As sustainability is moving to the forefront of discussion, many fashion companies have started to focus on environmental sustainability within their own brands. In an effort to promote sustainable fashion, European online fashion company Zalando has committed to only distributing brands that meet ethical and eco-responsible standards by 2023.
“As Europe’s leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle, we want to raise the bar, act first and bring our partners on the journey to address today’s most important issues: climate change, use of resources and worker rights,” said Kate Heiny, Zalando’s director of sustainability. “As part of our sustainability strategy, do.MORE, we have made assessments around ethical and sustainable parameters for our brand partners mandatory.”
The company plans to use the Higg Brand & Retail Index, or Higg BRM, to measure the sustainability of products. The Higg BRM is a tool that provides brands and retailers with a comprehensive assessment of ethical and environmental performance. Zalando plans to use the Higg BRM to measure its brand partners’ sustainability.
“The Higg BRM will help us achieve our goal to continuously increase our ethical standards and by 2023 only work with partners who align with them,” explained Heiny. “The Higg BRM will establish a global standard for fashion brands and retailers to measure and talk about sustainability performance. For the first time, we will have comparable data at brand level to identify improvement areas and work on solutions collaboratively.”
Zalando is optimistic that using the Higg BRM will help them achieve their goal toward sustainability and contribute to change and development within the fashion industry.
Currently, Zalando marks products that are made of recycled and or eco-friendly materials such as lyocell with a green “sustainable” label. By doing so, customers are able to easily spot and shop for sustainable products.
Down below are some of the best products on Zalando’s website that are marked as sustainable.
