Discover how GenuTrace is making headlines for its groundbreaking work in supply chain traceability and material authentication. Explore featured articles, media coverage, and industry recognition.
October 7, 2026
MeiLin Wan participated in this year’s World Cotton Day Special Feature for Cotton Outlook. Read an excerpt of her article Genuine Traceability Is Becoming The Industry’s Next Frontier below, and be sure to check out the entire Special Feature for more insights on the developments in the cotton sector over the past year.
California Apparel News asked fashion insiders: What are the core elements that brands and designers must focus on when building and growing their sustainability initiatives in the current fashion-business climate?
As regulatory scrutiny intensifies, supply chain leaders say the companies best positioned for the second half of the year are embedding traceability, prioritizing risk and turning verification into a long-term competitive advantage.
Traceability is becoming a business necessity, but companies first need to define what problem they’re solving before investing in technology, certifications or compliance programs.
Effective traceability starts with mapping supply chains, understanding where risks exist and building trusted supplier relationships—not simply collecting documentation or deploying digital platforms.
As UFLPA enforcement expands and new U.S. and EU regulations raise the bar for proof of origin, companies will need verifiable evidence to back sourcing claims before regulators or customers ask for it.
Think of a global supply chain as a boat. Every partner, from the cotton grower to the ginner, spinner, mill, distributor to the retailer, is on that boat journey together, whether they see it that way or not. When everyone rows in the same direction, with shared accountability and open communication, the boat moves forward. But when assumptions go unexamined and claims are made without the evidence to back them up, those are holes in the boat. And holes let water in. Enough water, and the boat eventually sinks.
As the European Union advances the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the expectations placed on global supply chains are shifting in a fundamental way. Companies are no longer being assessed solely on whether due diligence processes exist, but on whether they can demonstrate that risks are being effectively identified, mitigated, and monitored in practice.
Fashion and textile supply chains are at a crossroads. Sustainability is no longer aspirational—it is regulated, scrutinized, and increasingly enforceable. Yet many sustainability and origin claims are still built on trust, paperwork, and good intentions rather than verifiable evidence.
That approach is no longer holding up.
Companies must answer, with credible, verifiable evidence, the question regulators, customs officials and consumers will ask: ‘How do you know your claim is true?’
At GenuTrace, we sort real sustainability from greenwashing in apparel and textiles by asking one simple question: If you claim it, can you prove it? In an environment of heightened scrutiny—from the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the United States to expanding EU regulations on forced labor, deforestation and product transparency—claims around cotton origin, recycled fibers and responsible sourcing must be supported by verifiable evidence.
