Finland As A Forerunner In Sustainable And Knowledge-based Textile .

RESEARCH REPORT VTT-R-00684-217 (30)ContentsPreface. 2Summary . 3Yhteenveto . 5Contents . 71. Introduction and framework for the roadmap . 82. Global trends for the vision and opportunities in Finland . 102.1 Sustainability . 102.2 Personalized experience. 112.3 Knowledge-based textiles . 113. Implementation of needed actions in Finland . 143.1 Future proof loop pilot . 153.2 Designed for sustainability . 164. Economic value . 185. Methodology . 206. Dismantling the workshop discussions . 216.16.26.36.4Finnish textile value chain . 21Digitalisation . 23Future consumer. 25International partnerships . 267. Conclusions . 29

RESEARCH REPORT VTT-R-00684-218 (30)1. Introduction and framework for the roadmapThe textile and fashion industry in Finland is currently going through a transition period. Thereare several interesting pilot projects and industrial production investment projects going onaround the new and more ecological textile fibres as well as recycled textile fibres in Finland.The innovations and investments around novel cellulose-based and recycled textile fibresprovide a basis for the building of a textile cluster, which has links to the forest industry,digitalization and software development as well as other technology industries in Finland.The formation of a textile cluster requires investments to Finland. In addition to investing inproduction, we need to strengthen international trade, especially in the consumer business, sothat excellent Finnish products and innovations produce sustainable growth in Finland. For thetransformation of the Finnish textile industry, we need increased understanding ofopportunities that lies in the data economy, robotics and automation in order to produce anddeliver sustainable, personalised and high-quality products to the global market.Our common aim is to find ways to create new investments in the textile industry as well asinternational business in Finland. Instead of exporting dissolving pulp from Finland Finnishcompanies could export textile fibres, yarn, fabrics, knits, nonwovens and finished products,such as apparel, work wear and home textiles. The value of finished products is much higherthan dissolving pulp1.The different European level action plans, strategies and directives have created pressure forthe transformation of textile industry. The European Commission has identified textiles as oneof the priority product categories for the circular economy in the 2020 EU Action plan forcircularity2. The EU strategy for sustainable textiles are being prepared and it will help textileindustry to shift to a climate-neutral and circular economy3. In addition the single-used plasticdirective4, The EU initiatives on Sustainable Product Policy5 and on Sustainable CorporateGovernance6, the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy7 will have impact ontextile sector. Globally, the UN Sustainable development goals are driving the action towardsmore sustainable world from social, economic and ecological perspectives8.Finnish textile industry is in the midst of a transition towards sustainability in raw materials,production processes, design and the whole life cycle of textiles. In general, this transition hascreated a need to identify the possibilities for further development needs, investments andbusiness opportunities for the textile industry in Finland. The first step was to formulatetogether a vision, especially from the point of view of digitalised and sustainable textileproduction, for Finnish textile industry for 2035. In practice, the work started by identifying thethemes around which the roadmap was built. The main focus was on reforming the productionprocesses towards sustainable, responsible and digital production. The identified themesimportant for the transition period were Finnish textile value chain, digitalization, futureconsumer and international partnerships. This roadmap is linked to Finnish Textile and1Tahvanainen, Antti-Jussi, Pajarinen, Mika (2014).Älykankaita ja kukkamekkoja. Suomalainen tekstiiliteollisuus globalisaation ristiaallokossa. Helsinki: TaloustietoOy (ETLA B265) available https://www.etla.fi/wpcontent/uploads/alykankaita kukkamekkoja ETLA B265 kansilla.pdf2 EU Action plan for the circular economy (2019) 3 EU strategy for sustainable textiles (in preparation 2021) inable-textiles en4 Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of theimpact of certain plastic products on the environment https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/904/oj5 -initiative en6 egovernance en7 EC (2019) European Strategy for Plastics https://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/plastic waste.htm8 The 17 goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals

