Sustainability News in Retail

Snapshot looks at the latest Sustainability News from the world of retail.

Globally, consumers choose to buy from brands that commit to sustainability. Nowadays, going green is about more than just conserving energy or asking customers to recycle their shopping bags. Sustainability allows brands to better connect with their customers and do their bit for the planet.

Read the below Snapshot blog post to gain further insight into the latest sustainability efforts implemented by retail.

eBay and Reskinned partner expanding their preloved offering to reduce fashion waste

With UK consumers increasingly looking for new ways to not only save money, but the planet as well, eBay UK has recently partnered up with preloved clothing specialists Reskinned to expand its preloved offering

The online store has said that the new partnership represents an expansion of its pre-existing offering of preloved clothing. It is now also offering a wide range of items which have been repaired for resale. eBay will also connect Reskinned with its over 20 million shoppers through a ‘brand approved’ storefront.

The aim of Reskinned is to acquire worn items from shoppers and then recondition them for resale, repurposing, or recycling. Ultimately extending the lifespan of the item and keeping them out of a landfill

Reskinned work with over 30 brands currently. The brands they house include Sweaty Betty, Finisterre, River Island, and most recently fashion brand Joules. Shopping with Reskinned offers customers the opportunity to purchase items at around 40% lower than their high street price.

Thoughts from eBay and Reskinned

In a recent interview, eBay UK head of fashion Jemma Tadd said: “Across the fashion industry we know there is a greater need to build a sustainable future. Since 1995, eBay has extended the life cycle of products, whether through consumer-to-consumer reselling or now the Imperfects hub, so it’s fantastic to partner with Reskinned, who are at the forefront of empowering the circular fashion economy.”

Reskinned co-founder Matt Hanrahan recently stated: “At Reskinned it’s our mission to maximise the lifespan of clothing. We’re making it easy for brands and their customers to re-home unwanted clothes. Whether that’s reselling, repairing or if it’s the end of its life recycling it responsibly. We’re determined to create a more sustainable clothing future for us all.”

Through the partnership with eBay, the original home of preloved, Reskinned hope to increase its reach and offer to brand partners. Ensuring preloved items find new owners, and realise a more sustainable fashion future.

The Good Store opens in London

In collaboration with Grosvenor, a 6,000 sq ft department store with a key focus on sustainability, called The Good Store, has opened on South Molton Street in Mayfair, London. The store houses an array of sustainable products and brands across various lifestyle categories.

If you aren’t familiar with The Good Store, everything in the store has either been refurbished or is preloved. The store conveys an innovative use of waste to create new products or products that create less impact on how they are either made or used. As mentioned on their website their latest High Street store offers the high street something new. Where the search for conscious choices doesn’t lie with the customer.

The Good Store pledges its commitment to inspiring and helping develop the market for more sustainable products to come forward. Working with charities and social enterprises, start-ups, and established businesses to uncover more and better options. Alongside their sustainable offering they also host educational events, and services to guide consumers.

The concept has been created by Groundwork London, one of a group of charities “mobilising practical community action on poverty and the environment”, which has a partnership with Grosvenor.

What can be found at The Good Store?

On a trip to The Good Store, you’ll find established vintage and second-hand clothing charity, Trade, which has an in-store section. Together with up-cycled and sustainable clothing brands such as Elvis and Kresse who produce sustainable bags and accessories made from reclaimed materials. You will also find an assortment of plastic-free and sustainable brands within the store including Waterhaul, a brand that makes sunglasses from plastic they retrieve from Cornwall’s coastline. Looking for sustainable beauty products?  UpCircle’s refillable beauty products are made from used coffee grounds, proving an ingenious and guilt-free option to conventional products.

In the furniture section of the store you will find Jay&Co, the repair furniture business of Jay Blades, who is a TV presenter of the BBC’s ‘Repair Shop’. Another brand you’ll find is ThinkFound, which source hardwood fallen or felled in London. The Good Store also features furniture from The Loops, as well as access to high-quality refurbished bicycles by Westminster Wheels. They also house premium refurbished white goods by Groundwork’s Rework employment programme.

In an interview with retail week, Fiona Brenner, strategic development manager at Groundwork London said: “We could see that people have a strong desire for more sustainable options, but the onus sits with the individual to go out and find them. We wanted to bring together these choices to show the breadth and depth of the developing sustainable market and traditional attitudes to reuse and repair in a way that creates an easy and enjoyable shopping experience.”

Selfridges aims to make their repair, resale, rental, or refill offers to make up near half of their transactions by 2030

Selfridges have said that its Project Earth initiative has helped to inspire a bold new sustainability target for its retail operations. The Luxury department store is aiming for almost half of its interactions with customers to be based on resale, repair, rental, or refills by 2030.

This new development comes as Selfridges responds to increasing demand for more sustainable shopping. The retailer says it wants to increase its action after growing sales of second-hand items by 240% to 17,771 pieces last year. They have also facilitated over 28,000 repairs. The majority being from the repair of trainers, in its effort to operate more environmentally sustainable. They also rented out more than 2,000 luxury clothing and accessory items to customers through their rental service over the year and it sold more than 8,000 refills.

Thoughts from Selfridges

Andrew Keith, managing director of the department store group, said in a recent interview: “Our ‘Re-Selfridges, initiative aims to change the way that people shop and will form the backbone of the business, making up 45% of transactions in future.”

Setting a deadline of 2030 to reach that target, Keith said: “We have got to commit to a significant and fundamental shift in the way we do business and use the platform of Selfridges for change.” Selfridges have also said that repair services will now be offered outside London at its Birmingham and Manchester stores. It will be making repairs easier by allowing customers to book repairs online. Their rental offering will also expand into new categories which include childrenswear, accessories, fine jewellery, and menswear. Coupled with in-store refill services also being made more available.

Lidl introduces brand-new laundry detergent refill stations

In partnership with Algramo, Lidl is proud to introduce its new cost-saving, plastic-reducing laundry detergent refill station. They have recently launched a new refill station at their Kingswinford store. This is a 6-month trial to measure the performance of laundry detergent refills at Lidl.

Lidl claims that using their refill machine allows you to save 20p each time you refill as well as helping the environment. It is an automated, touchscreen, liquid refill machine. The machines can be found in-store in the laundry detergent section.

The refill machine supports four laundry detergents. Customers can also pick up a specially designed refill bottle which can be found next to the machine.

It has been stated on their website that using the laundry detergent refill bottle after the first time saves 59g of plastic per use. This is the weight of a single-use Formil bottle of the same product. Their refill bottles are made using HDPE. HDPE is a sturdy and durable plastic which will allow for the continued refill of laundry detergent. The refill bottle is 100% recyclable.

How to use the machine?

1. Pick up your refill bottle in store.
2. Select which Formil laundry detergent product you want to refill.
3. Place your refill bottle in the machine. The machine will automatically recognise your Formil refill bottle. N.B. You cannot use your own bottle.
4. Once the refill process is complete, simply collect the ticket printed with the barcode for your product.
5. Your first time you will pay for your refill bottle and laundry detergent at the till with your ticket..
6. Next time, use your laundry detergent and bring back your empty bottle to refill and start saving!

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