Blockchain and AI in the fashion industry: the opportunity for new sustainable standards

8

October

2020

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The fashion industry is among one of the most polluting industries in the world, responsible for 8 to 10% of global carbon emission, which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Fast fashion is strongly grounded in a linear way of production, with a  supply chain expanded over different geographical regions.  Overall, the supply chain in fast fashion is very disconnected; large corporations have suppliers and manufacturers spread all over the world, which leads to a large lack of  transparency and accountability for production processes.  Much of the unsustainable practices in fashion is due to lack of traceability, transparency and accountability that corporation’ have across the supply chain.

As a result, consumers are demanding more transparency about the production process and origins of clothing.  Firms as Zara and H&M are increasingly responding  to such consumer pressures, like for instance with the launch of sustainably sourced product lines.  Nevertheless, technological innovations are providing promising solutions for the lack of transparency in the fashion industry, and enabling an opportunity for the industry to become more sustainable. Innovations like blockchain and AI can enable connectivity and share information on corporate production processes increasing traceability and transparency, transforming the standards in the industry.

Blockchain enables track & trace technology and advanced inventory management, so that the great disconnected in the fashion supply chain can be more physically connected and transparent. Fashion corporations can track the movement of raw materials, fabrics, suppliers and manufactures, which increases the accountability of various players in the production processes that normally is difficult to achieve. This enables the needed transparency that incentives new sustainable standards.  Company’s like Pantagonia and Everlane are leading  sustainable company’s in fast fashion using sustainability and transparency as a selling point creating competitive advantage.

It will be very interesting to spot how emerging technological innovations are going to impact the fashion industry. It is without a doubt that these innovations can be used to create new sustainable standards that the public is demanding. But will this opportunity be enough for corporations to truly adopt new sustainable standards and move towards sustainable change?

Sources:
DRIFT (2018) The transition to good fashion. Report for C&A Foundation and Fashion for Good. Available at https://drift.eur.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/FINAL_report.pdf
Forbes, (2018)https://www.forbes.com/sites/samantharadocchia/2018/06/27/altering-the-apparel-industry-how-the-blockchain-is-changing-fashion/#67576d7329fb

The Economical Times (2019). https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/sme-sector/from-zara-to-hm-fast-fashion-face-the-age-of-reckoning/articleshow/72120398.cms?from=mdr

Weill, P. and Woerner, S. (2013). Optimizing Your Digital Business Model. [online] MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/optimizing-your-digital-business-model/

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Facial recognition: from great new technology to even larger concerns

24

September

2020

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Facial recognition technology has been around since the mid-1960s and has seen tremendous growth over the years. Applications can be found anywhere; tagging photos on social media, biometric locks, surveillance; the list is endless. While many of these may seem harmless and appear to facilitate efficiency for everyday tasks, scepticism on the technology has gained a greater foothold in past years. As the technology is achieving greater accuracy, privacy is becoming an increased concern. Some governments have set up permanent surveillance systems, collecting incredible amounts of data on citizens. While these systems are often claimed to provide safety on the streets, many are concerned about potential other uses of the data collected.

Worldwide, only a very limited number of countries have nation-wide bans in place: Belgium and Luxembourg. All other countries have no to very limited regulations regarding facial technology that should perhaps be reassessed. With America experiencing most of the uproar against the technology, action groups gained their first victory in 2019; San Francisco was the first American city to ban the private use of facial recognition technology. Now, a year and around ten additional city-wide bans later, the overall paradigm seems to be shifting even further.  Recently, Portland was the first city in the US to completely ban facial recognition technology for both private and governmental use. This seems to have sparked more discussion on the regulations that should be in place regarding the technology.

Studies have found concerning indications of the effects of facial recognition in everyday settings. For example, Andrejevic & Selwyn (2019) present social challenges facial recognition can have in schools. It is found that upon integration of the technology, the nature of schools can become oppressive, authoritarian and divisive. Additionally, the technology is being mass deployed in law enforcement, without any scientific evidence that suspects can be better identified. In fact, it is imposing stronger biases on law enforcement as the technology fosters a false sense of security. These are only some of the examples that have been found now that facial technology is being integrated.

Based on these reasons, I would personally urge all governments to strongly consider limiting the use of facial recognition technology on a large scale. While it is constantly developing and admittedly convenient in many scenarios, the actual scientific benefits for many applications are yet to be proven. Additionally, many risks have been identified that, while perhaps contained, for now, could start showing its effects at any time.

What do you think? Should facial recognition be better regulated worldwide? Do the applications outweigh the potential risks?

https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/facial-recognition#:~:text=Facial%20recognition%20technology%20was%20first,intelligence%20agencies%20and%20the%20military.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/29/what-is-facial-recognition-and-how-sinister-is-it

https://www.wired.com/story/portlands-face-recognition-ban-twist-smart-cities/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2020/06/13/facial-recognition-bans-what-do-they-mean-for-ai-artificial-intelligence/#6c6aacca46ee

https://www-nature-com.eur.idm.oclc.org/articles/d41586-019-02514-7

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/facial-recognition-world-map/#:~:text=Belgium%20and%20Luxembourg%20are%20two,use%20of%20facial%20recognition%20technology

Andrejevic, M. & Selwyn, N. (2019). Facial recognition technology in schools: critical questions and concerns. Learning, Media and Technology 45(2), pp. 115-128.

