Closing the
Loop
Workshop · Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles
27 Oct 2026
Thank you for a great day.
Atrium, HSG Square
Workshop · Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles
27 Oct 2026
Thank you for a great day.
Atrium, HSG Square
On 27 October, researchers, designers, students and practitioners met in the Atrium at HSG Square around one question: how can the fashion and textile industry move from linear production to circular systems? Over a single day, the workshop travelled from life cycle assessment to the runway to the Digital Product Passport, and kept the conversation going through every break.
Thank you to everyone who spoke, exhibited, walked the runway, asked questions, and stayed for one more conversation. This page is a look back at what we shared.
Impressions
Talks in the Atrium, circular garments on the runway, and conversations that carried on long after each session ended.
About
The programme connected fashion design, life cycle assessment, and information systems, with contributions from researchers and practitioners working across all three.
Thread 01
Design approaches to modularity, reuse, and remanufacturing were explored through prototypes, garment collections, lived practice, and a fashion show.
Thread 02
Life cycle assessment showed how organisations can evaluate the environmental implications of circular strategies across materials, products, and systems, and why that evidence matters in the transition to a circular economy.
Thread 03
Digital Product Passports and related information systems were examined as infrastructures for product data, traceability, and circular value creation.
Programme
Tuesday, 27 October 2026 · 9.00–16.00 · Atrium, HSG Square.
09.00–09.15
Welcome and Opening
09.15–09.45
Is Circularity Always More Sustainable? Insights from Life Cycle Assessment
09.45–10.00
Fashion Exhibits: Modular, Upcycled, Heritage & Natural
Pieces shown and talked through by the people who made and wear them, in a fashion show supported by Un-Dress. See the runway →
10.00–11.00
Coffee Break
Coffee, and the first conversations about the runway.
Perspectives Circular fashion in practice
11.00–11.30
Startup Perspective: Circular Fashion
How a working studio builds circular garments, with modular, reconfigurable, zero-waste construction, and what it takes to carry that into a business.
11.30–12.00
Student Perspective: Modern Fashion for Circularity
Longevity and the R-strategies, read through vintage and heritage, and what following them has changed for the speakers personally and professionally.
12.00–12.30
From Vision to Action: Organising Circular Transformation
How can organisations translate circular economy ambitions into concrete action? This session discussed how organisations can approach change processes, highlighted key insights from emerging guidance and standards, and presented practical tools to support transformation in practice.
12.30–13.30
Lunch Break
Lunch together in the Atrium.
13.30–14.00
Circular Economy Information Systems
A presentation of the Circular Economy Information Systems (CEIS, pronounced “chase”), a system that gives brands and customers the data they need for informed decision-making at every step of a product’s life.
Deep dive Digital Product Passports
14.00–14.30
Regulation, Standards & Roll-outs for Apparel
What the DPP already requires, which standards carry it, and how far the apparel roll-outs had actually got.
14.30–15.00
DPP in Action: Real-World Case Studies for the Circular Economy
The same passport, seen from the factory floor: what it takes to attach one to a product and keep it readable through a second life.
15.00–16.00
Panel Discussion with the Audience: The Sustainability and Globalization Conundrum
The day closed with all speakers and the audience in one conversation, moderated by Simon Mayer (HSG).
Speakers
Welcome and Opening
Dr. Fabian Takacs, Dr. Nina Schneider, Prof. Dr. Andrei Ciortea & Prof. Dr. Simon Mayer
University of St.Gallen and Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences
Some of the people behind Circular Lab. Fabian leads the initiative from the Competence Center for Circular Economy at HSG, with the Business Informatics Research Center at FHV as co-lead, represented on the day by Nina. Andrei works on AI agents at ICS-HSG and, like Simon, is a co-initiator of Circular Lab.
Circular Lab ↗
Life Cycle Assessment
Dr. Didier Beloin-Saint-Pierre
Scientist, Technology & Society Lab, Empa
Is Circularity Always More Sustainable? Environmental assessment of energy and materials systems; coordinates Empa’s work on digital ecosystems for verifiable LCA and GHG accounting.
