Teutonic concreteness, pragmatic idealism – perhaps more typically feminine than masculine – and a medium-long term corporate vision: these are the three elements that make Zalando’s project and path towards circularity ambitious, but also credible and an example for other companies. .
The sustainability strategy of the German company, one of the leaders in Europe in fashion e-commerce, has a name that is already a program: do.MORE (Do more). Circularity is an integral part of the strategy and the just declared goal is to extend the life of at least 50 million items by 2023. “The fashion industry operates in a linear sequence: produce-use-dispose – explains Laura Coppen , responsible for the circularity of Zalando -. We are moving towards a circular system by redesigning each phase of the product life cycle in a holistic way, so that the sequence can become: design and produce-use-reuse-close the circle ».
For young people, the circularity of a garment is fundamental
Many initiatives are needed to achieve the goal, says Laura Coppen, which is an increasingly felt need also by consumers and in particular by Gen X. “According to our report on the gap between attitude and behavior, over 60% of consumers believes it is important for clothing to have a second chance rather than ending up in landfills. Our goal is to stimulate change in behaviors, directing them towards circular products and experiences. We do not have all the answers yet – underlines the manager of Zalando -. Circularity and sustainability are to be seen in a logic open source: everyone can contribute with ideas and suggestions ».
For the first phase, design, Zalando collaborates with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Berlin start-up Circular fashion to define circular criteria for the whole sector and to acquire more skills in the field of circular design to the teams involved in the labels owned by Zalando , like ZIGN, who just presented the capsule redeZIGN for circularity, 50 garments and accessories for women and men with a digital passport. With a QR code on the label, customers find out where the product was manufactured, how to take care of it and how to trade it on Zalando.
An app to facilitate the repair and success of the second hand
For the use phase, an important experiment started from Berlin on 11 October: “In collaboration with the London start-up and the related app Save Your Wardrobe – says Lisa Coppen – we offer quality care and repair services for clothing and footwear in Berlin ateliers and tailors and the collection and delivery of repaired garments are managed by our logistics ». Then there is the next phase, reuse: to allow customers to reuse and resell their garments, Zalando launched in September 2020 the possibility of buying second-hand items of equal quality to those of new ones. «The offer is now available on 13 markets and has increased tenfold since its launch, from 20 thousand items to more than 200 thousand. Also in this case – underlines Laura Coppen – the services and logistics are typical of Zalando: convenience of payment methods, return options and plastic free packaging ». Closing the circle is recycling, closely linked to the first phase, design, because depending on how a product is conceived, it will be more or less easy to “disassemble” and recycle it.