Sustainability: garment hangers firm Mainetti taps blockchain to help global brands meet climate and environment goals
- The system will digitally record and facilitate independent verification of the carbon footprint of client activities across the supply chain
- China is among Mainetti’s top three markets, contributing over 20 per cent of its global sales
Mainetti, which designs and makes garment hangers for many global brands, is using blockchain technology to help customers keep track of their progress towards climate and sustainability goals.
In collaboration with a technology partner, the Italy-based firm is ploughing HK$1 million (US$127,000) into the first-phase development of a blockchain-based recording and validation system in Hong Kong, said regional director Paul Tai, who oversees Asia operations excluding India at Mainetti.
With a commercialisation target set for May, the system will digitally record and facilitate independent verification of the carbon footprint of clients’ activities across the supply chain, from raw materials sourcing to logistics.
“Without digitalisation tools, it would be extremely difficult to verify the carbon footprints through the supply chain,” Tai said.
Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger maintained by different computer nodes on a network, which facilitates the automation and streamlining of complex data tracking for large volumes of products and processes.
Under traditional tracking methods, a product made with multiple raw materials needs to obtain carbon footprint certificates for each input and arrange for separate audits, which Tai says is cumbersome and inefficient.