The online Workshop “Building the digital and sustainable textile industry of the future” took place on January 27, 2023.
The workshop shared the main trends in textile innovation and I4.0 and the emerging needs of the Textile and Fashion sectors.
Some of the results extracted from the workshop are the following:
- Judith Bosch from the Textile ETP talked about the skills challenges in the textile industry, presenting the significant challenges of the industry, which are sustainability and circularity, digitalisation, resilience and strategic autonomy. Then, she talked about the innovation themes and research priorities (smart, digital, durable and safe).
- Alessandro Pierattini, textile and fashion designer, introduced the main issues and topics in sustainability in training new fashion and textile designers, concluding that the students must be well prepared for the new challenges of sustainability to create new business models within the circular economy.
- Yanti Slaats from the Centre of Expertise City Net Zero presented the CirCollab program. CirCollab aims to accelerate the circular economy transition in the Metropolitan region of Amsterdam by building a research infrastructure that stimulates the ingredients needed for transition.
Regarding the survey sent to the professionals, designers and students, the main results are:
- The main difficulties and challenges in transitioning towards more sustainable and circular practices are the consumer’s education (fast fashion, greenwashing, etc), access to green technology and knowledge of green sources and market segments.
- The digital skills needed to contribute to a circular economy are data analysis, knowledge of advanced digital systems, digital manufacturing operations, and social media management.
- The principal soft skills needed for transition in the textile sector are adaptability, problem-solving, creativity, and teamwork.
