process (‘ex ante evaluation’); monitor and assess progress towards the planned change (developmental and process evaluation); and calculate how far TCBL has travelled on their ‘change journey’ (‘summative evaluation’).

The evaluation of TCBL follows a theory based evaluation design (in particular, applying the tool of ‘theory of change’). This approach is used when, as is the case in TCBL, experimental designs to assess impacts are not methodologically sound as it is not possible to isolate the intervention from its environment to a sufficient degree. Theory of change can be defined as a systematic and cumulative study of the links between the vision and context of a project and its objectives, activities and results. It involves the specification of an explicit theory of how and why an intervention might cause or have caused an effect. This is then tested and refined using both qualitative and quantitative methods to produce a final and tested ‘change story’.

The box below describes the high level TCBL change narrative.

Developing the TCBL ecosystem will facilitate the implementation of realistic experiments of business model innovation. These will produce, co-design, test and validate new and replicable business models that will lead to production of real jobs in real factories, reaching markets in different ways. This will encourage additional stakeholders to join the ecosystem to take advantage of these new business models which will encourage lots of organisations to align with the TCBL principles and scope of activities. This will lead to the evolution of a running business transforming the best outputs into service concepts and value propositions which will lead to broader change in attitudes in the industry. As a result, TCBL is established as a global movement and disruptive change in the sector as a whole is created.

The TCBL high level theory of change

This theory of change method is also applied at the level of the case studies.

THE CASE STUDIES IN THE TCBL EVALUATION Case studies are an important method in the TCBL evaluation and are an integral component of both the process and the outcome evaluation. The process evaluation maps the evolution of the TCBL ecosystem over time and case studies make an important contribution to this by 4

Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

giving some granularity about the processes and activities as they unfold. Eventually, the case studies will also contribute to understanding what results can be identified for TCBL overall. By following their evolution for the remainder of the TCBL project we will accumulate a comprehensive dataset which will then contribute to the overall impact assessment of TCBL. However, this handbook explores the case studies from a process perspective, highlighting the extent to which envisaged activities and results have been achieved; challenges and lessons learned.

T HE EVALUATION CASE STUDIES AND THEIR PROGRESS (2017-2018) The TCBL evaluation case studies are longitudinal, that is we will track and analyse their evolution and interactions over time. At the time of the first ‘wave’ of case study activities (carried out in 2017), we identified that each of the TCBL Business Pilots is designed to develop over a number of ‘phases’: ‘piloting’ or ‘demonstrating feasibility’ of the case (Phase 1); ‘expanding and deepening’ of the Business Pilot collaboration (Phase 2); and ‘scaling’ (Phase 3). In the first Handbook1 (available on Issuu), the focus of reporting was on the first phase, which included the initial set-up of the cases, the kind of actors involved, the presenting problem the cases are looking to address as well as the expected change journey. This year, following the second wave of case study work, the focus of reporting is on how the cases have progressed over the past 12 months. The data used to pull together this information are mainly qualitative interviews with Business Pilot leads, Associate Enterprises, and Associate Labs involved in the pilot (these included those who have been involved since the piloting phase, and those who joined the TCBL ecosystem and Business Pilots’ experimentations more recently2), as well as a review of relevant documents3.

The evaluation case studies map onto the Business Pilots currently in implementation. Below is a brief overview of the pilots and how they have evolved.

•

•

The Sustainable Cotton (or Natural Fibres) Business Pilot seeks to exploit the increasing interest of consumers in purchasing ecologically and socially sustainable products. From the manufacturers’ perspective exploiting this trend is challenging because it requires changes in manufacturing practices. From the consumer side, confusing certification schemes make it hard to understand the extent to which a product has been manufactured sustainably. Against this background, this Business Pilot has brought together three Greek businesses covering the whole cotton value chain to produce a set of sample garments made from sustainable cotton which can be fully traced from seed to designed product. The pilot’s experimentation Phase led to the creation of a new sample collection of clothes made exclusively from sustainable Greek cotton and its scope extended (transferring the cotton model to other natural fibres).

The Short Runs Business Pilot seeks to address key barriers to short runs production related to the low volume, minimum order quantities, cost of fabrics and low priority of small order quantities. It seeks to create a network of textile and garment manufacturers wanting to produce short runs and independent designers with small and high quality production, and facilitate transactions between them in order to demonstrate new business opportunities, some to be advanced via secure online platforms. Following its first phase, the pilot has extended its scope and slightly shifted

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2017: Annex 2 to TCBL Deliverable D6.4 31 July 2017

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Between 3 and 5 interviews were undertaken per pilot

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TCBL progress reports; Business Pilot Handbooks/Annexes to project deliverables; _Zine publications; Business Pilot leads’ powerpoint slides; TCBL Handbooks (e.g. ‘Policy Environment’).

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

•

•

•

•

its activities to emphasise the facilitation of transactions, highlighting the importance of TCBL acting as an ‘intermediary’ (and not just transacting on an online platform). The pilot currently involves over 15 companies.

The BioShades Business Pilot seeks to address the environmental harm caused by conventional dyeing processes by exploring the feasibility of using dye produced from bacteria on textiles and eventually creating a service offer on this process to support wider take-up. In its second phase, the pilot expanded its network and widened the scope and scale of testing.

The Digital Heritage Business Pilot aims to exploit the potential value of historical material – sample books and data sheets, in the case of textiles – for designers by raising awareness of the importance of archives and testing/experimenting potential heritage based innovations and creative processes (such as archives digitisation, creative re-interpretation of textile heritage, new marketing strategies based on heritage marketing). The pilot has now developed an online tool for digital archiving (Heritage Manager), which has now been adopted by 10 companies.

The Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot aims to build an ecosystem consisting of businesses who share the same vision of creating a more sustainable supply chain.

The pilot will promote awareness about transparency and sustainability issues for the production of quality products, and will allow enterprises of a given value chain to collect sustainability data/information to make the supply chain more environmentallyfriendly. This will show that a viable alternative to current products, markets and supply chains is possible. Over the past 12 months, the pilot completed the development of a certification system and protocol for data collection, which contains five ‘observational domains’: Water, Energy, CO2, Chemicals, People (i.e. social compliance). By May 2018, an Associate Enterprise, leading the pilot’s experimentation, was in the final stages of the protocol’s testing also involving a number of organisations in its supply chain.

Independent designers are often more in tune with emerging social and fashion trends, but the fashion world is not made for them as it is geared towards large scale production. The Independents Business Pilot seeks to work with, and empower, individuals and small scale textiles and clothing enterprises by helping them improve their businesses with innovative services. By drawing on the expertise of TCBL Labs and linking them up with other Associate enterprises, the pilot wants to improve independents’ manufacturing processes and competitiveness to further social and environmental gains. The pilot further developed two projects, the TCBL Café and a “Workspace Re-design”, which received funding from the WORTH programme.

Experimenting with, and testing, a new way of organising the production ‘space’ is currently taking place. In addition, the pilot is continuing its plans to ‘skill-up’ independent designers in the use of digital pattern making and providing a space for them to experiment with innovative technologies (e.g. laser cutting).

With their activities, the Business Pilots can be expected to make a contribution to the longer term TCBL impact objectives (5% increase in manufacturing capacity; 20% reduction in ecological footprint; creation of new embedded services; and creation of a novel supply network of 1,000 organisations).

EVALUATION OVERVIEW Case study work this year shows that the Business Pilots continue to be at different stages of development (summarised in Table 1), with some currently in the final phase of completion of

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs their ‘experimentation and piloting’ phase (Phase 1) and others having progressed more solidly into their ‘expansion’ phase (Phase 2) and gearing up to their ‘scaling’ phase (Phase 3).

Table 1: Business Pilots stages of development

Business Pilot

Phase 1

Phase 2

Sustainable Cotton

Completed

Nearing completion and transitioning into Phase 3

Short Runs

Completed

Nearing completion and transitioning into Phase 3

BioShades

Completed

Nearing completion and transitioning into Phase 3

Digital Heritage

Partially completed (some activities and results moved into Phase 2)

Partially completed

Eco-Friendly Production

Partially completed (some activities and results moved into Phase 2)

Partially completed

Independents

Partially completed (some activities and results moved into Phase 2)

Partially completed

Some of the high level themes emerging from the evaluation’s analysis of the Business Pilots’ progress are: •

•

•

The different paces, which are to be expected, reflect the different nature of the pilots.

Some, for example, are very technical, requiring a longer stage of ‘trial and error’ (e.g.

Eco-Friendly Production). Others involve several actors along a value chain, heightening the risk of delays if one organisation pulls out. Others slightly shifted the focus of, or added, activities, to meet identified needs (e.g. Independents).

Despite the different ‘speed’ of progression, in all cases participation has expanded and some initial collaborations between Business Pilots also began to take place (for example between the Short Runs and the Independents and Sustainable Cotton pilots) and others are being explored (for example between Sustainable Cotton and BioShades Business Pilots), with plans to continue to do so. As Business Pilots move into phase 3 ‘Scaling up’, we expect them to grow further and draw on other members of the TCBL network.

Some of the areas of success identified as part of the first ‘wave’ of case study work have become more concrete. Examples include indications of a further creation of novel supply networks due to the pilots’ expanded membership. This also relates to the ‘manufacturing capacity’ impact area: activities undertaken this year generated some examples of (transnational) collaborations which have led to the completion of concrete business transactions as well examples of knowledge, skills, and learning gains for those involved. There are also beginning to be early signs of potential contributions towards new embedded services supporting the customer driven supply chain (e.g. particularly successful interactive workshops, coaching/training sessions and outputs created, might all become services that can be made available more widely).

Table 2 provides a broad indication of which TCBL high-level impact Business Pilots align to.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Table 2: Business Pilots and TCBL high-level impacts

TCBL highlevel Impact

Sustainable Cotton

Short Runs

BioShades

+5% manufacturing capacity

✓

✓

✓

-20% eco footprint

✓ ✓

✓

EcoFriendly Production

Independents

✓

✓

New embedded services Novel Supply Network

Digital Heritage

✓

✓

✓

✓

While Business Pilots are progressing on their journey, ‘hard’ business results have yet to become more apparent. Their primary function to date has been to showcase how a new state of production in the T&C sector can be achieved, and through this make the vision of the change ‘real’ and attract new participants. They are therefore instrumental in driving forward TCBL’s vision because they showcase the energy and drive that are needed on a large scale to deliver a reversal of the current production-driven paradigm in the T&C sector.

Case study data has indicated some activity ‘areas’ that are likely to be important to enable Business Pilots to achieve their “change journey” going forward.

•

•

One of the lessons emerging from this phase of the work relates to the positive impact created by achieving a ‘concrete’ result (as part of an experimentation) that can easily be communicated, disseminated, and translated into a tangible ‘business return’.

Therefore, focusing on activities that can be made ‘visible’ and can act as a catalyst to attract attention and enable others to want to join, will be important for enabling the pilots (and TCBL) to scale up.

While there are some examples of some joined up work between Business Pilots, going forward this part of the work will increase the potential for stronger contribution towards planned objectives. For example, one suggestion raised was the overlap between the Digital Heritage and the Independents Business Pilot: the design consulting element of this pilot involves independent designers showing textile companies the potential of their archival textile materials from a different perspective and to give them inspiration. This need might be able to be addressed within the network developed as part of the Independents pilot.

Over the next year, evaluation activities will continue to search out (qualitative and quantitative) evidence to identify the extent to which (and how) the pilots contributed to these high-level objectives.

THE CONTENT OF THIS HANDBOOK This is the second Handbook that presents each of the six Business Pilots from an evaluation perspective. Each chapter focuses on a different case study, and analyses this through the theory of change framework chosen for the TCBL evaluation as a whole to offer readers a systematic narrative of the change aspirations and results achieved by each of the pilots. In

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

particular, the narrative follows on from the initial version of 2017 which outlined the anticipated evolution of the pilot (in theory of change format) and reported on some of the early stage (interim) results that the work of the pilot achieved during its first phase (pilot experimentation). This second report aims to continue to present the ‘story’ of the pilot by: a) revisiting the theory of change of the pilot and updating this where necessary; b) outlining the key activities that have taken place during Phase 2 of the Business Pilot’s implementation and the results achieved; c) distilling learning from the work so far and outlining plans for the next year or so of work. The structure of each case study broadly follows this outline.

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THE NATURAL FIBRES BUSINESS PILOT CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES Consumers are increasingly interested in purchasing ecologically and socially sustainable products rather than making low-cost purchases. A recent survey showed that 51% of European consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products [Clutier, 2017]. This trend is echoed in the European Commission’s Industrial Landscape Vision 2025 which points towards’ consumers increasingly choosing products produced through clean industrial processes4.

This creates opportunities for those European businesses, located mainly in Greece and Spain, producing cotton of excellent quality to exploit new markets. However, there are no Europe-only value chains, and different certification schemes make it difficult for the consumer to understand to what extent the product they purchase has been manufactured in a wholly sustainable manner.

Against this background, the TCBL Natural Fibres pilot seeks to link like-minded businesses in new collaborative ventures to produce fully traceable (and certified) sustainable cotton products which can be sold at a fair price. Covering the whole value chain, these businesses collaborate to produce and process cotton which is certified and traceable at each step from ginning through to garment production.

As a result, the Natural Fibres Pilot can demonstrate the feasibility of sustainable cotton which is produced entirely in the EU, thereby setting the scene for an expansion of this experiment to other natural fibres, most notably silk, hemp and citrus. Along the way, the Business Pilot will draw on the expertise of TCBL Labs and Services to enrich and scale up the work.

By exploiting the expert knowledge and know-how of participating enterprises along the value chain, the competitive edge of European producers is exploited and the added value of EU origin in the final products is increased. Locating enterprises in natural fibre value chains more closely together, and avoiding imports and exports from beyond the EU, scaling of production will be facilitated and the pilot will make a contribution to reducing the environmental impact of textiles production as well as increasing manufacturing capacity in cotton and other natural fibres producing EU member states.