Empa ↗
Startup Perspective
Cristina Dan
Founder & Designer, SOLVE Studio
Circular Fashion. Contextual fashion designer and researcher. Created Omdanne, the world’s first circular multifunctional collection, and the modular zero-waste Refashion design system.
solve.studio ↗
ST
Student Perspective
Jonas Bendel
& Simeon Triantafillidis
Hochschule Albstadt-Sigmaringen
Modern Fashion for Circularity. Two wardrobes built on longevity rather than volume: heritage, vintage and natural pieces, and what the R-strategies look like when you live by them.
hs-albsig.de ↗
Change Management
Prof. Dr. Oliver Christ
Institute for Organization & Leadership,
OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences
From Vision to Action. Oliver brings 25 years of experience in digital business, innovation and technology-driven transformation. Oliver is also a co-initiator of Circular Lab.
IOL-OST ↗
Information Systems
Alessandro Giugno
& Simeon Pilz
Institute of Computer Science, University of St.Gallen
Circular Economy Information Systems. Alessandro and Simeon are passionate about complex software systems and sustainability. Guided by practitioner feedback, they continue to develop CEIS.
ICS-HSG ↗
Digital Product Passport
Dr. Dominique Guinard
Founder, spotd · co-founder, EVRYTHNG
Regulation, Standards & Roll-outs for Apparel. Web of Things pioneer and co-chair of the GS1 Digital Link standard; contributor to the DPP, EPCIS 2.0 and C2PA specifications.
spotd.com ↗
Digital Product Passport
Moritz Fiertz
Sustainability Data Specialist,
FREITAG AG
Real-World Case Studies for the Circular Economy. From FREITAG’s Circular Tarp programme, where a mono-material tarpaulin carries a passport through its whole second life.
Circular Tarp ↗
Panel Moderator
Prof. Dr. Simon Mayer
University of St.Gallen
Co-initiator of Circular Lab. Moderated the closing discussion on the relationships between sustainability, globalisation, and circular value creation.
ICS-HSG ↗Exhibits
The exhibition presented garments and design approaches from the workshop, with designers and wearers introducing how each piece related to circularity, materials, and use, before the collections took to the runway.
Work from SOLVE Studio’s circular practice: modular, reconfigurable, zero-waste garments in which 11 pre-designed fabric modules can generate infinite types of garments.
Pieces drawn from heritage construction and natural materials, with a set inspired by natural phenomena encountered in Türkiye. Clothing meant to age rather than expire.
Menswear and womenswear looks assembled from a small, deliberately repeatable set of parts, shown alongside an outdoor variant of the same wardrobe.
Three collections brought to the Atrium by Cristina Dan and Jonas Bendel.
Thank you
To everyone who came to the Atrium: researchers, students, designers, and people from industry. Thank you to our speakers, to the designers and models who brought circular fashion onto the runway, to Un-Dress for the fashion show, and to our outreach partners for spreading the word.
When
Tuesday, 27 October 2026
9.00–16.00. Talks, a fashion show, and a closing panel with the audience.
Where
Atrium, HSG Square
SQUARE, Guisanstrasse 20, 9010 St.Gallen. Ten minutes from St.Gallen main station.
Open in maps ↗
What’s next
The loop continues
The conversation carries on in Circular Lab’s textiles focus area. Follow Circular Lab ↗
Circular Lab
This workshop was part of Circular Lab.
The Circular Lab is an interdisciplinary research and practice network dedicated to advancing the circular economy in the Lake Constance region. As a central hub for circular innovation and business-oriented sustainability, the Lab collaborates with companies, universities, and other stakeholders to develop practical approaches for implementing circular value creation, particularly in the textile industry and the agricultural and food sectors.
The programme
From June 2023 to May 2027, the Circular Lab will be funded by the Interreg VI "Alpenrhein-Bodensee-Hochrhein" (ABH) programme, whose resources are provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Swiss Confederation.
Two focus areas
The Lab develops practical approaches for circular value creation, particularly in the textiles and agri-food sectors. This workshop contributed to its textiles focus area.
The work
Circular Lab focuses on circular products and business models, supports cross-company ecosystems, and formulates strategies and recommendations that advance ecological and economic sustainability.
Circular Lab Consortium
Circular Lab is funded by
Outreach Partners
