The ZuSiNa AI lighthouse project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and aimed to make sustainability information in online retail more accessible and visible for the textile sector using data-driven technologies.
Project coordinator Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun has now reported on the results in an interview for Zukunft - Umwelt - Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH. The starting point of the project was the realization that reliable sustainability information is underrepresented in online retail, although consumers and companies have a strong interest in it. The ZuSiNa project relied on IT and artificial intelligence (AI) to overcome this challenge.
One difficulty was implementing the IT solutions in practice. However, the actual challenges went beyond technological aspects. Fundamental entrepreneurial and political decisions are required in order to implement sustainability-oriented solutions in practice.
In conclusion, Christian Thorun emphasized the great need for a continued dialogue process involving politics, companies and civil society in order to further develop the topic of "sustainability information in the textile sector". The aim is to link current political discussions such as the Digital Product Passport more closely with practical sustainability issues. The project team hopes to have initiated this process and that it will continue to gain momentum after the end of the project.
For the full interview (in German), please read the article here.
Further results of this project can be found here.