The diagram overleaf shows the key phases of the Greek sustainable cotton pilot with a focus on highlighting the key outcomes that are envisaged to be produced in each phase. It highlights that the pilot is built on successive waves of scaling – both in terms of participating enterprises and in terms of scope (e.g. moving from sustainable cotton to other natural fibres from mid-June 2017 onwards). Through this process of scaling, a contribution to the four high level TCBL impacts is envisaged to be made. This current diagrammatic representation of the pilot’s results phases also considers learning about the temporal dimension about the intended outcomes (changes from the previous year in red). As expected, this has been that results cannot neatly be boxed into one Phase but tend to continue and merge with subsequent phases.

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TCBL Policy Environment – 2017 Edition

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Figure 1: Key outcomes of the three Sustainable Cotton pilot phases

KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘EXPANSION AND EXTENSION’ Building on the first months of piloting the case, the core function of Phase 2 was to be on expansion and extension of the pilot. The overarching aims for the pilot, as it moved from the first pilot phase into the scaling and expansion phase, were to scale both in terms of number of TCBL associate enterprises participating in the pilot and in terms of production and sales of the samples created during the pilot phase.

When we first constructed the Business Pilot theory of change in 2017, the following activities were intended to be implemented in service of both these overarching aims and the results of the expansion phase:

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs • • •

• • •

15 additional (existing or new) TCBL associate enterprises from EU countries invited to join New experiments integrating the certified high quality sustainable cotton into production and sales implemented.

Knowledge about requirements from pilot experiment fed into Sqetch platform (which connects fashion brands and clothing manufacturers) attracts other companies outside of TCBL to participate.

Thela platform (the supply chain management platform offered by TCBL partner Cleviria) used to continue collaboration.

Collaboration with other Business Pilots (BioShades and Eco-Friendly Production) to explore and test sustainable dyeing.

Silk, hemp and fibres from citrus fruit supply chain cases started following initial analysis of these problematiques.

The text below summarises the key activities that pilot actors have implemented between July 2017 and May 2018 in light of the above plans.

Restoring / maintaining the value chain created during the piloting phase. In the months following #TCBL2017 in Athens, the spinning business that had been part of the Greek cotton value chain dropped out. This had the direct effect that the Phase 1 aim of commercial production and sales of the samples produced in time for the conference could not go ahead; and the indirect effect that further collaborations among the remaining committed core businesses is stalled as a key link in the chain is missing. Therefore, one set of activities focused on recruiting another spinning business to the case. This is currently in progress, with two of the 2017 associate enterprises (one larger ginning and spinning business and a micro business producing fabric) in the process of being integrated into the pilot.

Widening participation in the sustainable cotton pilot by attracting additional TCBL associate enterprises. During the pilot phase, membership of the pilot was a small group of motivated associate enterprises who shared relevant values and interests and who, under the shared leadership of a TCBL partner and an associate enterprise, came together to form a Greek-only sustainable cotton sustainable value chain and through this collaboration produced a number of sample garments that were sustainable across the value chain. In order to contribute to the overall TCBL impact targets, a key aim for subsequent Phases was to scale up involvement by TCBL associate enterprises in the pilot. As part of the 2017 call for Associate Enterprises, 31 of the successful candidates (from six member states: Italy, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus and Germany) expressed a ‘very high interest’ in the cotton pilot, and a further 12 proclaimed to be ‘quite interested’. Out of these, 12 are considered participants in the Sustainable Cotton pilot5 so that together with one additional associate enterprise from 2016 the number of pilot participants has increased by 13. These businesses cover most aspects of the cotton value chain as defined by the pilot (sustainable cotton production, ginning, yarns production, woven cotton fabrics production, knitted cotton fabrics production, dyeing and finishing, sustainable cotton based apparel production, other uses of cotton6) with the apparent exception of cotton production and dyeing and finishing.

However, as of mid-2018, most of these remain inactive, with concrete negotiations on active participation (in the form of stepping in for the original spinning business and creating a

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TCBL progress report Q9-10, D9.6, December 2017 (confidential)

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TCBL Deliverable D4.2 Annex I: TCBL Business Pilot Sustainable Cotton. Reconstructing the value chain.

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second cotton value chain in Greece) focusing on three of these associate enterprises (including on large ginning and spinning business) – all based in Greece.

External and internal networking and awareness raising activities. Case study actors (both TCBL lead and the core group of committed associate enterprises) have held meetings during and / or outside of relevant industry events. With these meetings they maintained energy around the pilot and opened up new possibilities. For instance: •

•

•

As part of a meeting with one of the industry’s social partners, TCBL partner pilot leads also met a ginning and spinning business where they learned about this business’ interest in sustainable energy use. At a follow up meeting a few weeks later, TCBL and joint activities were discussed. As a result of these discussions, this business decided to apply to the 2017 call for associates and now participates in the creation of a second Greek sustainable cotton value chain.

A number of core TCBL associate enterprises of the pilot, plus the TCBL pilot owner, met at trade fairs. At one of these events, they met up with the Greek Ministry of Industry and Development to talk about TCBL and the sustainable cotton pilot which subsequently led to discussions about funding applications in support of the pilot. At another one, discussions focused on what businesses to approach to restore the value chain disrupted by the departure of the spinning business.

Promoting the pilot internally within TCBL has raised demand among some TCBL associate enterprises located in Italy and Slovenia for Greek cotton. Transactions are currently stalled, however, because the volume of samples demanded was too small and imprecise to be satisfied at this moment by relevant ginning and spinning businesses participating in the pilot.

Transferring the cotton model to other natural fibres7. Under the leadership of the Slovenian TCBL partner, work has started to revitalise the silk value chain in Europe. This involves creating a trans-national collaboration between Greek, Italian and Slovenian TCBL associate enterprises. Two experimental collaborations have been set up, facilitated by TCBL partners: a collaboration between a Slovenian designer (Tatjana Kalamar) and an Italian producer of silk (Gionata Villaggi) has been set up to produce silk printed silk scarves; and a ‘project’ between a Slovenian designer and producer of silk clothes (Dusanka Herman) and a Greek silk producer (Tsakiris) which led to the production and sale of painted silk clothes.

Moreover, work on a hemp value chain (led by TCBL partner Katty Fashion) and citrus fibres is planned.

Linking up with other Business Pilots. The transfer of the cotton model to other natural fibres, described above, was the result of collaboration with the Short Runs Business Pilot, with the aim of revitalising the silk value chain in Europe. Other examples include TCBL partners leading on the Sustainable Cotton pilot joining up with the BioShades Business Pilot workshop in March 2018 which explored the potential of bacteria dyeing. This “made a sort of bridge between what we are doing in cotton and the BioShades pilot” [TCBL Sustainable Cotton pilot interview] as it helped understand the possibilities of using bacteria dye and potentials of producing some cotton and silk textiles dyed with bacteria.

Using TCBL knowledge resources and business services. The pilot is preparing a _zine issue on the sustainable cotton pilot for publication in June 2018 with contributions from key associate enterprises involved in the case. Other TCBL resources do not yet appear to have been used extensively by pilot participants, partly because the meetings appear to be more valuable, partly because the TCBL website was not considered sufficiently developed for 7

TCBL progress report Q9-10, D9.6, December 2017 (confidential)

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pushing businesses towards it. Associate enterprises participating in the pilot will be signed up to the Thela platform during June 2018 and the value of Sqetch for helping relevant associate enterprises identify each other will be explored.

Other activities ‘at the margins’. Case participants, together with some non-TCBL actors, from four European countries submitted two funding application to EuropAid focusing on the sustainability of cotton in terms of traceability and implementation of some basic rules on social and ecological behaviour (one for Increasing Knowledge, Awareness, transparency and traceability for responsible Value Chains in the Cotton and Garment sectors; one to strengthen a common understanding and to improve knowledge of sustainable global value chains in the garment sector). Funds are also being applied for from the Greek Ministry of Industry and Development. The pilot has experienced demand among participating artists in the CreativeWear project for Greek sustainable cotton which currently is met via a temporary solution involving contributions from the design house involved in the initial value chain.

Ongoing work is taking place to widen participation in the pilot by recruiting new businesses to the TCBL ecosystem, with three potential new recruits lined up. A website dedicated to European cotton is in the process of being set up. The purpose of this is to work in parallel with Thela and Sqetch and support a scaling of the pilot by allowing businesses to join the European cotton initiative. Finally, wider dissemination activities (TV, newspapers, articles) have generated awareness and interest in the pilot.

The above account of key sustainable cotton pilot activities shows that in terms of implementing planned activities, efforts revolved around attracting new members to the pilot, new experiments in the form of a second value chain, and the creation of an additional value chain focusing on silk. As we would expect from an experimental and complex programme like TCBL, in response to unforeseen events pilot actors adapted their behaviour and activities. Most notably this meant focusing on replacing the ginning and spinning business which had dropped out of the original value chain and networking / awareness raising about the pilot outside and within TCBL partly to achieve this purpose, partly to fulfil other emerging needs of the pilot (e.g. to raise awareness of the quality of Greek cotton). The use of TCBL business services has been perhaps less wide in scope as envisaged one year ago, which partly is due to the ongoing high value placed by current pilot participants in face to face interactions and partly due to work on the TCBL IT platforms and single sign-on only being completed and launched in spring 2018. A collaboration with other Business Pilots, whilst some inroads have been made with BioShades, is yet to be put into practice. What is interesting about this phase of the cotton pilot is that the case itself is ‘replicating’ TCBL in becoming more and more of an open system, with activities taking place involving actors outside the formal TCBL system and implementing activities that are seeking to develop ideas from the core case (but not necessarily involving all core pilot actors). Over the coming months it will be important to follow the extent to which these ‘offshoots’ either create impact in their own right, or serve the more direct purposes of the pilot.

RESULTS ACHIEVED At the end of Phase 2, case study actors envisaged achieving four results. These are listed below and matched against high level TCBL impact targets. From the data available at the point of writing up this pilot, we can conclude that progress has been made on two of results aimed for, whereas no concrete evidence exists on progress relating to the remaining two.

1) Participation in the sustainable cotton pilot widened and scope of pilot extended.

Arguably, this links to the high level TCBL impact of a 5% increase in manufacturing

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

capacity as well as the impact target of creating a novel supply network of 1,000 organisations.

The case provides evidence that this result has been achieved with 13 additional associate enterprises now connected to the pilot. Those committed to building a sustainable cotton value chain have doubled compared to the previous Phase, whilst one enterprise dropped out. However, a complete achievement of this objective is hampered by the fact that the original value chain is not currently working as a replacement for the associate enterprise that has left has not yet resulted in business transactions being resumed. Indeed, challenges in building or re-building two natural cotton value chains with these associate enterprises meant that the nature of transactions among the actors involved has currently moved away from the concrete business transactions of Phase 1 towards more intangible exchanges (exploring collaborative business opportunities and exchanging knowledge). “We are more than happy to have met great businesses, changed ideas, talked about textile industry etc. We would love to help make textile industry in Europe strong again� [TCBL associate enterprise participating in the pilot]. At associate enterprise level, therefore, immediate outcomes are thought to include is a confirmation of interest in the market and recognition from other actors in the industry [TCBL partner interview].

2) Validation that cotton model can be transferred to other natural fibres value chains.

As above, this links to the high level TCBL impact of a 5% increase in manufacturing capacity as well as the impact target of creating a novel supply network of 1,000 organisations.

The case provides evidence of progress here, with a silk value chain built involving a core group of Greek and Italian associates and the creation of a hemp value chain in planning.

3) Products from experiments sold at an economically sustainable price proving demand and generating fair income. This too can be seen to link to the TCBL target of a 5% increase in manufacturing capacity. As well as the target of creating new embedded services supporting the customer driven supply chain.

Because of the challenges with scaling outlined above, this result could not be achieved for the natural cotton case. However, silk clothes produced as part of the silk supply chain did result in sales8.

4) Environmental savings (water and energy) show facilitated by linking up with the EcoFriendly Production Business Pilot. This links to the TCBL impact target of a 20% reduction in environmental footprint.

There has been no substantial link with the ecofriendly production pilot yet (as this is still in early stages of developing its methodology), and production volumes of the value chains are low. Any ecological effects are therefore likely to be very low at this point.

In relation to the results to be achieved at the end of the second Phase as illustrated in the figure overleaf, we can conclude that progress has been made on the first two, whereas the scale of achievement of the last two has been affected by the challenges of scaling production of the sample garments produced for #TCBL2017.

8

Source: Presentation at Sestri partner meeting 2017 (unpublished)

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING The sustainable cotton pilot had a highly successful piloting phase which led to the creation of a new sample collection of clothes made exclusively from sustainable Greek cotton produced via a new collaboration of three Greek cotton businesses. The creation of a tangible product also served as an important advertisement for the pilot – signalling to other associate enterprises that the ambitions of the pilot can be realised. “Without it [the pilot Phase] nothing [else] would have happened” [TCBL partner interview].

A related key lesson is that the concrete nature of the initial pilot was a “pre-requisite for moving the lines” [TCBL partner interview]. It created a convincing case which attracted attention, was transformable in terms of communication and hence attracted the interest of other businesses wanting to be part of the club.

The pilot then moved from piloting to scaling (without a planned consolidation Phase), and it is in this transition that a number of challenges and related learning points emerged.

First, the ginning and spinning business of the value chain created dropped out. This meant that the value chain was broken: an important function in the production process was no longer present.

“Unfortunately, there are no Greek Spinning Mills ready to load these quantities and continue the chain between raw cotton and cloth. We produced and presented a whole collection (…) in the TCBL conference in Athens last year. Since then, although Thrakika Ekkokistiria and Ioanna Kourbela [designer brand] are more than welcome to continue the production, we miss the spinning mill in between” [TCBL Associate Enterprise participating in the pilot].

