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What is RegioGreenTex?

Regions for Green Textiles – known as RegioGreenTex – is a partnership initiative aiming at mapping and reducing the pitfalls that currently exist in the implementation of a circular economy model within the textile ecosystem across the EU. How? 

  • Mapping the gaps and weaknesses among regions and clusters with different levels of circular economy applications and different levels of economic development 
  • Unifying the European sustainable textile market by meeting demand and offering on the same digital platform 
  • Developing focused pilot projects to accelerate the creation, development, and use of new textile materials with increased recycled content by sharing technologies and methodologies
  • Create five regional textile recycling hubs in line with the ReHubs initiative, and consistent with the EU textile strategy, and meeting the needs of SMEs
  • RegioGreenTex ultimately aims to generate investment opportunities at regional level beyond the project.
RegioGreenTex kick off meeting

What is Quest’s role?

RegioGreenTex brings together 43 partners from 11 European regions, and at Quest Impact Design Studio we are incredibly proud to be one of the 24 SMEs pioneering innovative solutions to recycle textile waste. 

Together, the SMEs cover various value chain segments of circular textiles (sorting, recycling from material to fiber, removal of contaminants, processing of recycled fibers into new textile materials) and provide concrete solutions to EU value chain bottlenecks but also seize upon market opportunities.

At Quest Studio, our focus is on driving innovation and R&D efforts toward developing circular value chains for clothing, with a particular emphasis on designing from discarded textiles. Our team of experts is dedicated to developing business models and tools that can help the textile industry adopt more sustainable design processes. We’re committed to keeping production, communication, and cost/business models in mind to ensure that our solutions are scalable and market-ready. Ultimately, our main goal is to increase the availability of better choices for the planet and people, showcasing a new normal in fashion design and production that is both sustainable and adaptable to large scale.

Together with OVAM, Ellie.Connect, and Textile at RISE, we’re creating a new tool that will boost efficiency in post-consumer and post-production textile waste, ensuring that waste is revalorized into reuse, remanufacturing, or as a last resort into recycling. We call it the Waste Wizard.

Partners

RegioGreenTex promotes the collaboration in research and development between 43 partners from the four major sectors of society – industry, government, research institutes, and the public – for the textile industry. Partners come from 11 regions in 8 European countries:

Regions of RegioGreenTex

The European Green Deal framework

This three-year project that kicked off last February will contribute to the EU Green Deal objectives of reducing carbon footprint, energy and water consumption by reshoring textile production in Europe and making the EU textile value chain more competitive and resilient. 

RegioGreenTex is supported by the European Commission through the Interregional Innovation Investments Instrument and will be coordinated by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA).

As part of the European Regional and Development Fund (ERDF), the initiative aims to support interregional innovation projects in their commercialization and scale-up phases, giving them the tools to bring their project to the investment level. This instrument focuses on strengthening economic cohesion in the EU by helping businesses work with innovation actors in other regions.

RegioGreenTex logo

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Co-funded by the European Union

Textile Recycling Excellence

Launched in 2022, Textile Recycling Excellence launched with the ambition to create a paradigm shift from household textile waste into a closed-loop textile process

By involving major players across the whole fashion value chain, T-Rex aims to demonstrate that a new ecosystem approach, with harmonized methods and quality criteria, can lead to a better understanding of current textile waste and therefore better up-cycling rates into new garments.

organic cotton in a tweed bag with t-rex logo on top

Branding a circular fashion solution

As Quest supported a few T-Rex partners in the past, (Fashion For Good, Aalto University, Adidas, Infinited Fiber Company, we learned how to deliver quality work involving the opinions of several stakeholders. 

website of t-rex project

Given our research and experience in the fashion space, T-Rex came to us for our Digital Design expertise as we understood what T-Rex audiences would gravitate toward. This brought the industry and audience expertise that we needed to support them in the following challenges: 

  • A new logo to become the guiding and recognizable force for all circular textile work 
  • A powerful brand identity that represents all the many players in this project but also does not deter from the important work they are accomplishing
  • Support to amplify their digital storytelling to help influence the right audiences further in the digital age. 
  • Provide all consortium partners with a simple easy-to-use website that can be easily managed without support

Does your brand need help standing out?

 

Create an impact-driven brand with appealing logos and powerful brand experiences that evoke emotions to inspire.

