Inditex and MIT sign agreement to promote research into sustainability

Spanish fast fashion giant Inditex (Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius) has announced a multi-year agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to conduct joint research on sustainability and recycling of textile materials, as well as new lines of research related to data analysis.

Inditex will provide MIT with a total of 4 million US dollars to fund the research activities, the company informed in a statement. 1 million US dollars will be allocated to the Inditex Materials Science and Engineering Fund within MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering to promote research into circular economy, logistics and supply chain management.

Another fund within the MIT Sloan School of Management, called Inditex Operations Research and Management Fellowship Fund, shall receive 1 million US dollars to foster research and innovation in data analysis applied to the textiles industry.

The Institute of Data, Systems and Society will be given 1.2 million dollars to research topics such as artificial intelligence, automated learning and data science, while the MIT-Spain Inditex Sustainability Seed Fund will receive 450,000 US dollars over three years to help five faculty members and students from the MIT to conduct research on topics like new fibers, clean energy and logistics eco-efficiency at universities and research institutions in Spain.

Last but not least, Inditex announced the renewal of its scholarship program for MIT students, which promotes educational activities within Inditex’s headquarters in Arteixo, Spain.

This is not the first time Inditex teams up with a university. The Spanish company is also involved in educational projects with the University of La Coruña, University of Santiago de Compostela, University Pontificia de Comillas, the Polytechnic School of Catalonia, and Tsinghua University School.