This in turn highlighted the challenge of differential capabilities concerning order volumes among members of the value chain. During the piloting Phase the spinning company agreed to purchase and process more cotton produced by the ginning business than the design house was able to buy as they had access to other clients willing to buy the surplus yarn (ie the amount not required by the design house). This meant the spinning company took on a de factor role as intermediary, and “Without someone like [the spinning company] doing that work we were in trouble” [TCBL partner interview].

Thus, a related key lesson from the pilot phase is that where there are a lot of small actors involved, the idea of removing intermediaries might not be practical. “Apparently there is a need for intermediaries, but maybe with a different role and behaviour than those that are already in place” [TCBL partner interview].

Second, the importance of having access to finance to resource a scaling process became clear: scaling up production of the samples to commercial levels (ie a new line of products for the design company) would have required them to purchase cotton from the ginners at volumes far exceeding their ‘normal’ order quantities and hence requiring access to some kind of finance instrument which was not available. Discussion about funding options for larger projects are taking place between some of the associate enterprises involved in the pilot and funders (EuropAid, Greek Ministry of Industry and Development) but they take time to realise (and success of such grant applications is not guaranteed).

Thus, a related key lesson is that to scale up an experiment to the extent that it changes a business model requires access to funds. “what we could do with the actors [during piloting] was very small for each of them. They could make it a bit bigger, but it will not radically change their businesses. To make [the experiment] bigger, they would need funds” [TCBL partner interviews].

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Finally, whilst the pilot has extended its membership by 13 associate enterprises only three of these new participants can be considered as actively working on building or re-building the cotton value chains. The remaining ten associate enterprises have come to events but are not currently considered as active participants. One explanation for might be that the specialism of these businesses is on apparel production of design, so the later stages of the value chain which is dependent on the first three steps being re-instated. The specialism of the associate advisor participating in the pilot (CAD / CAM and digital prototyping) is not currently a match with the pilot.

NEXT STEPS The pilot is currently in the process of completing Phase 2 and transitioning to Phase 3 ‘Scaling’. Three key activities are foreseen for this Phase: • • •

Starting new cases on other Natural Fibres Values Chains (Hemp and possibly Wool).

Further implementing the Silk Case.

Deploying and internationalising the European Sustainable Cotton case.

The diagram overleaf illustrates the pilot’s activities and results for Phases one and two.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

TCBL Sustainable Cotton business case: results and activities Results phase 2: Expansion and extension Participation in cotton case widened and scope of case extended Validation that cotton model can be transferred to other natural fibres value chains.

Products from experiments sold at an economically sustainable price proving demand and generating fair income Environmental savings (water and energy) show facilitated by linking up with the ecofriendly production business case

1) 2) 3) 4)

•

•

•

•

Context Consumers are increasingly interested in ecosustainable products This trend offering new business opportunities However, value chains are broken and certification schemes are plentiful.

It is therefore difficult for the consumer to be certain that the product they buy is sustainable across the whole value chain.

Activities in Phase 2: expansion and extension (July 2017 onward) Planned activities implemented : • 15 additional (existing or new) TCBL associate enterprises from EU countries invited to join • New experiments integrating the certified high quality sustainable cotton into production and sales implemented.

• Silk supply chain case started New activities implemented: • Networking and awareness raising (promoting products of each step in the value chain to TCBL Associates located in next steps (in Greece and beyond); multiply the cases of servicing demand ) • re-instating original value chain • _zine issue on natural cotton • Servicing demands for silk and natural cotton • Website dedicated to European cotton Planned activities partially implemented: • Knowledge about requirements from pilot experiment fed into Sqetch platform attracts other companies outside of TCBL to participate • Thela platform used to continue collaboration] • Knowledge about requirements from pilot experiment fed into Sqetch platform attracts other companies outside of TCBL to participate • Collaboration with other business case s (Bacterial dyeing and eco-friendly production) to explore and test sustainable dyeing ) • Hemp and fibres from citrus fruit supply chains being developed • Test market acceptance of samples produced in TCBL • Launch industrial production of the most demanded samples

Results phase 1: pilot experiment (January to June 2017) Envisaged results achieved 1) New (closer and more interesting) business relationships between three Greek TCBL associate enterprises created covering whole cotton value chain 2) Creation of a fully traced and Ecotex certified sample collection for _Athens 2017 3) Wider interest in participation in the business case (new associates, Athens design lab, Fashion Revolution members) Envisaged results partially or not achieved 1) Potential new markets with fewer intermediaries for participating companies uncovered 2) Ecotex certification allows some projection of environmental savings 3) Recognition of quality Greek cotton spread

• • • • •

Activities phase 1: pilot experiment TCBL partner identifies and brings together three Greek businesses covering the whole cotton value chain using TCBL services orchestrator and bpsquare Group uses strategyzer to describe needs, plans and objectives Group decides to collaborate to develop new product with fully traced production chain Product is produced on time for _Athens2017 Initial plans of the case fed into squetch

Figure 2: Sustainable cotton Business Pilot Phases 1 and 2

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THE ECO-FRIENDLY PRODUCTION BUSINESS PILOT CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES Today, consumers are paying increasing attention to sustainable practices of the things they buy. The fashion industry is a case in point. Recent (2015) surveys indicate that 58% of young people (aged 15-20) are strongly interested in sustainable fashion, with 81% prepared to pay more for products that are environmentally and socially sustainable 9.

Information campaigns, such as Greenpeace DETOX and Fashion Revolution, among others, are also pushing environmental and social issues in the fashion industry to the forefront, playing a role in shifting the focus and behaviour of consumers (as well as producers) 10. As the second most polluting industry after oil, due to the extensive use of water and chemicals and to the alarming rates of unsold garments discarded in landfill 11, fashion must therefore keep up with growing demands and expectations for transparency and ethical behaviour.

This drive towards new ways of consuming fashion represents an opportunity: sustainability can become an important innovation factor and a business model for the fashion industry.

It is against this background that the TCBL Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot situates itself, with the overall aim to demonstrate that it is possible – and profitable – to develop transparency in the T&C sector, and that both producers and consumers can win as production shifts towards more sustainable practices.

By building an ecosystem of businesses who share the same vision of creating a more sustainable supply chain, the pilot will promote awareness about transparency and sustainability issues (environmental, social and economic) for the production of quality products, and will allow enterprises of a given value chain to collect sustainability data/information. This will be done through a Data Collection Protocol, developed with the technical and specialist support of one of TCBL’s associates, Process Factory, that will make the supply chain more environmentally-friendly. A first Phase of experimentation in the use of the protocol will show that a viable and profitable alternative to current products, markets and supply chains is possible. This will enable partners who share similar concerns for sustainability to redesign current textile supply chains. By the end, the pilot will give rise to a label that will be created to certify the process, which will provide an opportunity for enterprises to meet a growing demand.

The figure below represents the ‘vision’ of the pilot.

9

TCBL Deliverable D4.2 Annex III: TCBL Business Pilot Eco-Friendly Production. Reducing Environmental Impact 10

Ibid.

11

The TCBL Policy Environment Brief, February 2017

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Figure 3: the value added of TCBL for the Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot12

Figure 15 shows the anticipated results of each of the three phases of the pilot. The pilot goes from setting up the conditions for experimentation (Phase 1: ‘Set up’) towards mobilising organisations at different positions in the value chain (Phase 2: ‘Expansion/Involvement of organisations), and then further expanding the number of actors involved as well as the products (Phase 3: Scaling up and out). This journey is expected to contribute towards TCBL’s objectives.

Phase 1 results • • •

Case’s approach defined and collaboration established Value chain model with templates for data collection defined Data collection protocol implemented on the Thela platform, and guidelines for use developed

Phase 2 results •

•

Organisations implement own ideas based on the collected data around sustainability to tackle environmental issues Examples of technologies that eliminate chemicals in the production cycle

Phase 3 results •

•

Greater traceability of products, markets and supply chains through data collection protocol Transparent information around quality and sustainability available for final costumers

Context • • •

Consumers have little knowledge about their clothes; they don’t know what sustainability issues are linked to clothing However, there is an increased demand for transparency and ethical, sustainable practices. The drive towards new ways of consuming fashion represents an opportunity: sustainability can become an important innovation factor and a business model for the fashion industry There are a lot of sustainability issues for the production of clothing products. These can be divided into environmental, social and economic issues.

TCBL Impacts 1) %age reduction of environmental footprint (waste and water reduction, recycling) 2) Projected %age increase of manufacturing capacity 3) Redesigned supply chain focusing on environment-related issues 4) Ecosystem of organisations part of supply chains

Figure 4: Key results envisaged for the Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot

12

Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot presentation, Sestri Levante December 2017

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For each Phase, a set of activities were envisaged to take place that would then yield the results. These are discussed in more detail in the subsequent pages.

KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 1&2 ‘SET -UP’ AND ‘EXPANSION’ When we first constructed the Business Pilot theory of change in 2017, activities being undertaken were nearing the completion of Phase 1 (pilot set-up and definition of the value chain). Building on this first Phase, the Business Pilot was also beginning to work towards Phase 2, which had the dual function of 1) identifying and involving firms that had an interest in, and track record of, sustainability processes who could take a lead in, and kick-start, the experimentation and collect data on sustainability; and 2) beginning to extend the pilot to other TCBL associates.

Key activities implemented in relation to the final stages of Phase 1 are outlined below.

The first set of activities involved finalising the recruitment of Process Factory (http://www.processfactory.it/en/), the Municipality of Prato’s technical partner in the Business Pilot (and part of the TCBL ecosystem as Associate Enterprise). Process Factory is accredited

by ZDHC as a training provider on chemical management, and is the founder of 4Sustainability, a network of experts and enterprises that aims to support companies – particularly those operating in the fashion industry– in their processes management and sustainability policies in order to make sustainability a factor for strategic growth (www.4sustainability.it).

Their role, key to the Business Pilot, is to: develop the protocol for data collection across the value chain and the data collection templates specific to each Phase or node of the value chain; support the lead enterprise (and the organisations in the value chain) during the experimentation; and assist in the design and implementation of the certification process.

The second set of activities involved finalising the pilot’s operational framework (Figure 16 overleaf) and the data collection protocol for the entire textile chain (from raw material, yarn, fabric, finishing etc), including templates for collecting numerical, technical data for each node of the chain.

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Figure 5: Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot operational framework13

These activities have led to the development and completion of a protocol that contains five ‘observational domains’ on which to collect data (which is envisaged will lead to a certified process): Water, Energy, CO2, Chemicals, People (i.e. social compliance).

The context within which the Business Pilot is working, and the rationale for arriving at these domains, is worth noting as it speaks to the very ‘technical’ and ambitious nature of the pilot.

In recent years, the number of ‘environmental labels’ has significantly increased, all of which are “more or less accepted” [case study partner interview], as there is no global standard to adhere to. This rapid increase testifies to the growing interest in being certified as a business that adopts environmentally and socially sustainable practices, a process perceived as bringing organisational credibility as well as competitive advantage.

Partners’ main consideration was not to add to the list of labels ‘out there’, but to develop a multi-dimensional one. In other words, the purpose was to include – rather than exclude – dimensions from other existing labels, in order to develop a protocol that was able to “tell the story of the entire value chain through certifiable data” [partner interviews]. In addition, for each of the dimensions, thresholds were set for both pre-requisite (minimum) levels and different degrees of certification (silver, gold, and platinum). This ‘graded’ approach was developed for the specific dual purpose of generating change and compliance (through the minimum requirement threshold) and encouraging enterprises to try and improve regardless of their starting position.

Key activities implemented in relation to Phase 2 included: identifying and involving organisations that could take forward the experimentation (a lead enterprise and its third party suppliers); and kick-starting (and completing) the experimentation.

Lanificio Bellucci was selected as the main enterprise leading the experimentation of the Business Pilot. Lanificio Bellucci is a major woollen mill in Prato who has been committed to a ‘green’ policy, based on improving the quality of textiles and adopting sustainable process of production, for a number of years. As will be discussed in more detail in the concluding 13

https://www.slideshare.net/TCBLProject/news-v4

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section, selecting an enterprise that already had a strong track record in, and commitment to, the ideas and vision of the Business Pilot was a crucial factor for the experimentation.

The above account of key Business Pilot work shows that in terms of implementing planned activities, efforts revolved around the ‘technical’ aspects of the pilot and developing a data collection protocol that could best certify an entire supply chain and identify an enterprise that could suitably ‘test’ it. This included working alongside the participating enterprise to ensure the protocol could be developed, refined and adapted as it was being tested, to engage the organisations along the value chain, and to support participating business in the data collection process itself.

As the concluding section will expand on, responding to the challenges and learning that emerged as the experimentation was put into practice meant that some activities took longer than planned and others could not be implemented at this stage. This includes the implementation of the protocol on TCBL’s business service Thela, the supply chain management platform, and the development of Guidelines for using the platform. This part of the work will be led by Cleviria -the third core member and partner in the Business Pilot (and TCBL partner). In addition, the involvement of TCBL labs to interact with specific value chain nodes has yet to be put into practice. It is envisaged that these sets of activities will take place in the next Phase of the work, when the Business Pilot implements plans to disseminate the results of the experimentation and scale up through the collaboration with other actors in the TCBL ecosystem (labs, partners, additional enterprises).

RESULTS ACHIEVED The Eco-friendly Production Business Pilot is working ‘along’ the value chain (similarly to the Natural Cotton Business Pilot), with a main focus on TCBL’s high level objective of 20% footprint reduction, although it can potentially contribute to all four objectives. The pilot seeks to achieve results and contribute to these high level objectives by evolving its work over three Phases.

