AlpTextyles Project

emlyon business school, through the Lifestyle Research Center, is project partner of AlpTextyles, an Interreg Alpine Space project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Swiss Confederation which has the goal of developing collaborative solutions for a heritage and consumer-sensitive relocalization of sustainable, circular and innovative textile value chains in Alpine regions.

Overview

Textile production is one of the most polluting and CO2 intensive economic sectors. However, the Alps have a rich textile heritage with specific aesthetics and know-how based on values of circularity and sensitivity to local resources. Consumers’ expectations of a more sustainable lifestyle could contribute to the relocation of Alpine textile value chains, fostering regional development and job creation. The AlpTextyles project will help companies and cultural institutions to take into account heritage and circular aspects in textile value chains and to valorise the Alpine textile heritage at transnational level. This will contribute to economic revitalisation and the development of a less carbon-intensive textile production system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obHTDJqGsEE

Click here to read the AlpTextyles project presentation 

The project in brief

With its 12 partner organizations from 6 Alpine countries, AlpTextyles will bring together the textile ecosystems to create a common ground of expertise in research and innovation, foster regional development and job creation, and safeguard cultural heritage and circularity.

During its 3-years implementation, the project will:

• Map the Alpine textile heritage, value chains, and consumers demand for sustainability;
• Test and evaluate heritage- and consumer-sensitive circular solutions through numerous pilot actions
• Transfer solutions to the textile eco-system.

emlyon’s role

The Lifestyle Research Center contributes to the AlpTextyles project by offering expertise on sustainable markets and brands, post-carbon consumer lifestyles, circularity, using qualitative and quantitative research methods to develop insights for business and policy. Key activities will be:

• Mapping consumer’s expectations for and perceptions of circular, sustainable products from Alpine textile value chains
• Developing case studies of brands that have revitalized the textile heritage of the Alps and identifying best practices in the relocalization of textile value chains in Alpine countries and the valorization of local textile resources (wool, linen, hemp, dyeing plants) from local animal breeds and plant varieties
• Organizing a Research Day on the Living Textile Day of the Alps
• Coordinating the project’s pilots in the 6 Alpine countries, contributing to the design of actions’ concepts and formats
• Coordinating a cross-border pilot action in France and Italy, focused on manufactured wool products from autochthonous sheep breeds
• Contributing its expertise to the development of orientation guides for textile SMEs, textile heritage safeguarding toolkits for cultural institutions, policy briefs for regional/national governments and the EU, a MOOC on the living textile heritage of the Alps, and various events for the dissemination of results to the project’s target audiences.

Involved emlyon researchers

Project Partners 

Polo Poschiavo (Switzerland), lead partner
Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Slovenia), ERDF lead partner
emlyon business school (France)
Development Agency Sora (Slovenia)
Lombardy Region (Italy)
Textile and Fashion Federation – Italy Fashion System (Sistema Moda Italia, Italy)
Bellissimo (Italy)
Istituto Marangoni (Italy)
Association Techtera Auvergne Rhône Alpes
Stand Montafon (Austria)
Mediplant (Switzerland)
Friedrich-Alexander-university Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany)

Project fact sheet

Contacts

Diego Rinallo, rinallo@em-lyon.com