RESEARCH REPORT VTT-R-00684-219 (30)Fashion’s Carbon Neutral Textile Industry roadmap9 and to Telaketju roadmap that deals withcircular textile economy and recycling of textiles.The vision for the Finnish future textile industry was built in close collaboration with the Finnishtextile industry, Finnish Textile and Fashion and VTT’s experts. The industry and otherinterested stakeholders were invited to two workshops, where first step was to identify thethemes around which the roadmap was then focused. In the second workshop, the attendeeswere discussing the vision for the sustainable transition of Finnish textile industry as well asenablers and barriers at the present time. The roadmap was geographically limited to Finland,even though the textile industry is global. The international partnerships were identifying theimportant cooperation and international links for Finnish textile industry. In addition, theworkshops were intended to Finnish textile actors, but the cross-industry collaboration isneeded to combine knowledge-based textiles to smart production and data driven solutions fortransparency.In the workshops, three global trends driving the change of the textile industry were identifiedand they are discussed in chapter two. Third chapter focuses on the first ambitiousimplementation actions that could pave the way towards the change in Finland. Chapter foursummarizes the economic value of the transformation. The collection of data for this report isexplained in chapter five and the workshop discussions are opened in chapter six. At the endof the report, in chapter seven, there are conclusions.9Hiilineutraali tekstiiliala -tiekartta. Loppuraportti (2020) rtta FINAL.pdf

RESEARCH REPORT VTT-R-00684-2110 (30)2. Global trends for the vision and opportunities in Finland2.1SustainabilitySustainability and responsibility are growing trends and these values are transforming intobehaviour, purchasing and cooperation trends. Behaviour are catching up the values. Inaddition to the growing consumer awareness, textile producers and brand owners emphasizethe importance of sustainability and responsibility. Tightening legislation in the EU isaccelerating the transition to transparency and bio-based and recyclable raw materials andtextiles.In the production of textiles, bio-based materials and novel production methods of bio-basedand recyclable textile fibres will enable the shift towards sustainable textile industry. Thematerial base for the Finnish novel cellulosic textile fibres is certified. The certificates of forestindustry, FSC and PEFC, promote ecologically, socially and economically sustainable forestmanagement. The novel cellulosic fibers shall have their own branded certificates, and theseshould be referred to in the final product. ”Intel inside” and Gore-Tex could act as successfulbranding references for the Finnish actors. Alongside the development of bio-based materialstheir recyclability must be taken into account. In addition, a certified method is required to verifyrecyclability.Increased recycled content in clothing inventory will be enabled through reusing, recycling andrefining innovations, emphasizing quality. There is a need for certificate for recycled fibres thatverifies the recycled material content in the product and gives the promise of recycling. Thecertificate will enable the branding of recycled materials and facilitate their marketing.Designers have strong responsibility in their work. In this frontline work, they need moderntools and concepts. Simple digital tools are not enough, but designer needs product modelingand supportive intelligence to hit the most functional and sustainable design. The training ofdesigners should emphasize the sustainable design solutions and there is a need for a designguide to help them to check the sustainability of materials using available life cycle analysis(LCA) tools and versatile data sources for the review of impacts of their choices. Thedevelopment of the certification of materials helps the sustainable design. The extension of theEcodesign Directive to textiles is currently being discussed in the EU. In addition, the ProductEnvironmental Footprint (PEF) Method for textile products is nearing completion by the end of2022. These are sure to become requirements and tools that will guide product design in thefuture and help make consistent LCA calculations.Consumers need a simple and standardized sustainability label, which will indicate all the coreaspects of sustainability in an understandable manner. For this simple label, there is a needfor the development of a more complex indicator for sustainability with a comprehensive LCAview on circularity and sustainability. The indicator is data-intensive and needs support fromdigital platforms. There are already some efforts towards sustainability verification, such asRank a Brand and Higg Index, but more research and development is needed to giveconsumers a simple way to verify the sustainability. The EU's Initiative on Sustainable ProductPolicy is currently addressing these issues. For example, in the future, environmental claimsfor products should be based on LCA calculations according to the PEF method, and a digitalproduct passport is being developed to ensure the availability of product-related informationthroughout the product life cycle. Consideration is also given to the changes of the consumerprotection legislation with regard to green claims. There is a desire to protect consumers fromgreenwashing, and the need for legislative reform in this area is also being assessed in variouscountries and within the EU.

