Sustainability is on the agenda of companies and consumers alike. During the COVID-19 pandemic, market studies showed an increase of 22 percentage points in the importance of sustainability as a crucial factor in buyers' brand choices, and that number has now reached 55 percent. In an interview with IoP Journal, Tyler Chaffo, a global sustainability manager at  Avery Dennison Smartrac, explained how radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has helped companies in various sectors, including food. On the concept of the "regenerative retail economy," Chaffo says the term "regenerative," now used with a focus on retail, has historically been associated with the agriculture sector. "We're seeing that sort of thing being transcended into other industries," he adds, "and 'regenerative' means different things to different people." According to Chaffo, the concept of "regenerative" is part of the circular economy and is a systemic approach to economic development, designed to benefit businesses, societies and the environment. "There's really a contrast when you look at taking it and generating waste, which is the linear model," he explains. "Therefore, a circular economy is generally regenerative by design, a kind of decoupling of growth from the consumption of finite resources, which makes us consider the source of materials to make products." Hence, Chaffo says, the question is this: "How can I get more plastic out of the ecosystem than I'm putting in with my retail products?" He adds, "Then you start to see companies that have publicly made commitments to adopt a regenerative approach, that are really basing their strategies on the positive or regenerative future in terms of resources—and I think that's really what you're going to see happening more and more." The movement of retail companies in this direction, Chaffo says, shows that sustainability is not just a matter of the future, but something happening now: a problem that must be solved every day herein. "In supply chains, having more resilient, more regenerative and more sustainable initiatives has been a positive factor," he states. "We are looking for RFID products that have less environmental impact and better, plastic-free production methods for retail apparel applications, for example." In 2020, XGSun partnered with Avery Dennison to introduce biodegradable RFID Inlay and Labels based on non-chemical etching process, effectively reducing the environmental burden of industrial waste. No chemical etching of aluminum antennas is employed, which uses less energy during the production process. This allows for the complete recycling of aluminum residues which, along with the drastically reduced energy requirement, results in a significant carbon footprint reduction. Want to know more about RFID technology and sustainable development? Please contact us! --------- News information obtained from RFID journal