Driving textile recycling through digital branding

As this project was meant to support T-rex and all its founding partners through the kick-off and the next three years of this EU-wide project, we knew that both the logo and visual identity needed to make a mark. As for the website launch, we had previously worked with our partner, Fashion For Good, on making a website template for future consortium projects which meant a faster turnaround for our client and additional time to fully focus on branding! 

horizontal A5 flyer of the t-rex project

We knew that this project – and brand – has a vast array of audiences across the fashion industry and beyond: brands, (re)manufacturers, textile waste sorters and collectors, consumers, journalists, policymakers, and universities/research institutes. That’s why we needed to build a globally known brand, that could become the recognizable logo for the EU’s circular textile revolution

To do so, we included as many consortium members to co-create an experience and brand that we have proudly seen spread in the press and T-Rex has proudly seen accelerate the engagement from brands to transform the fashion system.
Check it out for yourself. 

Four boxes each with a T-Rex logo. From right to left and top to bottom, an orange box with white logo, a light green box with dark green logo, a light orange box with a dark orange logo and a dark green background with a white logo.
logo stamp on paper
The meaning and creation behind the T-rex Logo.

Have trouble reaching your product-market fit? 

 

We’ll help you find the most beneficial position for your organization in the market. And support you to reach, monitor, and maintain that position.

A brand direction workshop that resulted in a mood board. We used this as a base for the logo design and brand identity
wall with 5 branded posters of t-rex
brand guidelines of the t-rex project
It was integral to deliver extremely detailed design guidelines for each party to not only update the T-Rex digital communications but for all consortium partners to have guidance on communicating about the project externally.

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Looking for guidance as you launch your brand? Let us support your journey by:

  • build your business strategy
  • help you stand out while the competition is greenwashing
  • create a brand identity and messaging that is unique to you

The challenge

As an international production company, the biggest challenge for our client was to get a clear overview of their current positive and negative impacts. Sustainability initiatives were scattered across different locations and project ownership was divided over multiple departments and employees. This made it very challenging for management to align initiatives, communicate about the company’s sustainability or improve their impact. So our goals for this project were to:

 

  • Create an overview of all current sustainability initiatives
  • Measure both negative and positive impacts across different locations and product groups
  • Compare the company score against the industry benchmark
  • Pinpoint improvement areas in order to match industry trends
  • Start communicating about the current initiatives

Market & competitor research

To assess the company’s impact on employees, governance, suppliers, community and environment, we need an industry benchmark to compare against. We gathered industry best practices, examined existing frameworks and labels, and analyzed the impact strategies, actions and communications of more than 40 competitors. All insights were summarized in an easy-to-use and edit spreadsheet to ensure internal ownership of the information.
Market Search

In-depth internal interviews

Before a company can increase its positive impact, it is important to know which initiatives are already in place and in which impact areas improvement is necessary. The challenge for a company with multiple branches and production locations across Europe was to gather all relevant information from employees and project managers. To get a complete overview, we interviewed 22 employees from 5 departments in 3 different countries and across 4 different product groups. All insights and a summary of the interview answers on each topic were gathered in a spreadsheet.

Impact visualization

As a final step in the impact scan process, we created a clear and very graphic overview of the company’s positive and negative impact. In addition to the visual, the positive, negative and neutral actions of the company were summarized for each topic. This provides the company with a very clear and actionable roadmap to increase their positive impact, choose an impact focus and start communicating about their sustainability.

The result

The clear overview of impact initiatives enabled the company to start communicating about their impact. They integrated a sustainability page into their website, briefed internal stakeholders on their ambitions and communicated their positive and negative impact transparently. In addition, the impact scan gave them a framework and clear steps to improve their positive impact. They started to measure and report more inputs and outputs and trained employees on sustainable practices.

The challenge

Montea is a stock-listed developing investor in logistics real estate. Their sustainability manager approached Quest because Montea wanted to publish its first impact report and they needed someone to help them create a sound reporting framework. We accepted the challenge because we saw a very strong ambition and long-term strategy focused on driving real positive change.

Montea’s Impact Report 2020

For us, writing an impact report is more about pushing our customers to be as transparent and to-the-point as possible than it is about the actual writing. We build a solid structure for the report, taking into account reporting frameworks like GRI and EPRA. The results:

  • Montea’s GRESB score more than doubled from 32 to 69
  • They won an EPRA sBPR Silver Award
  • Bank Degroof Petercam praised Montea’s sustainability efforts and transparent communications in their report on the logistics sector:

Even if sustainability reporting is becoming a standard in the industry, we observe huge differences in the quality and transparency of companies’ communication. We lack quantified targets and detailed action plans for some players. Although this can be explained by the size of the structures, efforts still need to be made. Especially, most companies lack a tangible action plan clearly stating the way forward. Our view is that Montea stands out in that regard.

