Marte Hentschel is CEO of Sqetch, a B2B sourcing platform for the fashion and textile industry based in Amsterdam and Berlin, and co-CEO of VORN - The Berlin Fashion Hub, a phygital platform for sustainable developments in the fashion industry. The sustainability expert is also a long-term project partner of the FCG and a professor at the BSP Business & Law School in Berlin.

In our interview, we talk to her about digitization, circular economy and artificial intelligence.

1. You are co-CEO of VORN - The Berlin Fashion Hub, which was launched together with Magdalena Schaffrin and Max Gilgenmann from the strategy consultancy studioMM04 and commissioned by the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Enterprises. What is your shared vision with "VORN"?

VORN - The Berlin Fashion Hub is a physical and digital place in the heart of Berlin where innovations for the sustainable development of the fashion industry are jointly designed, implemented and made accessible. We offer an inspiring place for exchange and knowledge transfer and act as an intermediary between high-tech development and the fashion and creative industry. Our focus is particularly on brands and creatives, NGOs and research institutes as well as start-ups and scale-ups along the fashion and textile value chain, including technology and digital companies. Our goal is to promote, accelerate and communicate innovations for sustainable development. We achieve this through our four successive programs: Community Services and Coworking, Innovation Lab and Scaling Programs. As a registered cooperative, we work for profit, but with the common good in focus. We cooperate with German, European and international partners and organizations to drive the future of fashion.

2.      In addition to your work as CEO and Co-CEO, you travel a lot as a consultant, coach and speaker. What do you think is still the biggest challenge in transforming the industry to a "circular economy"?

In my view, the core problem is the devaluation and short lifespan of products due to immense overproduction. Over the past 20 years, consumption has doubled, while price and useful life have halved. Each European citizen generates an average of 15 kg of textile waste per year, with less than 1% recycled. To address this problem, structural solutions are needed that must be developed jointly by politics, industry and civil society. This includes more durable products and an extensive recycling infrastructure. We are actively involved in this transformation process through research and development projects and through our participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives and forums.

3.      As CEO of Sqetch, a software provider and innovation agency, digital topics are part of your daily routine. There is a lot of discussion about artificial intelligence right now. How do you assess the topic for the (digital) fashion industry?

As a key technology, artificial intelligence will permanently change the entire value chain. At Sqetch, we are committed to providing fashion brands and manufacturers with information about potential environmental impacts along their supply chain. In this way, we want to help them make informed and sustainable purchasing decisions in advance.

4. At the moment, you are teaching as a professor at the BSP Business & Law School in Berlin, among other places. Before that, you spent a few years at the AMD in Berlin. Are there any topics that have become more of a focus in your teaching (keywords: sustainability, innovation, digitalization)?

Promoting digital and sustainable transformation is a central part of my teaching. It is of great importance that future designers and managers have the right tools and methods to be effective as change agents in companies. For this reason, we cooperate with a large number of industry partners, NGOs and research organizations. We also take a look at other industries that are already more advanced than the fashion industry in terms of digital and sustainable transformation.

5. Sustainability and CO2 neutrality are now a matter of course for almost all companies and start-ups. What do you think is needed today to convince consumers of your service or product?

Despite the existence of more than 200 sustainability labels, consumers are often overwhelmed and have difficulty assessing which sustainability claims are trustworthy. In addition, greenwashing scandals contribute to the fact that although 70% of all consumers are interested in sustainability, less than 10% of the products sold are actually non-conventional ("attitude-behavior gap"). To address this problem, legislative initiatives are currently being developed as part of the EU textile strategy that aim to make consumer communication more transparent and reliable. One example of this is the Digital Product Passport, which is intended to make sustainability features and supply chain information visible at a glance.

We would like to thank Marte Hentschel for the interview.