The project aims to develop innovative approaches that support the design of eco-sustainable products.
Key goals include:

• Developing software tools that simplify the environmental impact assessment (LCA) and suggest improvement solutions
• Studying eco-friendly materials for specific components, while enhancing supplier skills in green design
• Improving social sustainability by enhancing working conditions for manual operators, whose contributions often add value but may be physically taxing
• Exploring human-centered automation systems that cooperate with operators along the production line
• Designing communication strategies to highlight the eco-sustainable choices made by companies to the end consumer

The project will engage numerous companies from the Marche footwear district, including top brands like Tod’s, Santoni, Fendi, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton, and material suppliers such as Tecnofilm, Eurosuole, and Golden Plast, as well as small local businesses.

The project’s results are intended to be scalable and transferable to other fashion segments, such as textiles and apparel, thereby promoting sustainable practices across different production sectors.

Main outcomes:

• Dedicated LCA software tools for the fashion/footwear sector, based on parametric models and integrated with supply chain actors
• Research on new eco-materials, including grafting techniques for biodegradable polymers on natural materials
• Design and modeling of automation systems capable of integrating with manual manufacturing phases to improve workers’ well-being
• New circular economy business models for the footwear industry
• Mathematical models and optimization algorithms to enable component reuse policies and manage the sustainable redistribution of out-of-fashion products in secondary markets