At the time of writing this update of the pilot’s journey, activities have focused on finalising the ‘ground-work’ (Phase 1: Project set-up and definition of the value chain), as this was a key pre-condition for the experimentation to start, and continuing to deliver Phase 2 activities, which were envisaged to include mobilising organisations at different positions in the value chain, collecting data on sustainability, and extending the pilot to other TCBL associates.

From the data available at the point of writing up this pilot, we can conclude that two of the three envisaged results for the completion of Phase 1 have been achieved. These relate to the finalisation of the certification system (the protocol based on five dimensions), and the data collection templates. At the time of writing this report, the data collection protocol had yet to be implemented on Thela, and the guidelines were yet to be developed (therefore moving to the next phase). Due to some activities taking longer than initially envisaged, mainly to do with the very technical nature of the pilot and the work required to engage multiple organisations along the value chain, the case is currently nearing completion of the pilot experimentation (due to complete at the end of May 2018). This means that results envisaged for Phase 2, which were dependent on the activities related to the expansion of the pilot (via the involvement of labs) have yet to materialise.

As the work moves forward in its focus on widening the network and scale of testing (Phase 3) it will potentially generate more concrete evidence on the Business Pilot’s concrete contribution towards TCBL’s overall objectives. The presentation of the results of the experimentation at #TCBL_2018 can act as a useful catalyst. This is because the creation of 23

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an output of considerable technical value (the protocol), a result in itself, can potentially be a tangible example of the value of the experimentation and facilitate further interest to join.

In last year’s narrative of the case, we identified examples of what the Business Pilot’s contribution towards TCBL objectives could look like.

The certification of eco-friendly innovations introduced as a result of the involvement of labs, which will be the focus of the Business Pilot’s activities going forward, has a direct potential impact on reducing the T&C carbon footprint (and indirectly lead to more widespread ecofriendly consumer behaviour that are in this case for example influenced by recognisable labels). This can be measured through improved sustainability parameters –for example, chemicals, resources and emissions – which is information that will be collected through the protocol. In addition, contribution to this objective could be facilitated by linking up with other Business Pilots (e.g. Sustainable Cotton). This also links to the potential to increase manufacturing capacity. The pilot aims to bringing together businesses / partners that have similar concerns about sustainability of production and the motivation to share knowledge in order to change/certify a particular value chain. The subsequent exploitation of this potential (with the help of TCBL) can contribute to an increased manufacturing capacity Finally, the pilot will next focus on stimulating collaboration between actors in the TCBL ecosystem, which, in the Phases that will follow, would contribute to the creation of ‘novel supply network of 1,000 organisations’ (that can be traced through the number of TCBL associates actively collaborating with new business partners along the value chain as a result of participation/engagement with the Business Pilot). Initial conversations have already taken place, which will be picked up on, and the TCBL ecosystem includes a number of actors at different stages of the value chain14 (e.g. producing the fibre, the thread, the fabric etc), a high proportion of whom have already expressed interest in being involved in this pilot. Indeed, an additional 28 enterprises recruited in the 2017 Call have declared high interest15.

CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING

By May 2018, the Eco-friendly Production Business Pilot made significant progress over the last 12 months in the development of a product that can offer an opportunity to demonstrate greater traceability and sustainability of products and supply chains: something customers are increasingly demanding.

When the pilot then transitioned into its practical experimentation Phase (which started in December 2017 and is currently taking place), a number of challenges and learning points emerged, mainly relating to the very technical nature of the pilot, and the relatively new (and perhaps sensitive) focus it has (sustainability and transparency).

First, the use of the protocol requires enterprises across the entire value chain (which includes 3-5 organisations) to submit data on different dimensions indicated by the protocol developed by Process Factory. This means enterprises need to be able to collect the data requested and then having the willingness to share it. Once the experimentation started, challenges emerged, which core members of the Business Pilot partnership identified as being related to:

14

These are listed in TCBL Deliverable D4.2 Annex III: TCBL Business Pilot Eco-Friendly Production.

Reducing Environmental Impact 15

TCBL Progress Report Q 9-10, D 9.6 December 2017 (Confidential)

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The lack of an organisational culture that values the ‘measurement’ of impact, organisational processes, and transparency. Partly, this was seen to be related to the fact that transparency and sustainability are very recent trends, having only emerged in the last 1-3 years. And while it is gaining ground, on the whole changing a way of working takes time. The fact that these data need to be collected by several organisations along the chain increases the difficulties of access. In addition, information such as the amount of chemicals and energy used, is sensitive and some may be reluctant to share it.

•

The lack of organisational structures able to support processes of measurement. For example, smaller organisations may not have dedicated staff for specific data collection activities, and/or they may not have the necessary skills inhouse.

The second, and related, challenge was to develop an exhaustive protocol while at the same time simple enough to ensure its use by enterprises. This meant that the protocol needed to be developed alongside the participating / experimenting enterprise. As can be expected by a process of experimentation, this inevitably entailed an element of ‘trial and error’ and adaptation to ensure the protocol was fit for purpose.

On the whole, the following messages emerged from key stakeholder interviews. First, a lot of effort and resources needed to be put into engaging and supporting enterprises. This meant attending several meetings between core members of the pilot (lead enterprise, and the technical partner) and other enterprises along the value chain, and providing data collection support. Second, a key lesson –and condition for the experimentation to take place – was that it was essential to identify an enterprise that had a consolidated and demonstrable experience and interest in issues around the sustainability of production. This reinforces the learning from the previous year, which spoke to a high level of commitment to “doing something different” being a requirement to experiment within the pilot. In other words, if enterprises’ activities chime with an ‘experimentation ethos’ and / or if enterprises are sensitised and committed to a particular issue, they can more readily see a value in investing resources to a piloting process that they believe will bring results. In this case, TCBL therefore presented the opportunity for the lead enterprise involved to continue their work through experimenting in the Business Pilot and with the support of the Business Pilot’s key partners.

NEXT STEPS The Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot is currently completing its experimentation Phase (Phase 2). The interim results have been presented at #TCBL 2018 in Prato, which will support the transition towards Phase 3 Scaling up and out. Concretely, activities currently envisaged include: •

Working on the implementation of the protocol on the Thela platform, including the development of guidelines for use (carried over from Phase 1); • Involving one or more TCBL labs to explore specific nodes in the value chain; • Certifying the process through a third party verification; • Scaling up experimentation by sharing/extending the protocol among members of the TCBL ecosystem.

As noted in the previous section, the pilot is operating in a ‘crowded space’ because there has been a significant increase in the number and types of labels and there is no single, accepted protocol being used to measure sustainable practices in production. In order to potentially emerge among the several in existence and set itself as a standard, the communication and 25

Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs dissemination of the Business Pilot’s protocol are likely to be important activities in the next phase. The use of TCBL knowledge resources, which have to date not been used extensively, may become more valuable and relevant as the pilot scales up.

The figure overleaf provides a revised illustration of the Business Pilot’s key activities and results.

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Figure 6: Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot revised theory of change

27

THE SHORT RUNS BUSINESS PILOT CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES Short run production, especially artisan and bespoke orders, allows for a more personal design style or made to order services or, more generally, a promotion of exclusivity. These factors can be accommodated or exploited by any size business. Short run production can also allow for local sourcing closer to market needs. However, there are a number of barriers to short run production that are related to the low volume production and the way the production is organised. For example, it is often not possible for small businesses working within short run productions to reach the minimum order quantities asked for manufacturers.

From the perspective of an individual designer the issue is often finding a manufacturer that is willing to work in small volumes. Other issues are that the costs of fabrics and other materials are higher in smaller quantities, manufacturers need up-front payment, small volume orders get a low priority in the production planning, and that the buying power is often not high enough to ensure good quality of the products. These issues were raised by industry experts during discussions led by TCBL partners. Three groups involved in the short run production were identified: textile manufacturers, garment manufacturers such as Cut, Make & Trim (CMT) units as well as designers.

Against this background, the TCBL’s Short Run Business Pilot offers a solution to the above challenges by developing a network of textile and garment manufacturers wanting to produce short run capacity and designers wanting to produce small quantities. TCBL offers its knowledge, skills, existing services, and integrated Labs to address these issues related to short runs and to provide a holistic service.

The aim of this pilot is to create possibilities for manufacturers and designers to do business.

These transactions have and will further demonstrate new business opportunities where none existed previously, for whatever reason: lack of knowledge, lack of expertise etc. Most of these opportunities have been mainly facilitated by TCBL partners, but in the next Phase of the pilot this will move towards transactions being advanced by secure online-platforms such as Sqetch and Sourcebook. TCBL partners will continue to provide guidance and oversee those transactions.

Figure 7 presents the approach of the Business Pilot short runs with TCBL at its centre.

In order to be able to scale and replicate the transactions that have been completed or are still ongoing, the Business Pilot has mapped the identified barriers in the first Phase against the activities and concrete examples (defined as ‘case studies’).

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Figure 7: Representation of TCBL short run production approach

The figure overleaf shows the anticipated results in each of the three phases of the pilot. The pilot goes from an initial set up stage (Phase 1a+b) towards first examples of case studies (Phase 2), and then scaling up and out (Phase 3). This journey is expected to contribute towards TCBL’s high level objectives.

Since the first development of the Theory of Change there was a slight shift in the way the pilot was carried out. This meant a stronger emphasis on the facilitation of transactions or other case studies by TCBL partners. After the initial scoping of the potential of online platforms, this work will continue as part of preparing for scaling and replication of example cases as part of Phase 3. These changes are captured in the Theory of Change; additional or adjusted results are highlighted in red.

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Figure 8: Key results envisaged for the Short Runs Business Pilot

KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘EXPANSION’ After the first Phase of set-up and scoping the work, the pilot has been in Phase 2 with the main aim of expanding, and is now moving into Phase 3 with some of the activities. Currently, the main aim is to show scalability and replicability based on the existing case studies and any future ones. All main activities from Phase 1 as articulated in the Theory of Change have been achieved, even though some of the intended activities within that were not carried out, but others instead.

As part of the initial development of the theory of change of the Business Pilot in 2017, the following activities were intended to be implemented in services of both these overarching aims and the results of Phases 2 and 3: •

• • •

TCBL partners create online space where: o Communication between designers and manufacturers is facilitated o Short Run Producers (SRPs) can offer their work and Cut, Make & Trim (CMT) providers can pitch for offers o Quality of products is controlled for and work legally protected o Demand can be aggregated to reach minimum order thresholds o Unused capacity can be matched to SRPs Continuation of building network of buyers and sellers TCBL partners promote successful example of SRPs through social media Designers and manufactures get support in business skills, community development, education, access to finance, quality assurance and compliance

The text below summarises the key activities that pilot actors have implemented between July 2017 and May 2018 in light of the above plans.

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Continuing the use of knowledge and services within TCBL and its actors: the Short Runs Business Pilot draws on knowledge and services provided by TCBL. Essential to the Business Pilot’s success are contacts with manufacturers and designers gained through TCBL Labs, Associates, Advisors and TCBL partners. To ensure smooth transactions the provision of language and cultural support by TCBL partners is particularly important.

Facilitating business transactions: the main set of activities carried out in the last year were on the one hand the creation of opportunities for manufacturers and designers to meet and do business, and on the hand the provision of support for individuals or groups to start or develop their businesses. These are referred to as ‘case studies’.

Two case studies that were developed in this time have already completed a business transaction.

•

•

The first case study concerns exchange of fabric between Italy (Prato) and the UK (Yorkshire). TCBL engineered the opportunity for Fabio Giusti (Italy) and Rita Britton (UK) to meet during the last year’s conference in Athens. Part of the work of Fabio Giusti’s company Trafi Creatività Tessile is fabric waste recycling and Rita Britton is a designer and fashion expert. Fabric samples were exchanged during the conference, which were well received by Rita Britton’s clients in Yorkshire. TCBL partners facilitated the whole process and provided language and business skills in order to avoid any potential complications.

The second case study covers the purchase of silk by Dusanka Herman (Slovenia) from Tsiakiris (Greece). Dusanka Herman is an artist working in design and production of hand painted scarfs and is based in Slovenia with her own studio and shop. Dusanka was sourcing the silk for her work from China via a German Retailer.

Only through TCBL as she attended an event and met a Greek producer of silk at this event did she learn that there is European silk available. Again, the process was facilitated by TCBL partners.

There were a number of additional case studies produced in the last year.

•

•

One example of knowledge exchange is the work carried out by Louise StocksYoung (UK) with support from Ruth Farrell (TCoE). Louise Stocks-Young approached TCBL because she had a project at concept stage but needed practical help and support with producing prototypes, sourcing appropriate manufacturer for short runs, getting the product to the market and sourcing the right fabrics. She has been working with Ruth Farrell in the Design and Make Lab for one to two days per week to work on her product development and everything related to that.

Other examples that were introduced include Prisca Vilsbol (Denmark) who received support with costing her samples.

Starting cooperation with online platform Sourcebook: another main activity in the last year related to the cooperation with Sourcebook, which is a match-making platform based in Berlin (connecting fashion brands with garment manufacturers, service providers and fabric mills). Their clients are mainly based in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and present of mixture of manufacturers and designers. In last year’s evaluation report, Sqetch was identified as the chosen online-platform. However, due to contractual delays, the work could not start as planned. For this reason the Business Pilot lead (TCoE) started to explore options with Sourcebook, which has a slightly different client-base and process models.

Developing ‘pilots’ via Sourcebook: In order to further show replicability of the Business Pilot ten potential pilots are in production as managed projects. The Business Pilot lead has identified eight associate enterprises with a need and Sourcebook is currently looking through its database to match this need with a potential solution. In the next stage the expectation is 31

Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

that this will lead to two to three actual examples of transactions. TCoE as well as Sourcebook will be acting as intermediaries to provide support to the associates on the one hand the clients from Sourcebook on the other hand even though the transactions are happening through the platform.

