Marimekko Maps Their Path to DPP Readiness

Marimekko is a Finnish brand with 170 stores, plus eCommerce; its key markets are Northern Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and North America.

• Founded in the 1950s, Marimekko produces premium textiles, clothing, accessories and home furnishings with the brand’s unique graphic patterns and prints.
• Marimekko’s key production locations include Portugal – the focus for this pilot.
• The brand’s aim for the pilot was to better understand and test the  requirements of DPP and consider the IT systems that might be required, as well as achieving internal know-how for what is required through DPP.
• Marimekko’s role was to co-create the DPP protocol, implement digital data carriers, provide DPP product data and launch the DPP product onto the market.
• Marimekko chose to highlight: Material, Supply Chain, and Care in their ‘deep dive’ DPP data in the consumer interface.

Marimekko joined the Trace4Value project to map an approach to preparing themselves for DPP; they felt that upcoming legal requirements were rather intangible, making it difficult to devise a concrete roadmap for DPP preparation.

During an interview, Marjut Lovio (Sustainability Manager) and Masaki Kato (Project Manager in Marimekko’s Innovation Works team) shared their sustainability and information technology perspectives, respectively, from their involvement in the project.

“We became aware of the pilot project at a stage when we were thinking about how we could advance transparency in our supply chain, which in our organization sits with sustainability (where I'm from), but also in the Innovation Works team, where Masaki is working,”explained Lovio. The pilot therefore straddled those key departments.

By taking part in the pilot, Marimekko agreed to collect the data specified in the protocol and provide it to TrusTrace (in Excel spreadsheet form) for use in the proxy PLM system. Marimekko does not use the TrusTrace platform and so was collaborating with them for the first time, providing all the data from their own systems.

In order to gather the required data and implement the digital carrier, Marimekko cooperated with one of their Europe-based garment suppliers who could easily provide most of the necessary data for the DPP pilot. "We didn't start from scratch with the supply chain information" explained Lovio; Kato added: "The product [we chose for the pilot] is utilizing a closed loop production model and is from one of our partner suppliers in Portugal.

They take cutting waste and other leftover fabric from the manufacturing of Marimekko's jersey products as raw material for new products. We already launched some product capsules with this material so in a way, the information was already there. It was natural for us to combine these two pilots and thus make the data gathering for DPP easier."

Lovio and Kato also met with their garment label supplier, who printed the unique digital data carriers for each garment, according to the size. Instead of incorporating this into the existing garment care labels, the data carrier (a QR code) was printed separately and then sewn into the garment in an additional sewing operation on the production line. Kato explained that the project team preferred QR codes as the selected data carrier due to practicality and ease of use.

In terms of gathering the data, Marimekko used their supplier relationship management system, as well as their product data systems. Kato points out that "in the future, API-based solutions would allow easier connection, instead of the older systems [we use] that require extra manual work." For example, in the pilot, Marimekko collected the required information in an excel spreadsheet, which was then provided to TrusTrace to import into the proxy PLM system; the data was then fed via the API into Marimekko's consumer user interface.

Lovio's view is that for product-specific lifecycle assessment (LCA) data to meet the upcoming environmental footprint requirements, third-party verification will likely be needed. "For Marimekko it is of utmost importance to remain compliant with the green claims requirements," she says.

Marimekko operates in retail markets both in and outside of the EU, and therefore considered DPP data validity issues in all relevant markets. "We sell our products in the US and in Asia; and some of the DPP information is quite EU-centred; we couldn't include it because we sell on the global market where that information may not be accurate/relevant." This finding has potential implications for how (and whether) DPP data carriers should be sewn into all products, irrespective of the market they are to be sold in.

An important opportunity in the pilot was gaining insight into how and what data is provided to consumers via DPP. Within the pilot, the Trace4Value team are collating information on how many times the DPP-enabled products are scanned and the interface is viewed by consumers. The results of this analysis are not yet available, but both brands expressed an interest in the findings and how these could relate to future customer engagement opportunities.

Lovio concluded from the pilot experience that supply chains will need to change to include data management systems if requirements like DPP and CSDDD are to be met. "From my perspective, in order to pull all the data from a complex supply chain we need agents in between [stakeholders] to take care of the data management. Of course, technology can solve some of these problems, but at the moment the data is manually keyed in by people."

The other option, she says, would be a "forensic (tracing) or advanced technical solutions that would automatically gather the data." Lovio's conclusions are in line with those of CIRPASS, which predicts that DPP-as-a-Service operators will be sought (particularly by SMEs) to implement and ensure compliance with DPP.

At Marimekko, Lovio and Kato observed a shift in internal team members' interest in DPP between the start and end of the project. "When we prepared the pilot, the full extent of what DPP would offer wasn't clear yet. When we were able to share the concrete consumer interface to other teams, it sparked interest and the marketing potential for DPP was seen," explained Kato. Lovio added that the team sees potential for integration of DPP data into their community program.

A major outcome of the pilot, observed by Lovio and Kato, was how it captured the interest and excitement of senior decision-makers once the DPP product was in their hands and scannable. This will help in laying the foundations for discussing new data solutions in preparation for DPP, and what the priorities should be, based on the pilot findings.

Lovio believes, as a result of the pilot, that while the implementation of DPP by the sustainability department may seem to make sense, it will be more effective and add more value when aligned with (and deployed by) various operational teams managing the product's lifecycle. A shift in management of DPP outside of 'sustainability' is the likely result of this finding, she says.