Sustainability and technology is a winning combination to accelerate the transformation of your fashion business. However, despite the great benefits that a Global Sustainability Management Platform could have for your company, it’s possible that you still have certain doubts about the time and resources that it’ll take for your team to start working with a tool of this size. At BCome we want you to see for yourself the simplicity with which you can enter the world of sustainability. Discover which are the essentials to start working with BCome.

It’s possible that you have never managed a Global Sustainability Management Platform or that this is even your first contact with sustainability. Don’t worry, there is a first time for everything and at BCome we’re very aware of this. Behind our technology there is a human team that will make your introduction to the platform even easier. Our solution is designed so that you can have both the autonomy that our technology gives you, and the support that our Sustainability Coaches offer you.

In this article we focus on indicating the basics that you should have at your disposal when starting to work with a Sustainability Platform to boost your fashion business.

The first contact you will have with BCome will start with the traceability of your supply chain, does that sound complex? Not at all, it’s much simpler than you imagine.

How many people on your team will need to be involved in the process?

With a single person from the company coordinating the delivery of documentation, it will be more than enough. From BCome we recommend that the first phase be led by the person from the company who has the most direct contact with suppliers and products, such as the Supply Manager or the Product Manager. If there is already a Sustainability and Innovation Manager in your team, who better to get involved in the process.

Later, after delivering the results, you can expand access to the platform to all members of your team who can benefit from having impact information to improve their work, such as Designers or Marketing Managers.

Is it necessary to have some previous knowledge about sustainability?

Being familiar with some terms never hurts, but if this isn’t your case, we are here to make it easier for you. From the beginning, our Sustainability Coaches will explain each of the phases of the journey map with all kinds of details. In a very short time, you’ll be familiar with both the specifications of the information to be declared and the terminology related to our evaluation methodologies.

What kind of documentation must be provided to start working with BCome?

In the first meeting, our Sustainability Coaches will ask you for raw information regarding the collection to be assessed, such as the selection of items, composition, weight, wet processes that may have been applied, suppliers or the origin of the raw materials. In case it isn’t possible to present this information in this previous phase, there is no problem, everything will be completed as the process progresses.

To streamline your work as much as possible, with this data, our team will prepare an action plan and present a pre-filled form with the information provided at the next meeting. In this way you’ll be able to see clearly what data you need to obtain to complete the traceability of all the products to be analyzed.

What data on the traceability form is essential to complete to move forward?

• For each item
  • Name and reference
  • Category to which the product belongs
  • Manufacturing supplier
  • Materials employed
  • URL of the product images

• For each material
  • Name
  • Category
  • Application
  • Composition
  • Country of origin

• For each supplier
  • Name
  • Stage of the chain to which it belongs
  • Country of origin
  • Transport used
  • Validation of best environmental and social practices, in case of having hired the advanced plan

• At the corporate level
  • Review of best environmental and social practices of the company, for advanced users
  • Location of the main logistics center

How long is it going to take you to collect all this information?

I know, right now you are probably thinking that gathering this information will take you months. However, our experience after having worked with multiple brands is that it will take an average of 3 to 5 weeks to complete your traceability. We ask you for the essential information, from there, you tell us how far we can go.

But what if you have difficulties completing the traceability form?

As our objective is to pave the way for you to go as far as possible, we have different tools that you can use to make it easier to declare all this information.

• Traceability guides. A series of resources that will allow you to easily find the meaning of the specific terminology used in the traceability form and better understand the differences between the processes and categories used within the industry.
• Supplier support form. Exceptionally, we can create a specific form so that your suppliers can declare their information more quickly.

And once traceability is complete, how long does it take for your results to be ready?

There is a previous step before getting fully into the evaluations. To guarantee that we have the necessary information to start the analyses, we move on to the phase of validation and closing of the traceability form. We want your results to be accurate, for this, our Sustainability Coaches spend about 3 days doing an exhaustive review of all the information declared.

Once all the data has been validated by BCome, we begin the analysis. In this second phase, you won’t have to do anything at all, our technology will do its magic. 7 days after the traceability validation, the results will be available on the BCome platform.

What exactly are the results that will appear on the platform?

It will depend on the products hired, but below we offer you a brief summary of the data that you could have access to in a single click after the results are delivered:

• Home. From here you can quickly access any of the projects you have completed with BCome.
• Traceability. We’re working on the last details so that these features will be available on the platform very soon.
  • PLM. View here details of your traceability such as the specifications of the materials used, suppliers, logistics, etc.
  • Journey Map. Discover the journey that your product has experienced, mapping your suppliers.
• Metrics. Key data on the environmental impact and savings of your products.
  • LCA. These are the results calculated after the Life Cycle Assessment of your items. For each of them, you will have 4 impact indicators available with their corresponding equivalences:
    • Water scarcity
    • Global warming
    • Eutrophication
    • Abiotic depletion

• • LCA benchmark. Compare the environmental performance of your products with the industry standard.
  • CEI. Find out what the Circularity Index of each of your products is. This feature will be enabled very soon on the platform.

• Eco-Score. Through this tool you will be able to know the rating of your products based on four impact areas: planet, people, transparency and circularity. Available for advanced users.
• Reporting. We’re working so that you can soon consult the most relevant data of each of your projects through the platform.
• Digitization. This is the space where you can expand the visibility of your results.
  • Smart-labels. Access the QR associated with each of your products to easily and quickly integrate sustainability reports into the labels of your items.
  • E-integration. Discover the step-by-step guide to integrate your results into your e-commerce.

• Ecodesign. This section will be available to you from the moment you start working with BCome.
  • Academy. We’re building a library full of resources so that you can put the principles of ecodesign into practice.
  • Glossary. The ultimate dictionary of sustainability to master the language of revolution and start using accurate terms.
  • Stage Comparator. Compare the environmental impact of different alternatives throughout your supply chain to make more informed decisions. You will be able to enjoy this tool from the beginning if you are an advanced user.

Of course, the first contact with your evaluations will be done by the hand of our Sustainability Coaches. They will explain the results product by product, as well as the definition of concepts that may arise.

So far our introductory guide to the BCome platform. In future chapters we promise to tell you all the tips on how to get the most out of your results.

At BCome we are committed to creating a positive, measurable and scalable impact, quantified through data that provides knowledge and value. We want to make all our tools available to your business. Shall we talk?