New EU rules, fashion cornered from design to green slogans
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Digital passport, ban on destroying unsold items, labels that do not carry green slogans but scientifically proven data on the impact of the product. If up to now those listed have been options or new testing grounds for fashion companies, they could soon become legal obligations. Some of them, in fact, represent cornerstones of the Espr regulation approved on 12 July by the EU Parliament and which, after the vote by the Council, should be published in the Official Gazette by the end of the year. Others are included in the rain of rules with which the European Union aims to transform the sector in a green key.
The push from the rules
In fact, the Espr is just one of the regulations which, included in the “EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles” – launched in March 2022 by the EU Commission to make textile products more durable, repairable, reusable and recyclable – will imprint an inevitable change to the sector. A sector which, extended to the so-called connected sectors (eyewear, jewellery), has a turnover of 103 billion euros a year in Italy. But also an industry that worldwide is second only to the oil industry for negative environmental impact. And that in a certain sense must be cornered on a regulatory level: «The level of transformation of the current business model to achieve the supranational decarbonization objectives is enormous – explains Matteo Capellini, expert associate partner of Bain & Co -. To date, companies do not see a market demand such as to “justify” a quick change. So the role of the regulator is a fundamental engine».
The rules in force
Among the standards already approved and in force, the Corporate sustainability reporting directive stands out, which from this year obliges listed companies to account for their environmental impact through the publication of sustainability reports (a comparison is currently underway with companies on models standard report), and the Deforestation Regulation (Eudr) which also impacts on industries that use bovine derivatives such as leather and requires companies to carry out rigorous due diligence to verify that the raw materials used are not the result of deforestation.
Three key propositions
Still in the embryonic stage of a proposal, however, there are the Corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDD) which establishes guidelines that companies must respect (but would not apply to SMEs), and the Green claims directive which aims to discourage greenwashing, introducing shared, scientifically based parameters for product labels, thus protecting consumers. The latter are the subject of another directive proposal: Empowering consumers for the green transition, filed on 22 March 2022.
The Ecodesign regulation
uThe Ecodesign Regulation (Epr), expected in the trialogues presumably after the summer, which will have a major impact on Made in Italy companies, because it affects the entire life of the product: from design to disposal. In a certain sense, Espr has highlighted the difficulty of interpreting all the facets of such a complex sector. If Italy has had a leading role, for example, in negotiating the exemption of SMEs and micro enterprises from the ban on destroying unsold goods, albeit with certain exceptions (the reference is article 20, applicable one year after date of entry into force), some requests presented by the various textile associations (including Euratex, the European association of textile companies of which Sistema moda Italia is a part) or the National Chamber of Fashion, which represents high-end creative companies, have not been accepted for now.
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