#Sustainability

2021-02-04

Inditex joins MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium

Inditex, parent company of Zara, will be one of the founding members of the new MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC), launched with the goal of vastly accelerating large-scale, real-world implementation of solutions to address the threat of climate change. The MCSC brings together leaders from a broad range of industries to work together, and with MIT, to build a process, market and ambitious implementation strategy for environmental innovation.

Pablo Isla highlighted the importance of developing strong cross-sector links and collaborations among companies, academics and scientists in order to achieve a bold change toward a circular economy

Regarding the consortium, Inditex Executive Chairman, Pablo Isla, highlighted that our communities must “develop strong cross-sector links and collaborations among companies, academics and scientists in order to achieve a bold change toward a circular economy. I cannot find a better platform than the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium in this sense, as they meet the ideal conditions to find global solutions that make a difference.”

Inditex will work alongside other global companies to cooperate in trying to find a solution to the climate crisis. Through leadership from MIT’s School of Engineering and in collaboration with students, faculty and researchers from across MIT, the MCSC aims to:

Drive down costs and lower barriers to adoption of best available technology and processes.

Speed retirement of carbon intensive power generating and materials-producing equipment.

Direct investment where it will be most effective.

Rapidly translate best practices from one industry to the next in an effort to deploy social and technological solutions at a pace more rapid than the planet’s intensifying crises.

Innovative projects in sustainability

In addition to collaborating with MIT, Inditex currently collaborates on investigative projects linked to sustainability and corporate management with Tsinghua University, the Universities of A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Comillas Pontifical and the Polytechnic University of Catalunya, among others.

The new RDJ 7/3 defines the design footprint of modern athletic shoes

Stylish, functional, and efficient to produce – spacer fabrics are the all-arounders among textile materials. These versatile fabrics are particularly in demand in the sports and casual footwear sector, as they combine comfort, breathability, and design freedom. At the same time, this industry is trend-driven, dynamic, and price-sensitive like few others. Innovations are therefore a decisive factor for success. With the RDJ 7/3, KARL MAYER offers a solution specifically tailored to these requirements. The particular strength of the new double raschel machine: its exceptional flexibility, thanks to its three jacquard bars.

Smart textiles reversibly change shape in an energy-efficient manner in response to ambient temperature

Self-actuating textile structures are used in a wide range of applications, such as medical technology, automation, architecture, agriculture, and the apparel industry. An example is the use of shading nets in greenhouses, which can be deployed and retracted depending on the sunlight intensity. The German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (DITF) are developing textiles based on shape-memory polymers with reversibly controllable geometry.

Pre-Cleaner CL-X: Proven in cotton cleaning – creating value beyond the spinning mill

Since its market launch, the CL-X has firmly established itself in blowroom lines worldwide. Hundreds of installations confirm its ability to deliver superior cleaning efficiency, lower waste, higher productivity and significant energy savings. Now, new customer applications show that the CL-X not only continues to excel in spinning preparation – it is also entering a completely new field of application: ginning.

Updated supply chain taxonomy advances apparel alignment

The apparel alliance (Apparel Impact Institute, Cascale, Textile Exchange, and ZDHC Foundation) today announced the launch of Version 2 of the Supply Chain Taxonomy, an updated harmonized framework designed to improve consistency, transparency, and collaboration across the textile, clothing, leather, and footwear (TCLF) sectors of the broader apparel industry.

Sorona® and WGSN announce top bio-based material trends of 2027

Sorona®, the partially bio-based polymer from Covation Biomaterials (CovationBio™), and global trend forecasting authority WGSN today release the material trends shaping the textile industry through 2027 and beyond following a comprehensive examination of bio-based functional fiber applications and global data.