Joint working with other Business Pilots: There are examples of joint work between the Short Runs Business Pilot and the Independents pilot as well as with the Sustainable Cotton pilot. Ruth Farrell (TCoE) has been supporting the Independents pilot, initiating a sewing cafĂŠ, which focuses on shared learning to promote the skills of sewing. Together with the Sustainable Cotton pilot, TCoE (with support from the Slovenian TCBL partner) has been working on the case study of Dusanka Herman and Tsiakiris, described above. The second case study produced as a collaborative effort is the cooperation between Gionata Villaggi (Italy) and Tatjana Kalamar (Slovenia). Tatjana Kalamar prepared a design, ordered silk and produced scarves. Gionata Villaggi received the design for selling the products via the internet.

Using the snakes and ladders process chart: The six stages from design to fulfilment process flow (i.e., sale) have been formulated as the approach for business generation that concerns textile and clothing as part of last year’s scoping work. The six stages are: idea, design, design development, preparing for production, production 1-25pcs, and production 26200pcs. This has been presented in form of the snakes and ladders game as a metaphor for the non-sequential aspects of the process. This process chart is an essential part of the work with designers or small businesses to help them understand the stages and what is needed in order for them to progress. This has been shown to be valued by individuals and businesses and is one example of knowledge transfer.

Figure 9: Illustration of complexity and non-linearity of the Short Runs Business Pilot

Dissemination of case studies: Within the last year, several case studies were produced and are available online. A special issue of the TCBL_zine has been also published on Short

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Runs. This includes for example an article about the actual Business Pilot and other related articles such as one piece describing the issues with fast fashion.

Continuation of new associates joining the pilot: In addition to the ongoing work with Sourcebook, other opportunities for new associates joining the pilot are explored. This includes the TCBL partner Reginnova looking for manufactures in Romania willing to work on small order. Furthermore 38 of the recent associates from the latest call have expressed an interest in this pilot.

Other related activities: There are numerous other activities that are related to this Business Pilot. This includes the collaborative work between the TCoE and Prato through the RESET project. Ruth Farrell started working with a small Italian manufacturer of upcycled clothing in early 2018. This opportunity should be just one of a series of initiatives that could be developed through participation in the WORTH Project (http://www.worthproject.eu/). This further includes the introduction of My Yorkshire Wardrobe which is an online service concept offering a customised range of clothing and accessories. An Italian version exists in Brescia (Italy) and has been piloted in an initial phase by a TCBL Start-Up EGO by Valentina Rovetta16, winner of the first wave of Calls.

RESULTS ACHIEVED The Short Runs Business Pilot seeks to develop a new model of short runs production drawing on TCBL services and knowledge to enhance match-making possibilities between designers and manufacturers. The pilot’s main focus is on the first high level objective of TCBL, a + 5% increase in manufacturing capacity, although it is contributing towards all four high level objectives. At the stage of this report there was first evidence of contributions towards the high level objectives, even though it is expected that this will predominantly take place in the last Phase of the Business Pilot.

At the end of Phase 2, two main results were achieved.

Online platform(s) for buyers and sellers is implemented that offers all functionalities needed: This result will contribute towards the objective of a novel supply network of 1000 organisations but also towards the one of new embedded services for customer driven supply chain.

In the first Phase of this project the online platforms were scoped and this work was within timescales but because of delays with the chosen provider in the following Phase, the work was on hold. Case study leads have found another solution to this and have started working with a different matchmaking platform provider in the last months and are currently working on case studies that will take place through the platform. However, the other reason for this part of the work to be on hold was that the importance of the expertise of TCBL partners. This was invaluable in making those transactions happen and assisting with any issues. These transactions would have not have happened in the same way through an online-platform. This part of the work will continue in the next Phase.

Examples of transactions facilitated by TCBL partner: The managed case studies are the main component of the Business Pilot. Through providing examples of how barriers to short run productions can be overcome using networks and expertise of TCBL partners and other actors within TCBL the Business Pilot is showing evidence of how these examples can be

16

https://www.slideshare.net/TCBLProject/jam-startups-ego-2-rev

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

replicated and scaled up. Therefore, these results will directly contribute towards the objective of a + 5% increase in manufacturing capacity.

Various examples of real-time business transactions have been completed either in this last year or before while other are still in development. To add value to these, they have been mapped by the case study lead against the barriers to short run production that have been identified in the first phase (see Table 3). These show how the barriers can be overcome finding solutions to match the needs of businesses or designers. For these case studies processes have been identified through the snake and ladder process chart. These will be essential for replicating the case studies drawing on the TCBL network.

Results achieved and the corresponding activities are shown in the table below for Phases 2 and 1.

Table 3: Barriers to short run production with existing case studies (Source: Progress report 2017) Activities (actual and conceptual) to overcome barriers to trade (short runs & independents) Barrier

Approaches/ activities

Case Studies/ Companies

Replicability/Scalability/Re commendations

Minimum order quantities too large for Short Run Producers (SRPs)

TCBL Labs linking producers and designers

Highly replicable through network of Labs and TCBL contacts/associates

Finding manufacturers willing to work on low volume production runs

Linking TCBL Associates to European and local manufacturers via online platform

1. Rita Brittan & Fabio Giusti 2. My Yorkshire Wardrobe 3. Gionata Villaggi & Tatjana Kalamar 4. Stephanie Hoole 1. Sqetch & Reginnova

Cost increases for lower volume fabrics, components, CMT

Shared space, knowledge & expertise to reduce costs and broaden options

1. Lottozero 2. Hainsworths

Highly replicable through network of Labs and TCBL contacts/associates

Manufacturers insist on payment or credit up-front

TCBL Labs acting as intermediaries

1. Stephanie Hoole

Replicable through network of Labs and TCBL contacts/associates building knowledge and trust

Logistics of components and cost implications

TCBL Labs acting as intermediaries

Large volume orders receive priority – Impact on development and production lead times

Skills & knowledge transfer for TCBL Associates

1. Dusanka Herman 2. My Yorkshire Wardrobe 1. Stephanie Hoole 2. Jackal Trick

Highly replicable through network of Labs and TCBL contacts/associates Highly replicable through network of Labs and TCBL contacts/associates

Insufficient buying power to warrant and maintain good quality

Aggregating skills & demand

1. Pratoexpo 2. My Yorkshire Wardrobe

Highly replicable through network of Labs and TCBL contacts/associates

Insufficient understanding of product development, the supply-chain and its workings

Skills & knowledge transfer for TCBL Associates

1. Prisca Vilsbol 2. Stephanie Hoole 3. Jackal Trick 4. Knitting / Sewing Cafe 5. Ravensthorpe ladies 6. Louise Stocks-Young

Highly replicable through network of Labs and TCBL contacts/associates

Highly replicable through network of Labs and TCBL contacts/associates

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Figure 10: Results and activities in Phase 1 and 2 of the Short Runs Business Pilot

CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING The Short Runs Business Pilot made considerable progress over the last 12 months. A number of case studies have been completed or are in development, these includes case studies involving business transactions such in the case of Fabio Giusti and Rita Britton, and

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

case studies focusing on knowledge exchange such as the ongoing work of Louise StocksYoung. The collaboration with Sourcebook shall be further highlighted.

The last year has further highlighted the enormous importance of TCBL actors to act as intermediaries to enable discussions in the first place and then to support the progress.

TCBL’s contacts and networks are a valuable resource to find manufactures and designers with a need and identify potential solutions. Without the TCBL’s expertise and consistency in supporting these collaborations there would not have progressed in the same way in many cases. As some of the cases involve cross-country collaboration language and cultural issues emerged, however, through support from TCBL partners this could be dealt with in a timely way.

TCBL Associates work within the Short Run Business Pilot have further highlighted benefits that TCBL has brought to them. For one case this is an ongoing business relationship that has developed from the initial transaction and the access to a new market. Another associate highlighted the incredible amount of knowledge within TCBL that she was able to access and which has allowed her to progress with her business in a trusted environment.

The challenges with the initially identified service provider Sqetch have been overcome. The work will continue in the next Phase. The combination with the additional provider Sourcebook will allow accessing different markets (i.e., countries) with slightly different business models.

There were no major challenges encountered that were not expected beforehand by the pilot lead. Working with different people from different countries always provides challenges. With the right support and experiences these can be overcome. As associates have normally also other demands on them as part of their work it can be sometimes challenges to prioritise this work and progress in a timely manner.

One case study participant within this pilot described that there are barriers for small businesses and designers to engage online and make use of online resources. This is because they either do not have the capacity to do so or they do not have the necessary skills.

In the latter case, they would benefit from learning marketing and business skills in order to access the online market. This notion further strengthens the importance of TCBL intermediaries on the one hand, but it also shows that there is a skill deficit.

NEXT STEPS The Short Runs Business Pilot is currently moving into the third Phase to scale and replicate the existing case studies. The key activities for next year will be finding more examples of new business models that can overcome barriers to short runs. This will involve mainly transactions carried out through online platforms, although still with the support of TCBL partners. A goal for the next year is to have more examples of cross-country collaboration.

The following activities are planned for the last year of TCBL: • • •

There are a few cases studies that are currently still in development, these will be completed in the next Phase.

The pilot will continue its collaboration with Sqetch as an opportunity for matchmaking that is facilitated online.

The work with the eight identified associates will continue as Sourcebook is proposing potential solutions. Transactions that will come out of this will act as case studies to show how matchmaking can happen through online platforms. These case studies will then further provide learning to allow for the construction of a ‘process flow’ to enable other business transactions.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs •

Further dissemination of the case studies will take place.

The pilot will continue to find solutions to the barriers that have been identified to show the sustainability and scalability of business models. Even though moving forward, there will be an element of automatization of matchmaking through the platforms to streamline the processes, TCBL partner will continue to play a crucial role within the case studies.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

THE INDEPENDENTS BUSINESS PILOT CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES Europe is full of small workshops, run by young graduates, alone or in small groups. Each one carries out each of the steps in clothing manufacturing: design, pattern making, prototyping, finding raw materials, manufacturing, and promotion. Currently, the fashion world is not made for them because it is geared towards large scale production (which also creates a lot of waste, with negative impacts on the carbon footprint): fabrics are only available at a decent price in large lots, and price competition is strong. In addition, independent designers are sometimes absorbed into the ‘big brands’, and their talent and work is not visible or recognised. However, independent designers tend to be more in tune with emerging social trends that are looking for personalised, sustainable and ethical clothing. As a collective force, they thus represent a potential to leverage a radical transformation fashion world.

Within this context, the TCBL Independents pilot seeks to work with, and empower, individuals and small scale textile and clothing enterprises by helping them improve their business with innovative services. Labs will support them through: facilitating access to frugal tools (e.g. Valentina project); improving their efficiency through better workflow management; assisting them to sell their services through e-commerce and logistics platforms; helping them partner with other Enterprises / TCBL partners to expand their production capabilities; and creating opportunities for networking and building mutual support.

KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘DISSEMINATING AND CREATING A NETWORK’ The figure overleaf shows the anticipated results of each of the three phases of the pilot. The pilot goes from an initial set up stage (Phase 1a+b) towards first examples of case studies (Phase 2), and then scaling up and out (Phase 3).

At the time of writing the first pilot narrative, the pilot was in its final stages of Phase 1 / initial stage of Phase 2. These initial steps mainly revolved around creating the conditions for experimentation (e.g. engagement activities to raise awareness of TCBL and connecting workshops and young designers to place labs); and delivering webinars to introduce digital pattern making (in particular the MacroGenPatternMaker software suite), which had emerged as an important issue in a survey administered to TCBL associates. In addition, case studies were developed with Palermo-based TCBL Associate Enterprises Simona La Torre and MAD (Marzia Donzelli) to develop new business models using this tool.

Since the first development of the Theory of Change there was a slight shift in the pilot’s focus and activities. This meant that some of the planned activities did not take place (and have been rescheduled), and new ones were undertaken.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Figure 11: Independents pilot activities and results Phases 1 and 2

As the figure above illustrates, in the period following #TCBL_2017, the activities related to the 'PatternMaker’; creating ‘spaces’ for independents to come together; designing workshops to experiment with body scanners in place labs; supporting individuals and small enterprises to increase their production capability by using TCBL’s business services such as Sqetch and Thela - Cleviria’s supply chain platform - to certify the quality of their products and adherence to environmental and social standards did not take place as planned (although they have been re-scheduled to take place this year). At the same time, some adjustments were made to the pilot’s direction, reflected in the new activities that have been undertaken, described below.

Developing two Lab projects: a Lab workshop was held in early September 2017 in Amsterdam, in an effort to give them a stronger ‘service orientation’ (which is the result of a wider TCBL shift). Two projects arose from this workshop and the ‘value modelling’ exercise that the pilot did as a part of it: •

Workspace Redesign: this proposed ‘sub-project’ is about making a garment production workplace more efficient and humane, moving away from ‘assembly lines’ which are now becoming impractical as more and more flexible production is required. In addition, there isn’t much literature on how to re-organise production of clothing which is however crucial to the

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

•

repatriation of manufacturing capacity. With this focus in mind, the pilot’s shift was exploring this issue, experimenting with re-creating the physical environment of a small atelier which could be a replicable production model.

TCBL Café: this idea arose from the successful example of knitting café Gullo Filati (TCBL Associate Lab), a Haberdashery store in Palermo and a point of reference for the Palermo knitters’ community, but shifting the activity to sewing. The idea here is to promote sewing, which is currently undervalued, as a socialising activity and create a space that can offer a solution to the long-term problem of sourcing local skills (crucial for the repatriation of manufacturing capacity) and opening up new markets.

In parallel, the pilot collaborated with ARCA as regards their participation in the Interreg-MED CreativeWear project, in the context of which Vestino took place (a three day event linking designers, shops, workshops etc).

Submitting proposals for additional funding: These two sets of activities resulted in these projects being developed as a set of six proposals for the WORTH partnership programme, involving several TCBL Labs and Associates. Key activities of the pilot have therefore continued to include supporting cooperation and collaboration between Associates and Labs tied to the pilot.