– Real Estate Sector Note: Logistics, Bank Degroof Petercam

Montea’s Impact Report 2021

For Montea’s 2021 impact report we focused on creating even more transparency by building a clear impact roadmap up until 2050. This year, Montea strengthened its ambitions once more by deciding to also focus on the operational carbon of their portfolio and the embodied carbon of their new developments.

What we particularly liked is that Montea allowed us to make a clear statement on CO2-neutrality in this report. As of 2021, Montea’s operations are made CO2-neutral through compensation. It would have been very easy for them to boast about this achievement just like a lot of other companies do. Instead, we put things into perspective by comparing the footprint of their operations to the footprint of their portfolio. By doing so, we made clear that Montea acknowledges it still has a long way to go, but that it also has the ambition and a verified roadmap to tackle that challenge.

About Onbetaalbaar

Onbetaalbaar is a Belgian think tank and interior design firm with a strong focus on re-use, circularity, and local collaboration. They create unique interiors and furniture pieces with reused or recycled materials, but for them, the most important element of an interior is the people who will live in it. Onbetaalbaar has a way of reflecting the personality and soul of a person in their designs to make each one unique, they call this emotional materialism.

 

The challenge

As a company that organically grew over time, Onbetaalbaar had a wide range of activities and lacked a clear plan to grow its business. The goal of this project was to create a more sustainable business model and a clear market position so their activities could be more focused and comprehensive for (future) customers. Throughout this transition, it was important to ensure support from Onbetaalbaar’s employees and to refocus the roles of the founders on what they really love doing. To work more on the company rather than in the company.

Business strategy workshop for Onbetallbaar

Our process

After a kick-off meeting, we immediately started interviewing all relevant internal and external interviewees. We interviewed all employees to understand their vision of the future of Onbetaalbaar and how they see their roles changing over time. We also uncovered some points of tension, interesting growth opportunities, and untapped skills. During the interviews with external stakeholders, we were able to capture the way Onbetaalbaar is perceived by clients and partners. We gained insight into their frustrations and delights, and how they see the company evolving in the future. By combining these insights with our extensive market research, we got a clear picture of the current and possible future states of the company.

Together with the team of Onbetaalbaar, we co-created their new business model and positioning, as well as a clear vision for the future and how to transition towards this intended future.

 

During these workshops we tackled:

  • Long-term vision and mission
  • Key messaging and unique value propositions per target audience
  • Service prioritization is based on potential impact, employee happiness, and revenue
  • Creating a sustainable business model
  • Ecosystem mapping to support the new business model

The result

To make the results of this project very actionable and maximize the chances of implementation, all outcomes and actions were summarized in an extensive roadmap. We prioritized which changes and projects should be implemented first, added deadlines, and gave responsibilities to specific team members. Some of the projects that are being implemented now are listed below.

 

On an organizational level:

  • A CRM and time-tracking software will be introduced
  • The roles of the managers are clearer so they can increase their focus, efficiency, and happiness on the job

 

From a business model perspective:

  • A price increase for certain products and services
  • Clear options to create new passive revenue streams
  • Several options to create more predictable, recurring revenue streams
  • New services will create new revenue streams

 

From an impact perspective:

  • An increased focus on reusability, modularity, and circularity
  • A furniture leasing model will be piloted in certain segments

 

The challenge

modulyss operates in a highly competitive market with players like Interface and Desso (Tarkett) who already made great sustainability achievements and commitments. With sustainability gaining massive importance in the construction business, our goal was to devise an impact strategy that positioned modulyss as one of the key sustainability leaders in the space.

Competitor and Market Analysis

We started with a thorough analysis of the market and compared modulyss’ major competitors based on 12 different criteria. We then compared the competitors’ performance with modulyss’ achievements to identify gaps and potential opportunities.

The Limit Your Footprint Programme

As a result, we launched the Limit Your Footprint Programme, a great way for modulyss’ customers to take their responsibility and limit the environmental footprint of a project without having to compromise on quality or design possibilities at all. The Programme can be fully tailored to anyone’s needs, ambitions and budget and will allow their customers to buy carpet tiles that:

  • are Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Gold or Silver
  • are CO2 neutral (mainly through carbon offsetting)
  • contain regenerated ECONYL premium colour yarns
  • have a backing that is designed for disassembly and recycling
  • received a Platinum score for Material Health (Cradle to Cradle)

We made a video and brochure to explain what the Limit Your Footprint Programme is all about.

The limit your footprint programme
The limit your footprint programme brochure

Squares can be circular too

Next to the Limit Your Footprint Programme, we also came up with a strong sustainability tagline to reinforce modulyss’ position: Squares can be circular too.

The limit your footprint programme baseline