PTC and Made2Flow Partner to Help Brands Mitigate Waste, Greenhouse Gases

Fashion companies can now see the environmental impact of material choices in the design phase.

PTC and Made2Flow have teamed up to offer FlexPLM customers access to environmental impact measurements technology, which PTC said will help fashion retailers and brands to “significantly accelerate impact reduction across scope 3 [emission goals].”

The companies said the collaboration will enable users of its FlexPLM platform customers to have access to “transparent, science-based impact measurements at scale, to help them drive more environmentally responsible decisions during design and product development.” PTC said brands and retailers “rely heavily on generalized averages and generic environmental data sets due to a lack of transparency and data gaps across the supply chain.”

PTC said this integration occurs as the apparel, footwear and retail industry faces “increased pressure from consumers, government regulators and even investors to significantly reduce their environmental footprint.” This has led retailers and brands to commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions as well as water use. “Achieving these goals requires companies to make more sustainable material and product development decisions,” PTC said in a statement.

Made2Flow, based in Germany, uses a textile database that has more than 4 million primary data points, which is used for data validation purposes via more than 78,000 combinations of various products and materials.

Bill Brewster, senior vice president and general manager of PTC's retail business unit, said the collaboration comes at a time “when brands and retailers are highly focused on sustainability and challenged to make more environmentally responsible decisions.”

Brewster said Made2Flow's technology allows product teams “to understand the environmental consequences of their design and development decisions earlier in the process, which enables them to proactively impact their Scope 3 reduction targets. Our collaboration with Made2Flow provides apparel and footwear manufacturers with science-based analysis directly within the FlexPLM platform of how much CO2 (GHG) is released into the environment in each step of the manufacturing process, including water use and land use.”

He went on to note that as product designers and managers make changes to the materials, “they automatically and seamlessly see the impact of these changes on the environment and can course correct if needed.”

Tal Shogol, chief executive officer of Made2Flow, praised the collaboration with PTC. “Especially in today's marketplace where consumer needs are changing rapidly, it's essential that brands have the ability to make informed decisions and share results in confidence based on transparent, primary data-rich calculations,” Shogol said.