A CASE OF SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION APPLIED TO TEXTILE INDUSTRY

In Italy a great amount of rustic wool is now discarded every year, with high environmental costs, or exported at very low price, because it constitutes a waste of the systems of ovine production of meat or milk. This wool is not of enough good quality for the traditional textile industry and for this reason is considered a waste which often is burned for avoiding its disposal cost, with further damages for the environment. In the last years some innovative enterprises and projects are trying to transform it from waste to sustainable resource, using it for the creation of high intrinsic value clothes, because sustainable for the environment and for the economic system. This paper present a case of sustainable innovation applied to textile industry and discusses structure and activity of a supply chain which is still under construction, where the organizational and managerial analysis (i.e. vertical integration, externalization) becomes very relevant and the costs are still high and extremely variable. The paper analyses in particular the results of an Italian National project born with the aim of experimenting the use of local rustic wools for creation of clothing, implementing a short chain sustainable productive process where starting from handcrafted knowhow, innovation should improve its social and environmental impact. The empirical analysis was based on interviews with operators and enterprises, focus-groups with operators and consumers and a questionnaire directed to different target of consumers. After a mapping of operators and firms involved in this new production chain (about 100 subjects along all the chain from sheep-breeding to clothes production), the paper analyses and discusses in particular two aspects: a) how concept of social and economic sustainability is declined, in terms of innovation and in relation to entire supply chain of textile; b) possible target market. The analysis of the new production chain shows the positive effects of network cooperation among small textile operators - still active throughout Italy despite growing production delocalization - in order to create an end product which combines local traditions and technological innovation. The early analysis of consumers reveals that the products manufactured through the experimental chain still have few sustainability attributes, insufficient to stimulate the purchase of a very different type of product, in terms of quality, from those usually found on the market. In particular, the short production chain and origin of the raw materials are the attributes which cause consumers to appreciate the project, but these attributes alone are not enough to make them truly like the end products.