RESEARCH REPORT VTT-R-00684-2111 (30)2.2Personalized experienceFashion and clothing are a way to express oneself and feelings. A person becomes a brandand influencers have strong impact on style. The desire to create and use personal solutionsin fashion is growing. At its simplest, the personalization helps shoppers navigate e-commerceofferings and get to the purchase decision faster. This requires AI solutions and data whichreflects consumers’ habits and predicts their future buying behaviour. Virtual fitting of clothingenables consumers find the right size and well-fitting garment according to their actual bodymeasurements, body shape and style. Future digital experience is allowing a user to selectand preview 3D photorealistic design before production. Extended reality with AR and VRsolutions, not only in the consumer business but in the fashion industry more general includingvirtual fashion shows and digital/virtual collections. The aim is to create digital, immersiveexperiences besides physical experiences. In this respect similarities between gaming industryand fashion industry can be identified in the near future.In addition to personalized shopping experience, personalized fashion covers unique, made tomeasure and made to order clothing. Key for individual fashion lies in mass-customization nearthe consumer. The reaction time from the purchase decision to ready product createsadvantage to Finnish actors and Finnish companies focus more on personalizing semi-finishedproducts. Different additive manufacturing methods and micro factories will enable made tomeasure clothing and personalized fashion.Finnish excellence in design, digitalisation and industrial production provides excellentpreconditions for the creation and mass customization of next-generation, high-value-addedtextile solutions. Big data and AI are the key to use the data for nearly perfect prediction. Thesetogether lead not only to maximum end user satisfaction and profits, but also minimalenvironmental impact. However, design, digitalisation and production know-how alone are notenough in creating significant growth for Finnish textile industry. The growth requiresstrengthening international consumer trade from these points of views.2.3Knowledge-based textilesKnowledge-based is the essential information content of a product that can be used to createa successful customer experience, social acceptability and reduce the burden on theenvironment. Information includes the sustainability and acceptability of production, traceabilityof the origin of products, suitability for customer use, maintenance, repair and recycling. Datacan be collected, stored and shared across multiple technologies on different material andproduct platforms. Data, extensive information related to a product, is available from an opensource throughout its lifecycle.Knowledge-based textiles emphasise the value of the material and data the material iscarrying. This stands for clever business models and technical solutions where value is relatedto material properties so that the inherent and improved material properties determine thefunctionality of end-application. In addition, the value of the textile product is partially based onthe data it carries. On the one hand, the material is selected to applications where it has thebest performance. On the other hand, the recyclability of the material is prerequisite for alltextiles and fashion. At the same time, material and textile product carries its story, for exampledata about its origin, usage and end-of-life options.Additionally, clever and knowledge-based textiles will have high resale value. Consumersvalue their clothing and when making the purchase decision they take not only the price intoaccount but also estimate the resale value of the clothing. The story behind the garment canbe stored to the product, so that the story and information of the usage of the product isavailable for the next user. EU’s Initiative on Sustainable Product Policy is currently promoting

RESEARCH REPORT VTT-R-00684-2112 (30)the use of digital product passports. Digital passport could carry information that may with theproduct throughout its life cycle. The accompanying knowledge that the textile product carrieswill promote traceability that in turn could be a significant competitive advantage for newFinnish fibers and products processed from them.The production and product transactions are optimized to make full use of advancedmanufacturing technologies. Data are gathered during the production steps. New capabilitiesfor processing sensor data, along with big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence arethe keys to process the data and finally reach intelligent manufacturing.The intelligence and functionality of sustainable solutions and materials are emphasized as aspecial opportunity for Finland. The know-how of bio-based raw materials and smarttechnologies is among the best in the world in Finland.For improving the customer experience in fashion and textiles, we will need more transparentinformation and data from the whole textile lifecycle. Data should include many details fromwhole lifecycle starting from origin of the raw material ending to the point where the textile isthe source of the new fibers or other

textile and fashion, sustainability, digital solutions VTT-R-00684-21 Summary On the one hand, the textile and fashion industry in Finland is currently going through a transition period. On the other hand, Finland has excellent preconditions for transforming the textile industry as part of an international network.