Page 5 - 04 Cotton SA October 2014

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• Identifying and prequalify sources departments, existing regional clusters, etc.
of funding that range from social or In order to maximise resources and avoid Technology Demonstration and
development grants to commercial possible duplication, the Cluster will work Development
investments; closely with such entities. Through both Three Interventions will be launched under
• Facilitate the structuring and securing of secondary and primary research, this study this category, namely:
the financial resources required. will aim to: Supply Chain Traceability and Procurement
• In order to unlock immediate international • Quantify the demand for sustainable Platform
funding solutions, the Cluster approached textiles produced 100% in southern-Africa;
Golden Mean Capital Partners (GMCP) • Define sustainable production principles / This intervention will aim at developing and
based in San Francisco, USA. GMCP is a standards throughout the local value chain; demonstrating a bespoke web-based solution
leading investment firm with extensive • Understand industry capacity and for:
experience in early stage investment and capabilities to meet demand for sustainable • Physical Item Level Traceability – the
supply chain financial solutions in Africa. textiles; traceability of physical items or the
containers transporting product in
• Highlight value chain strengths; the textile value chain and automated
Research & Development • Identify value chain weaknesses and gaps; applicable data capturing;
The first year of the Cluster Programme will • Provide recommendations and potential • Document Traceability – to uniquely trace
focus on building the industry intelligence solutions. control documents or certificates in the
foundation for informed strategy formulation textile value chain;
and decision making. The intelligence gained
from the following research activities will feed Sustainability Impact Assessment • Import permits, customs and local content
into the Cluster’s Strategy & Intelligence Centre Environmental, Social and Economic impacts management – to manage import permits
as one of the Shared National Resources. occur across the supply chain and the Cluster and certificates in order to provide a facility
whereby the Cluster will have more visibility
therefore needs to assess and understand the on textile imports;
sustainability impact of its existing industry
Textiles and Apparel Skills Plan value chain practises, both for benchmarking • Load and Mass Balancing – to determine
Conduct Research amongst the industry value purposes and continuous improvement demand in the value chain, and show
chain stakeholders and education institutions strategies. The objective of this intervention anomalies between expected yields and
to compile a valid and reliable skills plan, to will be to: actual production within the value-chain;
align the education system in South Africa to • Sustainability Scorecards and Compliance
meet the demand and establish what current • Identify major sustainability impacts across Reporting – the ability to trace and
value chain stakeholders consider as “work the South African cotton and poly-cotton transport compliance and sustainability
readiness” requirements for graduates. industry value chain from farm to consumer data from one participant in the value-chain
through an in-depth Life Cycle Assessment
of selected products; to another, ending at the final products
Sector Demand and Capacity Study • Quantify the effect of implementing supplied to the end-user;
The Cluster acknowledges the research work sustainability principles across the supply • Governance & Compliance – to view the
done in this field by other entities such as chain as part of a national sustainability
tertiary education institutions, government strategy for the industry value chain. >>> 6

Katoen SA Cotton 5 September 2014