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Data philanthropy: How data will end global issues.

12

October

2017

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If you have access to this article it already means that you are not one of the 795 million (or one in nine) people in this world that is suffering from chronic undernourishment (2016 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics, 2017).You must account yourself as lucky that you are not one of the 1.6 billion people who doesn’t have a adequate housing (Global Homelessness Statistics, 2017). And with the recent chaos in the world partly due to ISIS, you must be feeling more than lucky to be not one amongst the 59.5 million people who are being forced from their home (Global Issues Overview, 2017). All these global issues have been here even before we existed, but still remained unsolved. What if there already is a solution, but simply no one was willing to take any action yet? What if I told you that the ones who are holding onto the assets, what can result into a solution are actually already among us? The one who is holding this magic key to solve the global issues that have been troubling us for centuries are: the companies.

It may sound that a blame has just been putted on the companies, but that’s not the case here. On the contrary, it’s just the case that these companies don’t know that they can play such a major role in humanitarian aid yet. And the good thing is, they already have these assets! These assets are namely: data. You may be asking yourself now: what has data to do with solving global issues? The answer is simple, with data you have information, with information you have knowledge and with knowledge you will get solutions. But companies have to be willing to donate their technology, so new data can be collected. Next, they have to donate the data they already have to provide information. To transform this information into knowledge, they also have to donate their decision scientists. These decision scientists take the data, clean it up, afterwards transform it and will eventually put it into a useful algorithm (Soldner, 2017). And these algorithms will be the solution to global issues.

There already have been some cases where data has helped in tackling big problems in our world. In Senegal and Ivory Coast for example, Orange Telecom is using donated cell phone data to see where people are traveling with the patterns in the pings to the cell phone towers (Orange Telecom, 2014). This enabled them to make predictions where malaria might be spreading. Or take Planet Labs, an American private earth imaging company, they donated their data. This data contained satellite imagery. And with these images droughts can be predicted so aid funding can be provided before a drought crisis (Brewster, 2014).

But what’s in there for the companies? First of all, interest in companies who are fulfilling their part in corporate social responsibility is rising. So companies who are willing to become a part of the solution will receive good PR. Secondly, 53% out of the workforce want to be part of a company that makes a big impact and 72% percent of the students agreed with this (Zukin & Szeltner, 2012). So companies who will be a part of the solution will attract top employees easier (Meister, 2012). Evidently, these employees will also be more loyal and engage more in their job function while working such a company (Cheeseman, 2016). Employees who are committed to their job will put in 57% more effort and 87% are less likely to resign (Gammon, 2014). Also, people who will be aided in the developing countries are potential customers. And maybe the most convincing reason for companies to donate their data is that while the decision scientist are working on the data for the humanitarian aid, they will find new insights in the data that will also be essential and profitable for the companies when used.

To put it briefly, if companies donate their data, data scientists and technology there will finally be a solution to the global issues. Of course, the data collected should be carefully treated, to ensure privacy, but at least there will be some light at the end of the tunnel. This will not only benefit humanitarian organisations, NGO’s and governments, but also the companies and its employees and maybe eventually the world.

 

References
2016 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics. (2017, October 10). From Worldhunger: http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/#hunger-number
Brewster, S. (2014, July 16). A Dove’s-eye view: tiny Planet Labs satellites send back images of Brazil, Egypt and China. Gigaom. From gigaom: https://gigaom.com/2014/07/16/a-doves-eye-view-tiny-planet-labs-satellites-send-back-images-of-brazil-egypt-and-china/
Cheeseman, G.-M. (2016, June 14). How CSR Programs Benefit Employees. From Justmeans: http://justmeans.com/blogs/how-csr-programs-benefit-employees
Gammon, K. (2014, October 15). The case for corporate sustainability? Better employees. The Guardian.
Global Homelessness Statistics. (2017, October 10). From Homelessworldcup: https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/
Global Issues Overview. (2017, October 10). From UN: http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/global-issues-overview/
Meister, J. (2012, June 7). The Future Of Work: Corporate Social Responsibility Attracts Top Talent. Forbes.
Orange Telecom. (2014). Data for Development Challenge Senegal. San Diego: Book of Abstracts: Scientific Papers.
Soldner, M. (2017, October 10). Your Company’s Data Could End World Hunger. From ted: https://www.ted.com/talks/mallory_soldner_your_company_s_data_could_end_world_hunger/transcript
Zukin, C., & Szeltner, M. (2012). Talent Report: What Workers Want in 2012. New Jersey: Net Impact.

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