[March 12, 2024, Amsterdam] – The Impact and Assurance Programme, which provides a novel approach to primary data collecting, was introduced by Sourcery. By providing standardized, regionally-specific, and third-party validated primary data, the Program offers the cotton value chain unprecedented transparency, traceability, and trustworthiness. With the launch of this program, Sourcery hopes to change the way that sustainable cotton is viewed by giving manufacturers, grower organizations, and producers access to data. The Sourcery Connect App, which was created in collaboration with Bluenumber®, provides a validated primary data collection method that is more reliable, accurate, secure, egalitarian, and, consequently, scalable than anything currently available.
The fiber and textile industry is trying to stay ahead of government regulations and increased scrutiny over the source of raw materials, social and environmental compliance, and claims, so this comes at a crucial time.
One crucial component of Sourcery’s Direct-to-GrowerTM Program is the Impact and Assurance Programme. To completely revolutionize trade, it will be implemented globally over three years in several phases. In a world where climate change and economic volatility are affecting growers and everyone upstream in the supply chain, this program can be used to strengthen the authenticity of the fiber origin and materials used in products, ensuring compliance with current and emerging legislation and meeting growers’ demands. It makes it easier to improve agricultural and economic resilience, which raises the price of cotton (fabric, yarn, and fiber) in the end. This is accomplished by acknowledging and recognizing growers’ and manufacturers’ dedication to showcasing their excellent commercial, social, and environmental performance.
Additionally, by offering a means of generating and renewing the financial investments necessary to propel significant and quantifiable change at scale throughout the textile value chain, the Program seeks to address the current obstacles related to commercial costs. This is accomplished by giving growers, grower organizations, and manufacturers ownership, rights, and sovereignty over their data. Consequently, by gathering and selling data to downstream Sourcery Partners or other parties who want to make claims based on the data gathered & validated using the Sourcery Connect App, farmers and manufacturers can generate the economic value required to invest in their farms, facilities, and personnel.
Crispin Argento, Global Managing Director of Sourcery, stated, “We built a system with data ownership and sovereignty as the foundation for delivering more equitable and meaningful impact—ensuring growers and manufacturers are financially rewarded for their efforts. We know how incredibly valuable the data the growers and manufacturers we work with collect is for our industry.”
Based on the Bluenumber® data system, the Sourcery Connect App is the digital hub for the Impact and Assurance Program. It enables producers, manufacturers, and brands to collaborate for the greatest possible impact. Modern digital identity protection is provided by the Bluenumber® system, which safeguards, preserves, and guarantees the right use and exploitation of data, photos, and documents produced by our manufacturers in the supply chain and on the farms of our producers. Growers and manufacturers can also sell data under license through the Bluenumber®-hosted Sourcery Bluechip Exchange. Also, it is free for all growers worldwide.
“We built the Sourcery Connect app to be more than a tool; it is for trusted engagement from growers through traders to manufacturers and brands. Using digital identity and credentials establishes trust so these actors can interact, communicate, and trade by respecting each other’s data property, data rights, privacy, and security.”, said Puvan J. Selvanathan, Founder and CEO of Blue Number. Sourcery Connect is the first and only app using self-sovereign identity (SSID) and verifiable credentials to transact both cotton fiber products and the data to prove ESG claims about those products. It equitably enables transparency and traceability from growers through every stage of the supply chain.
The Connect App brings a practical and scalable farm-to-gin chain-of-custody solution–overcoming a major barrier for preferred fibers with segregated and identity-preserved product claim frameworks. The Impact and Assurance Programme marks a significant step towards realizing our vision of transforming trade for good and enabling stakeholders to collaborate and invest together in the future of cotton. We aim to build a digital trade and marketplace for cotton and, eventually, other commodities grown by our farmers, to decouple the trade from traditional Wall Street commodity exchanges and derivatives markets like ICE. This will enable more transparent, fair, and efficient trade.
Join the Sourcery Impact and Assurance Programme Launch Webinar on April 11, 2024, at either 2 pm IST (9.30 am CET) or 11 am IST (5 pm CET) to gain more information about how the Programme works.
You can register for the Introductory Webinar, titled “Shifting the Impact Paradigm: Primary Data that is Accurate, Secure and Equitable”, here: https://www.thesourcery.io/impact-assurance-programme/webinar
