In Conversation with Made2Flow: Gathering healthy impact data across the supply chain
Image by Pexels Zara Kibar
19 February 2025
Can you tell us about Made2Flow, how it started, and what the organisation does?
We founded Made2Flow five years ago, driven by a team with a shared passion and extensive experience working with fashion brands and manufacturers. Our journey began with a deep frustration over the industry’s reliance on unreliable tools and lack of data to identify impact levers and drive meaningful decarbonisation efforts.
To address these challenges, we took two major steps:
- Built a Leading Database: We collected and validated primary data from over 12,000 suppliers worldwide across the value chain (final assembly-raw material extraction), creating the fashion industry’s most extensive database of energy, waste, machinery, and more.
- Developed Scalable Technology: We developed supply chain data gathering, impact measurement, and reporting solutions to allow informed-decion making.
Today, our primary focus is helping fashion brands and manufacturers understand where and how to allocate their decarbonisation budgets to maximise sustainability ROI at both the product and facility levels.
What problem is your innovation solving and how does the technology work?
Our clients face two primary challenges:
- They lack a systematic solution to model multiple decarbonisation pathways using real-time, validated data.
- They face challenges in demonstrating the specific value their sustainability efforts bring to each department (e.g., sourcing, product, strategy) and production partners, which slows down decarbonisation efforts and jeopardises achieving their goals.
Our technology automates the journey from raw data to actionable insights through these steps:
Data Standardisation and Enrichment
We begin by standardising the client’s existing product or supply chain data and enriching it through a unique off-system data gathering approach. This involves digitally engaging suppliers and sub-suppliers with personalised questionnaires. Benefits:
- Higher response and accuracy rates, including from smaller facilities.
- No need for supplier onboarding or training reducing “supplier fatigue”.
Data Validation
After collecting the data, we validate it using AI-driven processes or third-party verifiers.
Impact Assessment and Hotspots Identification
We measure the environmental impact, pinpoint impact levers at a product or facility level
Recommendations
We deliver clear, actionable recommendations for quick wins through a dedicated reporting platform.
By addressing these challenges holistically, we empower our clients to drive meaningful progress toward their decarbonisation goals while fostering collaboration across departments and with production partners.
What have been the biggest successes so far?
We often encounter leading brands that are confident in their supply chain understanding. They often claim to have extensive Tier 1 and Tier 2 data and seek our assistance only in supplier comparisons to determine which facilities to prioritise for decarbonisation programs.
Such was the case with a major retailer. Upon analysing their existing data, we discovered it was unworkable due to outdated information, significant data gaps, and a lack of supply chain standardisation—such as inconsistencies between vendors and suppliers.
In just 12 weeks, we successfully mapped their Tier 1 and Tier 2 supply chain, identified 78 new suppliers, gathered granular data, compared environmental performance, and clustered facilities based on potential savings and the brand’s impact share.
The newly generated data empowered our client to redevelop its strategic approach, guided by clear KPIs, such as the actual share of renewables, energy intensity per facility and process, and the personalised impact share at each facility. By benchmarking facilities against best-in-class performance in energy, water, and GHG emissions at the process level, the client could accurately plan and estimate the costs required for a pathway toward net zero.
Key insights:
- Quick wins – with no additional costs identified, saving over 1,430 tons of CO2-e per year.
- Potential supplier consolidation – presented an opportunity to reduce Tier 1-2 impact by 14%.
- Fast ROI initiatives (under 14 months) – with a potential reduction of 16% per year were also uncovered, setting a clear path for impactful and cost-effective sustainability improvements.
What role does collaboration play in bringing innovations to scale?
Collaboration is vital in our journey to scale and make a bigger impact. It is significant, especially in two key areas:
Data Sharing:
The lack of reliable data is often the biggest hurdle in sustainability efforts. To address this, we work closely with various “data gatekeepers” (brands, production partners, ERP/PLMs, QC platforms, financial institutions, etc.) to streamline data flow, minimise system fatigue, and enable informed decision-making.
Our efforts include significant investments in integrating with a growing number of external systems and solutions, supported by a robust two-way API.
Knowledge Sharing:
We actively collaborate with exceptional individuals and organisations to exchange ideas and expertise. I am particularly proud of our partnerships with our advisory team (Michael Sadowski, Sara Diez, Mark Harrop, and others) and leading solution providers like Aii, Bluwin, Reset Carbon, and more. These collaborations are instrumental in scaling up and developing holistic, sustainable solutions.
How has Fashion for Good played a role in your journey so far?
Fashion for Good has been an incredible source of inspiration and guidance, providing invaluable advice and access to a network of leading innovators and organisations. Their support has been instrumental in paving the way for our current success. Through a close and fruitful collaboration, Fashion for Good has also joined us as an investor, further solidifying our shared commitment to driving positive change in the fashion industry.
What’s next for you?
Made2flow’s vision is to empower as many stakeholders as possible to make informed decarbonisation decisions. We aim to achieve this by:
Enhancing holistic solutions: Continuously enhancing tools to address the full spectrum of decarbonisation needs and expedite impact reduction timelines. By minimising the time between engaging a supplier and impact reduction, we can enable more suppliers to enter and benefit from the decarbonisation process.
Simplifying adoption: Creating more intuitive solutions to enable wide-scale adoption, particularly for smaller brands and manufacturers, from supply chain mapping and traceability to decarbonisation strategies.
Diversifying across industries: Extending our impact by increasing our client base beyond fashion and textiles, building on the 20% of our current clients who operate in other sectors.
Leveraging Made2flow’s data-gathering tool: Offering external companies (brands, service providers, supplier groups) the opportunity to directly utilise Made2flow’s unique data gathering and validation tools for their compliance, risk mitigation, and decarbonisation purposes
Lastly, what advice would you give consumers trying to be more sustainable?
- Sustainability is often oversimplified to preferred materials or take-back programs. However, it’s far more complex. Most of the environmental impact happens across the value chain. Therefore, when shopping, prioritise brands that are transparent about their supply chains. A brand that shares details like fabric weight or where dyeing takes place is likely more committed to lower-impact practices.
- A common misconception is that quality and impact are solely linked to a product’s country of origin. The truth is that responsible and advanced suppliers exist everywhere, and high-impact facilities can be found in any region.
- Finally, Brand loyalty, and this could make a huge difference. Loyalty means that as a consumer, you are far more likely to order a size that fits you well and fabrics you trust and know how to wash. These will simply last longer.
Other Articles
In Conversation with SEFF: Reengineering Hemp into high performance material
In Conversation with Pili: Reducing the impact of Indigo
