Green for Fashion
The "Green for fashion" project, acronym G4F, has the specific objective of implementing a "green" production chain, involving the various project partners capable of creating new models of eco-sustainable bags made using new materials, new processes and new productive and managerial methodological approaches; thus overall reducing the environmental impacts of the bag product and at the same time increase production safety, quality and efficiency.
In this regard, the project plans to develop new "green" and totally "green" bags using more eco-sustainable materials and leathers. In particular, new leathers will be developed and obtained using new tanning treatments (vegetable tanning, which uses natural extracts, such as tannins) and environmentally friendly colours (natural dyes using vegetable matrices and/or material waste from the agronomic sector) for the creation of the bags. A new range of accessories for bags will also be developed during this project using new materials and/or new galvanic treatments such as: nickel low, nickel free and cyanide low, which are much safer and less polluting than traditional ones.
At the same time a new prototype system will be developed to make the qualitative evaluation and selection process of the leather more efficient and effective in the production of bags. This will be possible by exploiting the evolution of deep learning technologies and neural networks, thanks to which an innovative system of visual analysis of tanned materials will be created.
The G4F project will also see the design and implementation of an integrated information tracking system, in order to allow the company to achieve full control of the entire product life cycle and the integration of the entire development process of products and collections. The implementation of this system will be supported and facilitated by the use of ICT solutions and technologies for the management of the product life cycle (PLM) and the warehouse and the use of RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification) technology.
The project, financed by the Tuscany Region - Regional Operational Program 2014 - 2020 Call for proposals n. 1: Strategic research and development projects; it started in October 2017 and will presumably end in the first half of 2021, and is structured into four operational objectives.
The first operational objective involves the partners Graziella Braccialini S.p.A (project leader) and Creativity Box for the development of a range of new "green" bags and related accessories and the Inera partner for the development of the visual analysis system for the selection of leather.
The second operational objective involves the partners River Chimica and Sadepan Chimica and provides for the development of new treatments for tanning and environmentally friendly colouring to be applied for the creation of new "green" leathers.
The second operational objective involves Coventya and provides for the development of new nickel, nickel free and low cyanide galvanic treatments to be applied to the bag accessories. The fourth and last operational objective still involves the partners Graziella Braccialini S.p.A and Creativity Box and concerns the design and implementation of the integrated information tracking system. The partners are also supported in the research activity by various consultants, in particular by the research laboratories QUMAP and LOGISLAB of the PIN “Polo Universitario “Città di Prato” and the "Stazione Sperimentale per l’industria delle Pelli e delle Materie Concianti (SSIP)" (Experimental Station for the Industry of Leather and Tanning Materials).