Sustainability in the UK Retail Sector and Fashion Industry

The global fashion industry is one of the biggest global polluters and one of the greatest producers of waste, while issues around unsafe workplaces, labour abuses and low wages continue.

One of the major obstacles preventing organisations from implementing more sustainable, responsible practices and preventing consumers from shopping more sustainably is a fundamental lack of transparency and visibility across the different stages of the supply-chain. Data is siloed, systems tend to operate in isolation and parties have had little to no incentive to share data with the rest of the ecosystem due to the significant manual effort.

This was the challenge taken on by a 2021 project team consisting of IBM and UK Fashion and Textiles, The University of Leeds and Tech Data, with funding from UK Research and Innovation.

On 24th May there is an opportunity to hear from the project team on the use cases, learning, and developments, delivered during the project. The agenda includes a guest from one of the leading UK retailers, New Look, who participated in the pilot along with IBM technology partners who have provided innovation and thought leadership.

We hope you can join us at the IBM Innovation Centre, York Road, London at 16:00 on Tuesday 24th May 2022.

Agenda

16:00 Welcome and Introductions

16:05 Adam Mansell, CEO UKFT – Key Note: Challenges Facing UK Manufacturers in the Fashion and Textiles Industry

16:25 Tara Douglas-Home, Senior Management Consultant, IBM – Providing Sustainability Insight with IBM Blockchain Solutions

16:40 Sue Fairley, Head of Sourcing, Sustainability and Quality, New Look – Use cases and Key learning points from UKRI Traceability project

17:00 Break

17:20 Richard Whyte, Responsiv – Using AI and Machine Learning to enable Blockchain Data Ingestion

17:30 Andy Feltham, Westwood AI – Capturing data in the field using AI Chatbots

17:40 Toby Mills, Entopy – Reducing supply chain complexity and your carbon footprint

17:50 David Hogg, Sterling supply chain leader for Europe – Integrating and surfacing supply chain data for all users

18:00 Close, Refreshments and Networking

19:00 Venue Closes