As a result, the Workspace Redesign Lab project (described above) has been successful. The experimentation is being led by Clea Polar (Coco&Rico), a TCBL Associate Enterprise based in Paris (joined in 2017), whose mission and key commitments are to make production ethical and sustainable and focused on “slow fashion”, and applied at Sartoria Sociale (Associate Lab), a workshop based in Palermo where young people who may be in need due to social, employment, or personal problems, meet and work together. The case is therefore bringing two ‘realities’ together that can experiment jointly and bring benefits to both parties. In addition, driven by the intention to demonstrate that an approach combining collective learning in a local environment with a demanddriven drive for suppliers’ business can work (in the form of a TCBL café), the pilot has been working with Ruth Farrell (TCoE), to initiate sewing cafés.

With this change in focus and additional activities, originally envisaged activities, relating particularly to the initial ‘digital’ focus have been re-scheduled. Aside from the ‘new’ knowledge acquired (the need for re-organising workspaces to improve production) and new ‘discoveries’ (Gullo Filati’s knitting café) which provided the opportunity to develop replicable Lab projects, reasons for the delay and shifting of these activities also related to practical challenges such as the physical move of the Lab within which the digital experimentation were due to take place; resolving the technical issues with PatternMaker (which resulted in the decision to trial a different software –Valentina Project), and sourcing Associates from the TCBL ecosystem who had the skills and competencies to train pilot participants in the use of digital technologies. Case leads ‘recruited’ WeMake, a TCBL Associate Lab who specialise in digital fashion, teaching and training, and consultancy, to deliver a set of workshops on digital pattern making and using a laser cutter (which emerged as an additional service ‘concept’). Although these activities have been delayed, the pilot still plans to create a group of people using these services, to add value to their products. Marzia Donzelli and Simona La Torre, the two independent designers who were initially going to lead the digital experimentations will continue to be involved once the workshops resume. In addition, Ornella Terrasi, who recently joined the TCBL ecosystem (a TCBL start-up ‘winner’ in 2018), will also join the Business Pilot and take part in further experimentations.

Finally, the number of associates joining the pilot has continued to expand, with 14 involved (although not all of them active at the moment due to the reasons described above) and a further 72 having expressed interest.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

RESULTS ACHIEVED The Independents pilot (as well as Short Runs) falls within the ‘re-shaping’ objective, which is about re-structuring the production process for agility and local value. There is an assumption that the main relevant TCBL impact for this Business Pilot is the “5% return of manufacturing capacity” achievable through re-structuring of networked production ecosystems, although the pilot potentially contributes to all four.

The journey of the pilot towards its contribution to these final objectives can be seen in three Phases: Phase 1: Creating the conditions for experimentation and initial testing. Through ARCA Textile Lab in Palermo this Phase involved first of all undertaking community engagement activities to raise awareness of the opportunity offered by TCBL, and of the ARCA Textile Lab as a place for experimentation; identifying needs; training in, and then testing, the use and viability of pattern making software (through the two independent designers identified as case leads). The pilot has slightly reoriented its focus, in line with additional needs having been identified, thus re-scheduling activities related primarily to the digital experimentations and developing two ‘Lab projects’ that have been initiated.

Phase 2: Disseminating and developing a network, which included generating a larger network of people who will use the lab as a place for innovation, joint experimentation and co-working. The number of TCBL partners and associates expands to include the work of other Business Pilots (e.g. bio-shades and natural cotton experimentations). In our previous report, we indicated that there were early signs of a novel supply network being created. In those early stages, Associates involved in the pilot included 2 Associate Enterprises (leading the initial testing of pattern maker experimentation); 1 Associate Lab and 1 Advisor. Through activities centred on supporting cooperation and collaboration between Associates and Labs tied to the pilot, this has continued and the number of those involved has expanded. Examples include the collaboration between Clea Polar and Sartoria Sociale, the Business Pilot’s collaboration with TCoE, and bringing together other associates in proposals for additional funding. These include: Tsakiris Silk (GR) and Marzia Donzelli (IT), Tatjana Kalamar (SL) and LabZen2 (IT) and several others. Although proposals have not all been successful, it created the opportunity for people to meet, network and create connections. “This is how TCBL really helped me. Every time I need something, I can ask for help. I recently needed a model to put a garment on, as I organised a small concept store. I got dozens of them. This networking, getting inspiration, helping each other really helps. All of this is thanks to TCBL” [interview with Associate Enterprise involved in the pilot].

Related to this, the pilot’s experimentation with, and testing, of a new workplace design and production methods (through the collaboration between Clea Polar and Sartoria Sociale), as well as continuing plans to ‘skill-up’ independent designers in the use of digital pattern making and providing a space for them to experiment with innovative technologies (e.g. laser cutters) that can add value to their products, may show its potential to improving the process, facility and human factors tied to effective capacity. “TCBL really helped me by introducing me to Sartoria Sociale: We are a factory for slow fashion, but we faced a situation in which all the tools we were using, the machines, are made for mass retail and fast fashion. We also wanted to try another kind of design of the workspace.

It’s all very linear usually, we wanted to working in a circle, exchanging skills, making the work environment more humane and nice [but weren’t able to do change the layout of our company]. So Sartoria Sociale can apply the design, and have the opportunity to test the design that I will propose.

And then we’ll discuss it” [interview with Associate Enterprise involved in the pilot].

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Phase 3: Scaling up and out, will continue to focus on the expansion of the Business Pilot as well as continue with the experimentations that have started this year and others that have been delayed. By supporting independents – who emphasise the quality and durability of products and attention to environmental issues –to partner with other Enterprises / TCBL partners, the hope is that this will help them increase their efficiency, and expand their production capabilities and market presence (contributing to TCBL’s manufacturing and carbon footprint goals).

The value of TCBL services such as Thela and Sqetch has yet to be determined for the pilot, and this will be explored over the next 12 months.

CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING Looking back at the journey of the pilot so far, several key learning points can be identified: •

•

•

•

Overall, the slight re-orientation of the pilot responded to a need that emerged as the pilot was being implemented. In this sense, having learned that increasing efficiency through workspace design held a potentially innovate solution was an important step for the pilot. In addition, as work progressed, it became clear that there is an existing movement of independent designers and small businesses who are working in this direction. Case activities therefore represent a space in which it is possible to demonstrate the value of, and give dignity to, small productions.

Continuing a theme that emerged in the early phases of the work, bringing people together requires a large investment of partners’ time and effort ranging from ‘practical’ support such as helping associates write proposals to acting as intermediaries to potential language barriers. In addition, maintaining engagement (e.g. in this case, activities included involving Universities), has not been straightforward. After being able to engage a group of people, this was lost over time, largely because the value of TCBL is not necessarily understood by all immediately. A related key lesson here is that this engagement work needs constant attention and effort, which requires concentrating activities and resources these activities.

Related to the above, an important factor that emerged related to the need to focus on practical activities that have the potential of generating a practical business return, particularly for ‘small realities’ for whom there is an opportunity cost in being involved in experimentations (e.g. time spent away from income generating work). Over the next months, the pilot will focus on generating ‘visible activities’ to support this continuous engagement work.

More broadly, a question of the role of resources (funds and competencies) appeared more strongly. For example, meeting business needs (such as supporting independents to sell) requires the right competencies to deliver training. This requires time to source the ability to fund it.

NEXT STEPS The key activities for next year will be on picking up on the workshops focused on the digital aspect of the pilot, and continuing with the two Lab projects. More concretely, over the next year, the following are planned: • •

The Workspace re-design will continue and results will be shared when the experimentation comes to an end (envisaged for August/September); A set of workshops will be delivered on Valentina Project and the use of laser cutters (carried over from Phase 2);

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs • •

The pilot will continue exploring the use of Sqetch as an opportunity for matchmaking that is facilitated online (carried over from Phase 2); Dissemination / engagement activities to generate a wider network of independents will continue as well as helping independents partner with other Enterprises / TCBL partners to expand their production capabilities.

Taking into account some changes to the pilot’s activities, the figure overleaf represents a visual illustration of its next steps.

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Phase 2: Disseminating and developing a network (generating a ‘critical mass’)

Phase 3:Expansion/creating a ‘movement’

Activities (2018 onwards)

Activities (July 2017-2018) • Complete testing by moving to Made to Measure (e.g. Lead case designers draft a pattern based on specific body measurements) to test its added value.

Planned activities rescheduled • ARCA: Creating a group of people who will be trained to use Valentina Project • Providing services (e.g. Sqetch & Thela) to ‘ignite’ interactions, and supporting Independents to sell their products and services on ecommerce platforms (e.g. Etsy / ASOS).

• Designing workshops for experimenting with new technologies/material • TCBL partners promote successful examples of experimentation • Case continues expansion

TCBL partners focus on developing a larger network by: • Undertaking dissemination activities (e.g. using the Zine / other TCBL communication tools to showcase experiment and other promising members) • Inviting additional Independents to join the experimentation through the new Call • Creating spaces to bring people together and interact, both in person and online (e.g FB page) • Helping independents partner with other Enterprises / TCBL partners to expand their production capabilities Planned activities rescheduled • ARCA: Creating a group of people who will be trained to use Valentina Project / PatternMaker • Providing services (e.g. Sqetch & Thela) to ‘ignite’ interactions, and supporting Independents to sell their products and services on ecommerce platforms (e.g. Etsy / ASOS).

• Designing workshops for experimenting with new technologies/material

Results •

New activities • Value modelling exercise • Proposals for two Lab projects • Development of additional concepts/services (e..g. laser cutting service for independent designers, training in digital technologies)

• • •

•

Results planned (but moved to next phase) Tested experiment demonstrates value-added (in terms of cost reduction/reduced waste/quantity/quality of outputs) Series of workshops (3D design etc) are delivered to support Independents to use/experiment with new technologies Labs become a space for people to come together to experiment with new technologies (e.g. 3D, sewing) and share/co-work (ARCA-specific: a maximum target / success indicator would be to see about 6,7 people in the Lab every day of the week).

• •

•

Planned Results achieved: •

•

Additional partners involved / case expands

•

Additional results • Workspace Redesign project accepted for funding and experimentation starts • New collaborations

Tested experiment demonstrates value-added (in terms of cost reduction/reduced waste/quantity/quality of outputs) Series of workshops delivered to support Independents to use/experiment/ with new technologies (knowledge and learning gains) Labs become a space for people to come together to experiment with new technologies Sufficient number of designers participating to allow successful match-making / collaboration between designers and manufacturers on a wider scale There is cross-contamination between other partners.

Competition is transformed into resource sharing Independents increase their competitiveness at reasonable prices and have opportunities to grow

Figure 12: Independents pilot planned activities and results Phases 2 and 3

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Impact 1) Projected %age increase of manufacturing capacity (e.g., based on reported increases by enterprises) 2) ) %age reduction of environmental footprint (reduction of material waste) 3) Embedded services 4) Network of manufacturers and designers is developed for the long-term

THE BIOSHADES BUSINESS PILOT CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES The dyeing process is hugely harmful to the environment due to the amount of water and chemicals it uses. Very few options are being explored in this fast changing fashion, clothing and textile industry, in which the list of chemical treatments is only expanding. However, bacteria producing pigment can offer an alternative to conventional dyeing, but the feasibility for industry of using this method has so far not been explored in depth.

Against this background, the TCBL BioShades experiment aims to: address an issue nobody speaks about; research into the potential of dyeing with bacteria; share knowledge – operate as a lab network. It is essentially a research project which brings together the expertise of a number of TCBL Labs and associate enterprises in order to: • • • •

Examine how a range of bacteria dye different types of fabric, Test the colour fastness of dyed fabrics according to standard test methods, Involve associate enterprises in using bacterial dye in their settings / industrial processes and Document the processes to develop a new business model around bacterial dyeing.

Figure 13: Bacteria Dyeing (source: https://labs.tcbl.eu/projects/2)

By developing an integrated service offer around bacterial dyeing which brings together relevant TCBL labs and associates, some of the logistical challenges of using bacteria to dye material will be overcome and wider / lasting take-up encouraged.

The diagram overleaf shows the activities and anticipated results of the first two phases of the pilot. These are discussed in more detail in the subsequent pages.

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Figure 14: Results Phases 1 and 2 and associated activities for the BioShades Business Pilot

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘TESTING FOR SCALABILITY’ The activities implemented during Phase 2 directly build on work that was implemented in the early months (Phase 1) of the pilot and the learning resulting from it.

For instance, one of the key learning points from Phase 1 was that in order to advance the work of the pilot and achieve the envisaged results, the leading Lab’s access to specialist (biological or chemical) expertise needed to be enhanced. Already during Phase 1 work started on identifying suitable lab collaborators with relevant specialist expertise to support scaling. This has continued during Phase 2 and resulted in the recruitment of three new TCBL Labs to the pilot which are able to ‘plug’ particular gaps in the experience and expertise of the initial core group of actors: •

•

•

The Vienna Textile Lab is a start-up focusing on bacteria dyeing and a member of the TCBL lab network since January 2018. One of the results of the initial piloting Phase of the pilot was the identification of two very practical challenges in the process of taking bacteria dyeing from a research project to industry: producing sufficient quantities (and colours) of bacteria dye for industrial testing and eventual replacement of conventional dye; creating bacteria dye in powder form to allow safe and costeffective transport. Vienna Textile Lab brings relevant chemistry expertise as well as access to specialist labs (equipment) which enables the scaling of the bacteria dye production so large scale production becomes possible. This involves: growing bacteria, extracting dye by separating the dye from the biomatter, developing a method to dye, prepare samples ready for testing (standards compliance and toxicity).

