A set of tools and resources to support Fashion companies that will have to be ready for the Digital Product Passport. This is one of the main results of the European project TRICK - Empower Circular Economy with Blockchain Data Traceability (GA 958352) which, after 42 months, has completed its activities on the topics of sustainability, circularity and traceability along the fashion supply chain.

The TRICK outcomes are tackling the challenge of supporting highly fragmented supply chains in the collection of faithful data and related evidence for traceability and sustainability of the textile and clothing products.

The project has seen the development and testing of a platform that supports all companies involved in the creation of a finished garment (starting from the raw material supplier) by providing them with a tool that allows them to collect and organize traceability and sustainability data, with an approach based on standardized data flows supported by blockchain.

The basis of TRICK's approach to traceability is a holistic data model, compliant with existing methodologies and standards (UNECE methodology and GS1 EPCIS event model) and based on a massive extension of the eBIZ specification (CEN CWA 16667). The data model, developed by ENEA, is the basis of the TRICK platform’s approach for collecting and organizing traceability and sustainability data from each step of the production process and from all the tiers. The role of blockchain is crucial in this approach, as it guarantees the reliability and non-modifiability of the information collected along the supply chain.

This data model was experienced and validated in the collection of data from the two industry pilots performed by the project: in each of them the full process, from raw material to the finished product was performed and monitored, and, again, the post-usage recycling of such products has led to a new production loop with a mix of virgin and recycled fibers. The pilots were experienced by the project partners for protective workwear (a uniform of Grassi 1925) and classic fashion (a coat of Fratelli Piacenza). The products have been designed to be easier to recycle and to maintain their performance, both with virgin and recycled fibers.  The data generated by such an industrial experiment were collected both on the side of traceability of the operations and on the side of their sustainability.

The extension of the eBIZ specification proposed by TRICK to support such complex data collection led to the introduction of new topics on eBIZ. Its resources and tools  are available in the system of tools and public resources managed by ENEA,  accessible online though its document factory. More specifically data flows have been modelled for six prototypes of services: environmental impact assessment (for example PEF), circularity of materials, assessment of their healthiness, assessment of ethical and social aspects within the supply chains, in addition to the traceability and Preferential Certificate of Origin support. They are documented also though the public project deliverables D1.4 and D2.2, while the experience of the pilots is reported in D5.6.

This is an important contribution to standardization by the project, which is the object of the proposal of a new CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA, CEN pre-standardization document) as a mean to allow firms to collected data to be able to fill the future digital product passports (DPP).

Beyond the incoming CWA, the contributions to standardization provided by TRICK project are already released in a public deliverable and in a related policy brief.

The outcomes of the TRICK project have demonstrated, through the pilot testing, their concrete impact on the fashion sector, although much effort is still needed to be ready for the challenge of upcoming regulations, which require greater support to all the actors of the supply chain.

More information on TRICK results and lessons learned are available on the project’s website. 

DPP for textile and textile products: implementation roadmap

• transversal delegated act (sector independent): end 2025
• IT infrastructure requirements and standards (sector independent): December 2025
• JRC preparatory study on apparel, finalized: end 2025
• Textile delegated act: 2026 (second half probably)
• ESPR and DPP legislation in force for textile industry: not less than 18 month after the publication of the textile delegated act

These data flows urge because of the approval of the ESPR European regulation and its related obligation of Digital Product Passport (DPP), even if its final requirements are still to be defined.

In the TRICK project an organic proposal of extension of eBIZ has been developed and is becoming input to the CEN CWA pre-standardization initiative launched by the project.

The key concept of such extension is the holistic representation of the company and inter-company operations and data flows and the ‘Triangle of faithful traceability' where data and evidence are gathered from operations and activities, collected on a platform shared between the supply chain actors and then stored as factual information of footprints of more complex elements in the blockchain.

The main results

• The definition of 6 new reference processes (http://www.ebiz.enea.it/?q=trickp&k=2&li=en): the 'P1. Traceability for sustainability' is the backbone, then specific services are modelled, like the 'S1. Preferential Certification of Origin' or services based on experts’ assessments; all these services ('S2 Material Circularity assessment service', 'S3. PEF Product Environmental Footprint', 'S4 Social and Ethical Assessment service' and 'S5. Health protection compliance service') share a common approach for collecting data from the whole supply chain and manage their exchange of information with an incremental approach that delivers, at the end, some kind of assessment, Key Performance Indicators and validated primary data to be shared or not, according with the policies. As usual in eBIZ these processes are just a reference for companies willing to implement their processes.
  
  
• The definition of 22 new document templates (through JSON and XML Schema: http://www.ebiz.enea.it/?q=trickp&k=3&li=en): supporting such new services, improved dispatching and receiving advices for traceability and the two main reports, Traceability Report and Transparency Report. Such documents are the most comprehensive and flexible collection of data. These templates are complimented with XSLT stylesheets so that the XML file can be directly visualized from a browser (example in https://tinyurl.com/4vzn5cn9)

What is new in the adopted approach?

First of all, there are ‘operational instructions’ that allow to give instructions about, for example, the disclosure policies to be adopted for specific subset of information, or about the completeness of the shared data.  A practical consequence is that the same report might be used to RETRIEVE all the HISTORY about a traceability unit or to WRITE or UPDATE the history of a traceability unit by adding or modifying one or more events registered on a platform, without ambiguity.

Examples are: @disclosureLevel, @limitedByDisclosureIndicator, @storageAction

Secondly all the management of certificates and any other document (like self-assertions, transport documents, customs declarations, eCMR, etc.) can be supported by hashing techniques and information about blockchain notarization (with a blockchain neutral approach) in order to support the exchange of faithful, unchangeable and complete information and evidence.

Regarding sustainability data they can be expressed as they are available, with different levels of granularity (company, factory, plant, quantity of product) and with different sources and validation methods (@validationMethod: estimation, automatic monitoring, self-declaration, expert assessment, literature, etc.).

Finally, the product history is collected with the contribution of the different participants of the supply chain through the Traceability Report on the EPCIS event-based model; this model has been extended to be more readable and less complex but enriched for some specific information. An example is the case of the clear responsibility of the data declaration (it allows subsidiary declaration on behalf of the subcontractors but keeps track of it), more detailed information on process steps as well as possibility to declare waste materials generated at each manufacturing step.

A table of more than 200 manufacturing steps in the textile industry has been hierarchically organized to allow the declaration of the events at the desired level of detail. The table is here (T305 in http://www.ebiz.enea.it/?q=trickp&k=6&li=en) but can be further improved.

IMPORTANT: Currently these new specifications are the DRAFT version of eBIZ, we expect to deliver a NEW OFFICIAL version of eBIZ, including the outcomes and improvements from the activities of the CEN CWA Trick on data gathering, after its conclusion (expected by mid 2025).

More details about the data model could be find in Deliverable D2.2, at https://www.trick-project.eu/project-documents

Samples are available at:

http://www.ebiz.enea.it/?q=trickep&li=en

and

https://www.ebiz.enea.it/moda-ml/repository/istanze/Draft/default.asp?lingua=en&nomenu=1&sito=TRICK&css=TRICK