A huge announcement this week: The newly appointed CEO of H&M was formerly their Head of Sustainability.
Helena Helmersson started at H&M in 1997 in the brand’s purchasing department. She steadily worked her way up, including a two year stint as H&M’s supply chain manager for lingerie based in Hong Kong. What’s most impressive is she was their Head of Sustainability from 2010 – 2014 (before being promoted to COO), long before the topic was in vogue.
Meanwhile, Nordstrom announced they will be selling secondhand clothing online and in their NYC flagship store. The initiative will be called See You Tomorrow. According to Business Insider (and the article has plenty of good pics from the store):
Curated by Olivia Kim, Nordstrom’s vice president of creative products, the store’s inventory is pulled from a mix of customer contributions as well as returned or lightly damaged designer items from the Nordstrom Quality Center.
Even the big brands are moving sustainability front and center, and with real initiatives rather than ten year proclamations. Things are getting interesting.
Happy Reading,
Ranjan
MUSINGS
Far Away, Super Bowl’s Losers Will Be Champs
Maribeth sent me this article from a few years back by the NY Times the morning after the Superbowl.
Thousands of “championship” hats and shirts are made for both team, just so they can be distributed the moment the game is over. All the merch of the losing team ends up in the trash, or maybe, shipped off to poorer countries as donations.
This is one of those tiny examples of disposable clothing culture, I never would’ve previously paid attention to, yet am now horrified by 😀.
Confession: If I get caught in the rain, I’ll buy one of those $5 umbrellas and usually “lose” it after one or two uses. I should probably change that.
FASHION
The Fashion Rental Market Tested and Explained: Who Has the Best Service?
An extensive roundup from BoF covering five of the most popular fashion rental services (for New Yorkers considering trying one of these, this one is great).
The North Face trains designers in the principles of circularity.
The North Face is sending its designers back to school to learn how to reuse, repair, and improve the longevity of the garments they make.
20 Sustainability efforts of the fashion industry in January 2020
This is always a good roundup from Fashion United on sustainability happenings from the past month.
Nike Space Hippie Challenges Prospects by Changing Norms
The new Space Hippie shoe is constructed with Nike’s own “space junk,” or scrap material from factory floors. I’ll admit I’m a bit skeptical on the design.
Related: Nike CEO John Donahoe: Shoppers care about sustainability
ING Research: Consumers will drop environmentally unfriendly brands
A new report on circular shopping habits:
Consumers believe they have a role to play: The majority of respondents believe their behavior and choices can have a positive impact on addressing global environmental challenges (83 percent).
Voting with their wallets:
- 49 percent said they would be willing to pay more for products made in an environmentally friendly way.
- 61 percent say they would be less willing to buy a company’s product if they discovered it was performing poorly on environmental practices.
- 48 percent of consumers under 34 years old said they’d boycotted a food company’s products after discovering the company was failing to address environmental concerns.
SUSTAINABILITY
DHL to debut zero-emission electric delivery vans in U.S. cities
Deutsche Post DHL Group’s StreetScooter electric vehicle unit will enter the U.S. market next year as delivery firms and municipalities work to cut greenhouse gas emissions (h/t Nikhil).
The drive toward sustainability in packaging–beyond the quick wins
McKinsey on how ecommerce companies can effectively begin incorporating more sustainable packaging efforts.
