Final transnational EcoTextyle meeting held in Slovenia

SATRA team members participate in continuing European initiative.

Representatives of all the partner organisations of this European programme met at the IRCUO headquarters in the town of Ziri, to contribute to the project’s final transnational event. The occasion was used to monitor the ongoing progress of EcoTextyle, in which professionals and students from Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and the UK are testing the training platform created by the project for the sustainable production of footwear and textile products.

Delegates – including SATRA’s Tom Bayes and John Hubbard – were able to share information on how this process is developing in each country and check the participation on proposed activities. They also discussed potential improvements to be made in the project materials in line with feedback from those testing the tools created. In addition, the meeting was used to agree how partners should measure the project’s impact at its conclusion. Other facets of the scheme under consideration included the design of the structure and content of the venture’s final activities. Six promotional events in different countries will give visibility to the project materials and spread its results among different stakeholders within the footwear, textile and education sectors.

In addition to discussing the activities of the project programme, delegates also had the opportunity to visit the Alpina factory, which is known worldwide for its sports and mountain shoes, and to discover the local Slovenian culture.

The purpose of the project

EcoTextyle is a 24-month scheme funded under the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. It is coordinated by the Centro Tecnológico del Calzado de La Rioja (CTCR) with the cooperation of the social company from Arnedo Neo Sapiens, BATTI (Bulgaria), Universita Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM) (Italy), Institute of Leather Industry in Lodz (IPS) (Poland), Zavod IRCUO (Slovenia) and SATRA (United Kingdom). This initiative has gathered representatives from these organisations in order to design programmes to provide training and education on product environmental footprints (PEF) as they apply to the footwear industry. Its objective is to establish the appropriate training within small- or medium-sized enterprises or training centres. These bodies will then be able to implement the PEF methodology in line with future European policies by providing their members of staff the curricular skills and competences needed for an appropriate development of their professional profiles.

The photograph at the top of this article shows members of the EcoTextyle project from six countries who gathered in Slovenia to discuss the scheme’s progress.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 8 of the July/August 2019 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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