This happens initially with ‘familiar’ colours (pink, purple and blue) but may eventually also include a wider colour spectrum. Once this process is advanced, the envisaged industrial testing (on the premises of a Greek TCBL associate enterprise) will be able to be implemented.

Centexbel, a TCBL partner which, among others, has extensive testing and characterisation facilities, including a physical, chemical, fire and microbiological lab.

With the inclusion of Centexbel the testing capabilities within the pilot have been extended from the testing for compliance with key industry standards (washing fastness, dry and wet abrasion, colour fastness at acidic and alkaline perspiration and under water) carried out by Mirtec to testing for wider properties of bacteria dye (in particular toxicity / biomedical properties). Centexbel will receive samples from Vienna Textile Lab for testing.

Industrial Biotechnology and Biocatalysis Group, National Technical University of Athens, joined the TCBL network as a Make Lab and conducts research on bacteria dyeing.

As a result, the core ‘team’ of the Business Pilot now consists of five TCBL labs with synergistic expertise: Textile Lab Amsterdam (pilot leadership and research); Athens Making Lab (testing lab with industry equivalent equipment and business links); Vienna Textile Lab (a start-up by chemists fabricating organic colours made from harmless naturally occurring bacteria); Centexbel (which carries out research & innovation, testing, certification, consultancy, and training in the textiles and plastic sectors); the biotechnology lab of the Athens Technical University In addition, 12 TCBL associate enterprises are affiliated to the pilot and are to send textiles samples for testing, though this is yet to be started.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Beyond the creation of this collaborative Lab network on bacteria dyeing, Textile Lab Amsterdam organised two workshops. The first workshop (January 2018) focused on testing different fabrics with bacteria dye extraction and implementing toxicity tests. Participants included the three new labs forming the core collaborators in the pilot and hence offered an opportunity for individuals in these organisations to meet face to face. [Athens Make Lab subsequently organised their own bioshades workshop in Athens in collaboration with the Industrial Biotechnology and Biocatalysis Group, National Technical University of Athens].

During the second workshop (March 2018), Textile Lab Amsterdam taught 18 labs how to dye material with bacteria dye. As well as TCBL labs, at least three of those 18 participants were Fablabs not directly involved in TCBL as the organisers saw the event as a “chance to bring together a couple of networks� [TCBL lab interview]. In total, workshops organised by the pilot have attracted 150 participants across 14 locations 17. These face to face workshops are complemented by monthly virtual meetings / telcos where participants from TCBL labs take turn to present research questions which are then discussed by the group. Having piloted this way of working with the BioShades pilot, Textile Lab Amsterdam / Waag are now looking at rolling this out to the whole TCBL Lab network.

Figure 15: Bioshades workshops (source: BioShades presentation at TCBL partner meting Sao Jao 2018)

17

BioShades presentation by Textile Lab Amsterday (Waag), TCBL partner meeting Sao Jao March 2018 (unpublished)

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

In addition to spreading the BioShades message via the above workshops, the core pilot team is also working on more ‘conventional’ dissemination activities. Textile Lab Amsterdam are preparing a special issue of the TCBL _zine on bacteria dyeing which will be co-authored by those labs / individuals collaborating on the pilot. Scientific publications and conference contributions are being prepared by Mirtec and Industrial Biotechnology and Biocatalysis Group, National Technical University of Athens and considered by Vienna textile lab.

RESULTS ACHIEVED The BioShades Business Pilot seeks to achieve results and contribute to TCBL high level impacts by evolving and scaling its work over three phases.

Phase 1: Proof of concept phase (2016-2017) implemented a number of tests to explore compatibility of bacteria dyed silk with industry standards (e.g. colour change and staining). In our last case study report we concluded that early signs of a novel supply network being created and increasing manufacturing capacity could be detected.

Work during Phase 2: Testing for scalability phase (2017-2018), which focused on widening the network and adding expertise to widen scope and scale of testing, appears to have consolidated these early results. Thus, with the joining of three more labs a group of five organisations has been established that engages in actual collaborative efforts (most notably using each other’s expertise and technologies) to work through practical issues that need to be resolved before industrial take up is pushed a budding ‘novel supply network’ among organisations that in this form have not necessarily collaborated before has been created.

Beyond this, by continuing to research around practicalities of using the dye, engaging a significant number of actors from within and without TCBL into the pilot, teaching about bacteria dyeing (methods and materials) and using virtual meetings to discuss research questions, knowledge has increased not only among the core group of pilot participants but among other actors as well. One participating lab, for instance, explained that “(…) we learned about the personalities of the bacteria a bit more and how they behave, we learnt a lot about the application of dyes, (and) what kind of textile fibres we can apply (cotton, silk, citrus fibres)” [TCBL Lab interview]. Moreover, “there’s a huge interest from different countries and different kinds of people, including people from industry, artists, designers” [TCBL lab interview]. All of this points to the pilot’s ability to make a contribution to TCBL’s increase in manufacturing capacity target which, if successful, would eventually lead to a contribution to a reduction in ecological footprint of the textiles industry. The workshop methodology pioneered with the BioShades pilot might become a service so could be an early sign of how the pilot is contribution to the creation of ‘new embedded services supporting the customer driven supply chain’.

During Phase 3: Scaling up and out the pilot is working towards sustainability. Some of the above mentioned results may therefore have become even more concrete in 12 months’ time.

CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING With its work during Phases 1 and 2 the BioShades pilot has succeeded in creating, maintaining and expanding an active collaboration between a core set of labs (and beyond) with complementary and relevant skills.

“To me, it was the best example so far (…) on how the network of labs can work together, how they can add to each other’s ideas and capabilities. How (…) an idea

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs that may sound crazy at first (…) can be built into something bigger and wider from contributions from different partners.” [TCBL Lab interview].

A number of success factors (key learnings) emerge from interviews with case study actors on this point: •

•

•

•

A knowledgeable and well connected lead can enthuse and attract collaborators with new and relevant skills. “It’s basically because of Waag. They are very enthusiastic and are trying to involve new people” [TCBL Lab interview].

Having participants that are able to embody / live a particular set of values (in this pilot collaboration, openness, sharing) and establishing a way of working among them that taps into and nourishes this keeps a collaboration going and accelerates success. In BioShades, the workshop method was felt to generate an “open conversation that others can join in, making it more flat and comfortable” [TCBL lab interview]. Another interviewee felt that the practice of openness and sharing material and information (bacteria, guidelines) with interested people “makes it easier and more interesting and also (…) faster to take experimentations to the next levels. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel and you can try and work from this point forward” [TCBL Lab interview]. And a third interviewee shared: “I really hoped for cooperation and new ideas when I joined. (…) (A)s […] I am dependent on cooperation. I see other(s) (…) who protect their IP. I don’t think that’s sustainable. (…) cooperation is normally stronger” [TCBL lab interview].

Encouraging active participation. This is a key lesson in particular around the pilot’s method of shaping research on bacteria dyeing: “Monthly telcos in themselves don’t work, they need to actively research and produce content, make this available. [This] is creating a larger reason why you become a TCBL lab. You give 10% and get back 90. It’s about involving participants – they come up with the questions, develop TCBL and local research” [TCBL lab interview].

Linked to this as a success factor is going with where the energy is a system is (notably the participatory workshop methodology pioneered in the pilot): “if you move where the energy is flowing then [it’s] not so difficult to have results. (…) Where they (participants) already have questions or are interested and have a business” [TCBL Lab interview].

The current work on upscaling bacteria dye production is still a research process (in this case involving living organisms). This means things do not always go to plan (e.g. bacteria won’t produce colour) so planning the timing of activities (e.g. the testing) can be challenging.

Finally, the value of the TCBL business services (Thela, Sqetch, Wave) to the pilot remains unclear and these services are not currently used (though labs use the lab platform as they want to be visible). This remains something to be explored over the coming 12 or so months.

NEXT STEPS The Business Pilot is currently transitioning towards Phase 3 (figure overleaf). Broadly, this involves implementing activities that make pilot activities self-sustaining and less dependent on the current pilot lead organisation. Concretely, it is envisaged that this will involve: • • •

Further testing of samples for colour fastness, toxicity and other properties Presenting the research in an easily accessible way so that those who are interested in the results can find it without help from the pilot leaders at Waag.

Using the BioShades Network created to develop different entry points to deal with specific queries on the research (e.g. by enterprises) to support its practical application.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs •

Testing the methodology for lab collaboration developed during Phase 2 at a bigger TCBL Lab network scale.

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Impacts (2024 and beyond) 1) New embedded service created focusing on bacterial dyeing 2) Supply network of x organisations created supporting bacterial dyeing process via the above service 3) %age reduction of environmental footprint (reduction of energy consumption od dyeing, reduction of chemical use and water) 4) Projected %age increase of manufacturing capacity based on reported increases by TCBL associate enterprises using the technology

• • •

Activities Companies in the T+C sector (supporting Greenpeace campaign) see bacterial dyeing as a viable alternative to other methods Large brands use the method to dye some of their products (….)

Phase 3: Scaling up and out – results 1) A (full) range of colours has been tested 2) TCBL service on bacterial dyeing is created 3) A network of biolabs (external and / or internal to TCBL) collaborates to produce and distribute bacteria 4) Bacterial dyeing is taken up by TCBL associate enterprises in the commercial production of textiles demonstrating commercial viability of the method and environmental benefits 5) The bacterial dyeing business model has been captured, ‘codified’ and shared (and supported by evidence no costs and benefits?)

•

•

•

Activities Waag: Present the research in an easily accessible way so that those who are interested in the results can find it without help from the case leaders at Waag.

Using the bioshades network created to develop different entry points to deal with specific queries on the research (e.g. by enterprises) to support its practical application.

Testing the methodology for lab collaboration developed during phase 2 at a bigger TCBL lab network scale.

•

•

• •

Activities Mirtec: Supporting those labs that are experimenting by characterising samples Use industrial level dyeing machine to implement dyeing trials on powdered bacteria dye to the standard required by industry Facilitate collaboration with the TCBL lab at Athens Technical University Publication and conference poster

Figure 16: Moving to Phase 3 of the BioShades Business Pilot

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• • • • •

Vienna textiles lab: Purifying dye and make dye in powder form Publications Become investment ready as a business focusing on bacteria dye Develop a saleable product and potentially use TCBL network to help achieve this Run workshops in vienna

THE DIGITAL HERITAGE BUSINESS PILOT CONTEXT, AIMS AND ENVISAGED OUTCOMES Textile and Clothing archives can be an important source of inspiration for the design of contemporary collections. With the appropriate marketing and communication strategies (i.e., heritage marketing) in place textile archives can further highlight the culture heritage and value to the public and clients in particular. However, de-industrialisation has caused a loss of textiles archives and there is a general lack of a conservation culture in the industry. While some companies have maintained their historical archives, these are poorly accessible. This material – sample books and data sheets, in the case of textiles – is of great value, as it can preserve, and transmit, technical know-how. Indeed, textile archives have an increased role in providing inspiration and competitive advantage in corporate marketing strategies (i.e. heritage marketing). Archives therefore represent an opportunity: if they were properly stored, catalogued and digitised they could represent a significant resource for designers.

Within this context, the Digital Heritage Business Pilot, led by the Municipality of Prato and TCBL’s Design Lab based in the Textile Museum of Prato, aims to exploit this potential and demonstrate how heritage marketing can add value to textile companies with archives. The Business Pilot has started this process by raising awareness of the importance of archives. Ten companies were then selected to work within the Business Pilot and explore through testing and experimenting potential heritagebased innovations and creative processes such as archives digitisation, creative re-interpretation of textile heritage, new marketing strategies based on heritage marketing the value of their archives. The Business Pilot aims to highlight the creative potential of archives; offer innovative approaches to collections; develop new ‘heritage-based’ business models and tools for professionals in the industry.

Over time, the Business Pilot will draw on wider TCBL Labs, partners and enterprises to scale up the work.

It should be noted that the Digital Heritage Business Pilot brings together two projects – CreativeWear and TCBL, which are complementary. CreativeWear aims to recover and valorise the design heritage and tacit “making” knowledge of T&C in Mediterranean cultures through a focus on creativity and small-scale production for territorially specific value chains. It does so through a network of Creative Hubs that experiment different ways of supporting cooperation between creatives and enterprises.

Pilot testing of these approaches will validate new business models for cultural and creative industries that add value to T&C businesses in the Mediterranean. As part of this project, the Heritage Hub in Prato (led again by the City of Prato and the Textile Museum of Prato) will digitise the local industrial district’s textile heritage (e.g. catalogues, books, samples, collections, etc.) to inspire creativity and a strong Mediterranean identity for new T&C productions. Activities will revolve around piloting tools and services on archives digitisation (e.g. development of a cataloguing software for museum and company archives which will include a cataloguing campaign and software training; development of small scale collections; heritage marketing and communication strategies). This means that TCBL will provide the opportunity for testing activities through: digitisation of the Textile Museum’s archives; collaborations with design and fashion schools, research projects between the TCBL ecosystem, and between the Design Lab and pilot companies; and awareness-raising activities.

In this sense, CreativeWear will extend TCBL and test adaptation of the TCBL model (which couples Design, Make, and Place Labs with Business Pilots in innovative value chain scenarios) to existing creative clusters (e.g. museums, creative hub, fashion schools) –therefore integrating them into the broader TCBL ecosystem.

The Business Pilot will go from the set-up Phase, to small-scale experimentation with the initial core set of actors, and finally scaling up to the wider TCBL ecosystem. The pilot is expected to contribute

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

to the four TCBL high level objectives. The figure below shows these key phases while focusing on the key results that are expected within each Phase. The figure also shows that the pilot develops as it steps through each phase with expected results shifted towards another phase. It also demonstrates that Phases are not exclusive but overlapping to some extent. Changes from the previous year are highlighted in red.

