Dissatisfaction With Sustainability Legislation On Both Sides, And The Stress Test For Spatial Computing

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Sustainability Legislation Update: Delays, Dissatisfaction, and Data Dependence

This week, lawmakers on the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee (JURI) agreed to a two-year extension to the deadline for developing sector-specific sustainability reporting standards under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). If sanctioned, this extension would push back the implementation of the sustainability disclosure standards and reporting requirements for non-EU entities until 2026. The approval of general sustainability reporting standards for non-EU companies is also slated to be postponed until 2026, and is also scheduled to undergo negotiations with EU governments before reaching final legislative approval. In a post-meeting statement, JURI members urged the Commission to release eight sector-specific standards as soon as they are ready ahead of the 2026 deadline – where presumably fashion and textiles will be included – to allow companies in those sectors the time to prepare.

Enacted in November 2022, the CSRD initially mandated reporting requirements for both publicly traded and privately held businesses within the EU starting in 2024. The directive articulated the establishment of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), overseen by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG).

Legal Affairs Committee rapporteur Axel Voss explained, “It needs to be noted that EU companies have recently been facing many challenges and heavy bureaucratic burden in times of the COVID pandemic as well as the war in Ukraine and its impact on energy prices etc. Postponing the adoption date of 2 years will be very relevant for companies under CSRD scope to recover while it will not negatively affect the achievement of the objectives in the area of sustainability reporting.” The Commission also has recognised the “extra burden” these reporting requirements impose on companies – specifically SMEs – and aims to simplify these requirements and reduce such burdens by 25%.

If you listen, a collective sigh can be heard throughout the fashion industry; some in frustration and some perhaps in relief. The responses to this update in the legislative timeline – along with other critical pieces of law pertaining to fashion and textiles – are likely to be a mixed bag, with justifiable criticism that any delay in mandating disclosure is a delay the world cannot afford, and equally justifiable claims that reporting requirements that are so far divorced from reality as to be impossible to comply with are never going to have the intended effect anyway.

In a piece for BoF this week, Kenneth Pucker (former COO of Timberland turned university professor) details how, through working with the New Standard Institute to secure passage of the New York Fashion Act, big fashion brands and trade associations have expressed dissatisfaction with the Act’s compelled disclosure of their supply chains, citing concerns about its feasibility. The legislation mandates that brands selling in New York state conduct due diligence, report on their environmental impacts, and minimise their carbon emissions to a granular degree. Pucker notes that the small list of exceptions who view the legislation favourably include sustainability-driven brands Patagonia, Reformation, Cotopaxi, and Eileen Fisher who are already prepared to comply. But the absence of support from fashion’s biggest names says a lot about the overall sentiment towards the stringent legislation in both the EU and US.

On the other hand, there are now many advocates – brands, retailers, manufacturers, academics, lawmakers etc – who will be very disappointed at the glacial pace at which the sustainability legislation is moving, and who will argue – again, justifiably – that the ability of values-driven brands to comply with legislation quickly is evidence that it’s not the legislation itself which is faulty, but the relative inaction of other brands.

The fact remains, though, that the biggest problem when it comes to disclosure is still an absence of objective data. Even with the help of technology like RFID tags and sensors, analytics that use AI, supply chain mapping software, and blockchain,  – all of these are only as good as their input data. And fashion professionals have repeatedly emphasised the difficulty of unpicking, mapping, and tracking their supply chains – collecting and collating data across a massive, interconnected, opaque global value chain.

Of course, that visibility is – at least in theory – something that these brands could build, but it would mean an overhaul of a system that is set up to align with the breakneck pace of fast fashion at the lowest price point possible. And industries have historically not responded well to legislation that threatens the core of their commercial interests.

As The Interline has advocated before, one way around that lack of visibility would be to ramp up domestic production using digital means. Additionally, there may still need to be a monumental deceleration of the frenetic pace of the industry. Spearheading this slowdown, this week, is Scandi favourite Ganni, who decided to sit out the season, and instead of their usual runway at Copenhagen Fashion Week, intends to provide financial support and advisory services to a cohort of up-and-coming Nordic designers.

This is a daring step in the fashion industry, where such a decision might be misconstrued as something being off, but if fashion is going to make fewer new products, then it is, by definition, going to have fewer new products to sell. This could also be especially crucial for emerging designers, granting them the necessary time to hone their distinctive creative contributions without succumbing to the relentless pace of fashion’s rapid calendar. Over time, this deliberate movement can pave the way for reduced reliance on fast fashion, increased domestic production, and improved traceability and transparency – making disclosure compliance for brands and retailers something easy and a point of pride.

Apple’s Vision Pro: fantasy and function hit the road

Today, Apple releases its long-anticipated Vision Pro, which it says is the beginning of “spatial computing.” According to their definition, this involves rendering digital assets and running experiences (in the form of apps) all around you. The Interline has previously discussed the core concept of spatial computing and its potential implications for the fashion industry – primarily the benefit of blended 2D and 3D workspaces that allow for improvements in productivity and creativity, as well as bringing fashion a step closer to realising the huge value potential of digital assets.

There is an active debate over whether spatial computing represents anything new, or whether it’s a better-polished faced on mixed reality and virtual reality, but there’s no argument from The Interline team against the idea that having flat-plane displays and 3D objects side-by-side in a single workspace – all anchored to physical space – is a cool one.

There is also a high degree of uncertainty over whether the Vision Pro headset will bust out of the confines of existing VR HMDs (i.e. the Quest 2 and 3) and create an entirely new device category, or whether the hardware itself – as incredible as it no doubt is – might be an engineering dead-end on the road to a different kind of mixed or augmented reality.

The major determining factor there is likely to be developer support and consumer uptake, and, encouragingly, there are fashion tech companies taking a proactive approach. swatchbook – an industry leader in material digitisation and sourcing – today announced ‘remix’: a 3D design application built on top of and alongside its existing platform, exclusively for Apple Vision Pro. Tailored for both professional designers and consumers, ‘remix’ has an intuitive interface where users can interact with high-quality 3D products in their environment, applying and recolouring real-world materials in real-time.

This in itself could be a game-changer in some scenarios, as digital assets play an ever-growing role in facilitating integrated digital and physical workflows in fashion. Having a workspace that accommodates both 2D and 3D – when that 3D can be retextured and recoloured at will, with links back to physical material sourcing, will be particularly powerful given that it is implemented by Apple – a company renowned for its exceptional track record in human interface design and its success in catering to both consumer and professional needs.

The best from The Interline:

Kicking off this week, Brendon Ronon, Head of DPC on the Product Operations Team at Gap Brand, builds a blueprint for DPC success.

We announced our first AI Report: exclusive editorial, technology profiles, market analysis, and a comprehensive examination of one of fashion’s biggest tech topics – all in a brand-new report, coming this spring.

Anupama Fernando & Hasini Weerasinghe of MAS Holdings explored the untapped potential of digital materials and soft avatars in digital product creation.

Scaling back new product introductions to meet waste and emissions targets could leave a hole in fashion’s balance sheets. Darya Badiei asks if brands can build new service models to compensate?

And finally, we talk to the Founder & CEO of Style3D on their approach to connecting the entire spectrum of digital product creation.