SCIRT panel | Fashion Talks 2023

Tom Duhoux, Muchaneta Ten Napel, Delphine Williot, Eva Engelen, Anse Smeets & Simon Gryspeert

SCIRT

Sustainability: the power of true cost thinking

Join this breakout session to elevate your understanding of true cost thinking in the fashion industry, where the true cost represents the gap between market price and the total societal impact of a product. Learn how to use true cost economics as a fashion brand in a day-to-day context and what the challenges are. The momentum is here, because in 2024, VITO and Flanders DC will launch the True Cost Calculator, an ambitious new tool for fashion brands developed within the SCIRT project. We kick off with a talk by Tom Duhoux (VITO), which is followed by a panel discussion with industry experts Muchaneta Ten Napel (Shape Innovate, FashNerd.com), Delphine Williot (Fashion Revolution), Eva Engelen (HNST) and Anse Smeets (VITO), hosted by Simon Gryspeert (Flanders DC, Close The Loop).

Host: Simon Gryspeert

Simon is our Lead Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Flanders DC and mostly works on sustainability projects within the fashion industry. He is responsible for the Close The Loop program, for which he guides Flemish fashion brands in developing and implementing a sustainability strategy. Together with VITO, Simon is developing a True Cost tool for the fashion industry, that will be launched within the SCIRT project in 2024. This new calculating tool will give detailed insights in the real environmental and societal impact of business decisions throughout the production chain and lifecycle of a garment.

Intro: Tom Duhoux

Tom Duhoux is researcher in the sustainable materials management unit at VITO. Tom has more than 15 years of experience in applying sustainability and circularity principles in businesses. He was co-founder of a sustainability consultancy firm and has proven the concept of circular innovation by founding the sustainable jeans brand HNST. Before his consultancy work, he worked in the field of waste management in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. At VITO, he is involved in various research projects on circular textiles and he is project team member in the European Topic Centre on Circular Economy (for the European Environment Agency), contributing to the work on waste management and textiles.

Panel: Delphine Williot

Delphine is the Policy and Campaigns Manager for Fashion Revolution. With a background in environmental policy, Delphine’s work includes the Fashion Transparency Index. She also works on EU advocacy with a specific focus on living wages through the Good Clothes Fair Pay campaign, which demands living wage legislation at EU level for garment workers worldwide.

Panel: Eva Engelen

Eva Engelen is Product & Sustainability Manager at HNST.

Panel: Muchaneta Ten Napel

Muchaneta Ten Napel founded two significant entities within the fashion industry - Shape Innovate, which bridges policy and fashion, and FashNerd.com, a digital portal focusing on the interplay of fashion and innovation. She has previously contributed to Vogue Business and currently holds the position of Senior Contributor at The Interline. Muchaneta has a decade of experience in fashion PR and is a renowned keynote speaker. She has delivered speeches at events, including the Global Fashion Summit, Premiere Vision, and Munich Fabric Start.

Muchaneta has recently participated with the UN UNFCC and Climate KIC at COP27. She currently holds the position of Chairperson for the Culture and Creative Industries (CCI) Taskforce under the UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub.

In terms of academia, Ten Napel holds the position of Associate Lecturer at the London College of Fashion, UAL. Her teaching experience extends to other institutions, such as Conde Nast College of Fashion, and she has conducted workshops at the Zurich University of Arts.

Panel: Anse Smeets

Anse is Circular Economy Researcher at VITO, with a strategic expertise in business model innovations linked to the circular transition. The textile industry is one of her focus sectors. Anse has co-authored reports for the European Topic Centre on circular economy, resource use and (micro)plastics in textiles, and within the research project SCIRT - that demonstrates technical and systemic innovation on textile-to-textile recycling - she is in charge of the development of the True Cost Model.