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Figure 17: Key results of the three phases in the Digital Heritage Business Pilot

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

KEY ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE 2 ‘TESTING’ At this stage the Business Pilot has completed Phase 1. Parts of these activities have been already reported as part of last year’s evaluation report. As described in the Theory of Change activities from Phase 1 are: • • • •

Terms of reference for platform design Prato Textile Museum, University of Florence in Prato (PIN), 3-4 textile enterprises work to co-design platform Starting a cataloguing campaign at the Prato Textile Museum Awareness raising / training activities

This first Phase served the purpose of identifying the core team of the Business Pilot, raising awareness of the potential and added value of heritage marketing and agreeing on the terms of reference for the Heritage Manager. In this Phase the core team consisted of the Municipality of Prato, the Textile Museum of Prato (Design Lab), the University of Florence in Prato and an IT company responsible for programming of the Heritage Manager.

Through several awareness raising workshops with textile companies located in Prato, participants were able to explore concepts such as developing ideas on cultural, promotional activities from archives exploiting social platforms; technical analysis of Museum historical archives; technical design and digital printing; and a two-day creative design methodology workshop aimed at providing tools for archive material reworking as a base for new projects. Following these activities companies were able to express interest in joining the Business Pilot.

This Phase also saw a start with the configuration of the Heritage Manager which was developed by the University of Florence in Prato.

The other main activity in the Phase was the cataloguing campaign at the Textile Museum of Prato.

Building on the activities from the first phase, the following activities were set out in the second Phase when first constructing the Theory of Change for this Business Pilot.

• • • • •

Development of a cataloguing software for museum and company archives Customising of platform by companies according to their preferences and needs Software training for companies Small-scale selection of heritage material Continuation of awareness training/training activities

The text below summarises the key activities that pilot actors have implemented between July 2017 and May 2018 in light of the above plans.

Developing Heritage Manager: The University of Florence has completed the development of the Heritage Manager in July 2017. The Heritage Manager is a software that consists of a digital database of materials and products. The Heritage Manager allows browsing the available database, receiving information about selected textile samples, and saving your own selection. Figure 12 overleaf presents a screenshot of the Heritage Manager.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Figure 18: Digital Heritage’s ‘Heritage Manager’ – Main screen and list of search results

Collaborating with ten textile companies: Following the awareness raising activities ten companies expressed interest in the pilot and were selected to join the Business Pilot in July 2017. Work started with these ten companies from July onwards. As a first step they were asked to make a selection of material from the archive that represents their products and company. A selection was necessary because the archives contain an enormous amount of material.

Cataloguing campaign with participating companies: Following the installation of the Heritage Manager in each of the companies the team of the Heritage Manager carried out the cataloguing campaign. Professional photographers took high-quality images of the archival material to be inserted into the database of the Heritage Manager together along data sheets. Companies further received training to be able to use the Heritage Manager and were able to customize the Heritage Manger according to their preferences and needs.

Continuing the digitisation campaign at the Textile Museum of Prato: This work continued from Phase 1. The Textile Museum of Prato was preoccupied with other activities related to this Business Pilot, therefore, this activity was not completed in the first Phase. It will continue in the last phase.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

The awareness raising activities will also continue in the last Phase. However, at the moment the Municipality of Prato and the Textile Museum of Prato are using their full capacity to support the textile companies identified.

In addition to these activities originally identified as taking place in Phase 2, the pilot started to work on the design and marketing consulting with five of the ten companies that completed the digitisation campaign. Five of these companies decided to further progress with the Digital Heritage pilot and make use of the full service including design consulting (second step) and marketing consulting (third step), following the digitisation of their archives (first step).

Design consulting: Since the beginning of the year workshops have been delivered with designers to the involved companies to discuss possibilities of using the historic archive material for innovative projects. Lottozero Textile Lab is coordinating this step and has selected four designers to work with the five companies on their projects. Following the workshops individual meetings at textile companies premises (Creative Residences) have taken place in which designers have explored the archives of each company and have shared inspirations and ideas. Currently, companies are designing their projects based on the consulting trying to re-interpret their archives.

Marketing and communication consulting: This work started before the design consulting with workshops and training modules focusing on the storytelling of the company, heritage marketing and the enhancement of the archives. At the beginning of this year mentoring sessions were used to further review marketing and communication strategies using the new heritage approach. Once the projects have been completed by the company the marketing consulting will continue to ensure that the heritage collection of textiles is a core part of that.

RESULTS ACHIEVED At the end of Phase 2, case study actors envisaged achieving two main results. These are listed below and matched against the four high level TCBL objectives. However, as the pilot is mainly targeting the third high level impact – creation of new embedded services, these results are primarily contributing to this objective. Progress has been made towards both results, however, only the first one has been fully achieved.

1) Participating companies have been trained on how to use the Heritage Manager, have adopted it and have digitised their archives. This links in the first instance to the TCBL high level impact of the creation of new embedded services.

The Heritage Manager is the first part of the service that was created by the Textile Museum of Prato, Municipality of Prato, and the University of Florence and did not exist before. All ten textile companies have completed the digitisation campaign and clients can now browse through the Heritage Manager to select products. By using the Heritage Manager companies have shown to understand the potential of their archives and the value this can add to their representation.

2) Textile design consulting led to innovative projects based on the archival material.

Again, this links to TCBL high level impact of the creation of new embedded services.

Progress has been made towards the companies’ own projects based on the design consulting they have received. This is the second part of the service of ‘heritage marketing’.

Companies are learning how to re-interpret their historic materials and turn it into an innovative project. In that sense, companies are receiving support with learning to exploit their historical textile collections. Once this and the third stage (marketing consulting) of the service

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

is completed this will lead to further results. The marketing consulting is an essential part of the service as there is a huge lack of communication and marketing strategies. Websites of these companies are outdated and not user-friendly. This will show the companies how to ‘tell their story’. At this stage, it is too early to conclude about other results. Although it is expected that the full service, from Heritage Manager to design and marketing consulting, will lead to new clients and business collaborations for the companies that have heritage-based collection, which might lead again to profit increase. This will then link to the first high-level impact of a 5% increase in manufacturing capacity. This will be presented in the next report once the second and third Phases have been completed.

The figure below displays the achieved results in both Phases in relation to the activities implemented.

Figure 19: Results and activities in Phases 1 and 3 of the Digital Heritage Business Pilot

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

CHALLENGES AND KEY LEARNING Following the first period which mainly consisted of awareness raising activities and work on the Heritage Manager, this phase has seen an intense period of work with the ten companies to digitise their archives. A very good start has also been made with the design and marketing consulting to exploit the results of the digitisation campaign. This work will continue into the next phase.

So far, pilot leaders have received very positive feedback from the companies involved. Companies are spreading the knowledge that they are involved in this Business Pilot and working on increase the value of their T&C collections. For example, a company produced a short video to show their participation in the Business Pilot, which was displayed alongside a small selection from their archive at an exhibition stand in Paris at the Premiere Vision fair. Case study leads also described an awareness and knowledge shift in those companies: “Awareness that they now have something in their hands that has a value� [Case lead interview]. For some companies the digitisation of the archives was already on the agenda, but they did not have the resources or skills to do so. TCBL has therefore enabled them to highlight its cultural heritage to clients and the public.

The involvement of other TCBL actors and also enterprises outside Prato has been pushed to the third phase. This was done for two reasons. The first reason was practical and related to the intensive work carried out by the Municipality of Prato, the Textile Museum of Prato and the Lottozero Textile Lab which as very time-consuming. This meant that they could not have worked with more than ten companies. The second reason was that it was important to trial the service (including the Heritage Manager, the design and the marketing consulting) with a small number of companies. This is because it is a newly-designed service that has not been piloted before. To develop a sustainable model from that case study, lead partners needed to know how the process works and what to improve. One key learning during this process was the importance of being the link between designers and companies. For companies, working with young designers and learning from examples from fashion and adopting these to their archival materials represented a new way of working. The case study leads supported this process by finding the right channel for communication.

The whole process worked very well, in particular the Heritage Manager and the digitisation campaign. Case study leads feel that the second phase was particularly successful because they are offering companies a free service and because companies saw the value of the Business Pilot.

Before, materials were in forgotten rooms far away from the creative offices. With the digitisation of the archives, samples can be easily accessed by clients and designers.

The main challenge related to the resources and efforts required to work with businesses and keep them engaged. This is because they have other demands and their involvement in the Business Pilot is not always their highest priority. This is a point raised by other case study leads, and speaks to the resource-intensive and often time-consuming nature of maintaining engagement, which has been a central activity and role of TCBL partners leading the Business Pilots.

NEXT STEPS In the next year the Digital Heritage Business Pilot will move into the last phase. Activities in this Phase will include:

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs • • •

Completion of the design consulting and marketing consulting with the five companies. This will lead to a heritage-based collection project for each company.

Involvement of other TCBL actors and enterprises and replicating the process with other companies.

Continuation of the digitisation of the archive of the Textile Museum of Prato.

The second planned activity will be carried out with the background that this will need to turn into a paid service for companies otherwise it is not sustainable. While the Heritage Manager is a free software, training and consultancy for companies is resource-intensive. Once the pilot with the ten/five companies is completed the Textile Museum will have the methodology in place to develop a full service with three modules from that (1. Training Heritage Manager and digitisation involving professional photographers; 2. Textile Design consulting with designers; 3. Marketing consulting with communication experts).

To be able to scale up the Business Pilot it will be crucial to link with other Business Pilots. One suggestion raised was the overlap between Digital Heritage Business Pilot and the Independents Business Pilot. The design consulting element of this pilot involves independent designers to show textile companies the potential of their archival textile materials from a different perspective and to give them inspiration from fashion. This need might be able to be addressed within the network that was developed as part of the Independents pilot. To make the service developed as a result of this Business Pilot sustainable, a closer collaboration of TCBL actors is needed.

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Key outcomes of the three Sustainable Cotton pilot phases ..................................... 11 Figure 2: Sustainable cotton Business Pilot Phases 1 and 2 ................................................... 18 Figure 3: the value added of TCBL for the Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot ................ 20 Figure 4: Key results envisaged for the Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot ..................... 20 Figure 5: Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot operational framework ................................ 22 Figure 6: Eco-Friendly Production Business Pilot revised theory of change ............................ 27 Figure 7: Representation of TCBL short run production approach ........................................... 29 Figure 8: Key results envisaged for the Short Runs Business Pilot.......................................... 30 Figure 9: Illustration of complexity and non-linearity of the Short Runs Business Pilot ............ 32 Figure 10: Results and activities in Phase 1 and 2 of the Short Runs Business Pilot .............. 35 Figure 11: Independents pilot activities and results Phases 1 and 2 ........................................ 39 Figure 12: Independents pilot planned activities and results Phases 2 and 3 .......................... 44 Figure 13: Bacteria Dyeing (source: https://labs.tcbl.eu/projects/2) ......................................... 45 Figure 14: Results Phases 1 and 2 and associated activities for the BioShades Business Pilot .................................................................................................................................................. 46 Figure 15: Bioshades workshops (source: BioShades presentation at TCBL partner meting Sao Jao 2018) ........................................................................................................................... 48 Figure 16: Moving to Phase 3 of the BioShades Business Pilot ............................................... 52 Figure 17: Key results of the three phases in the Digital Heritage Business Pilot .................... 55 Figure 18: Digital Heritage’s ‘Heritage Manager’ – Main screen and list of search results ...... 57 Figure 19: Results and activities in Phases 1 and 3 of the Digital Heritage Business Pilot...... 59

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Business Pilots stages of development ........................................................................ 7 Table 2: Business Pilots and TCBL high-level impacts .............................................................. 8 Table 3: Barriers to short run production with existing case studies (Source: Progress report 2017) ......................................................................................................................................... 34

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DOCUMENT INFORMATION REVISION HISTORY REVISION

DATE

AUTHOR

ORGANISATION

DESCRIPTION

Version 1

01.5.2018

Giorgia Iacopini, Joe Cullen

TAVI

First draft and internal quality check

Version 2

20.6.2018

Giorgia Iacopini

TAVI

Full draft for review

Version 3

27.6.2018

Giorgia Iacopini

TAVI

Incorporation of reviewer comments

Version 4

30.6.2018

Jesse Marsh

Prato

Layout/Graphics

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This deliverable contains original unpublished work except where clearly indicated otherwise.

Acknowledgement of previously published material and of the work of others has been made through appropriate citation, quotation or both.

COPYRIGHT

This work is licensed by the TCBL Consortium under a Creative Commons AttributionShareAlike 4.0 International License, 2015. For details, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ The TCBL Consortium, consisting of: Municipality of Prato (PRATO) Italy; German Institutes for Textile and Fiber Research - Center for Management Research (DITF) Germany; Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (ISMB) Italy; Skillaware (SKILL) Italy; Oxford Brookes University (OBU) UK; imec (IMEC) Belgium; Tavistock Institute (TAVI) UK; Materials Industrial Research & Technology Center S.A. (MIRTEC) Greece; Waag Society (WAAG) Netherlands; Huddersfield & District Textile Training Company Ltd (TCOE) UK; eZavod (eZAVOD) Slovenia; Consorzio Arca (ARCA) Italy; Unioncamere del Veneto (UCV) Italy; Hellenic Clothing Industry Association (HCIA) Greece; Sanjotec - Centro Empresarial e Tecnolรณgico (SANJO) Portugal; Reginnova NE (Reginnova) Romania, Centexbel (CTB) Belgium, Institut Franรงais de la Mode (IFM) France, IAAC (FabTextiles) Spain, Cleviria (Cleviria) Italy, and Sqetch (Sqetch) Netherlands.

DISCLAIMER All information included in this document is subject to change without notice. The Members of the TCBL Consortium make no warranty of any kind with regard to this document, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

The Members of the TCBL Consortium shall not be held liable for errors contained herein or direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

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Business Pilots Evaluation 2018 TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The TCBL project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme for research, technology development, and innovation under Grant Agreement n.646133.

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