During the last edition of the British specialized trade show Pure London, the global fashion buying platform for womenswear, accessories, jewelry, and footwear held in London in February 2023, they launched the Pure London’s Independent Retailers Sustainability Toolkit.
For the duration of the event, over 250 independent retailers have downloaded this new tool, which is now also available now to download from the show’s website.
With nearly 14,000 independent fashion retailers in the UK, the toolkit has been created as a resource that can provide a step-by-step guide with tangible and practical information on everything from reducing carbon footprint and energy consumption to sustainable packaging, to help them embrace sustainability in their business and together make a difference.
The journalist and activist chaired a panel during the show on “Succeeding in Sustainable Retail”. Joined by Simon Bell, COO & Co-Founder of Immaculate Vegan, a marketplace for premium vegan fashion, Josefin Wanner, Fashion Designer Co-Founder of Tråd Collective, a sustainable fashion store, and Kalkidan Legesse, CEO of Owni, online secondhand platform, and founder of Sancho’s, a sustainable department store in Exeter, Pinnock tackled the challenges and opportunities facing retailers and introduced the toolkit to a packed audience.
The Independent Sustainability Toolkit investigates the key areas retailers need to address on their journey to become more sustainable with easy-to-understand statistics and research, practical advice, balanced views, activity worksheets and links to further resources. The toolkit is split into four chapters, making it more accessible for retailers.
The first chapter empowers retailers to create a sustainability plan by exploring the core principles of sustainability strategies, helping retailers to understand their current impact on the environment and set realistic goals to move forward on their journeys.
“Your sustainability strategy will be a work in progress that grows and develops the more you understand, the more viable solutions come to market and the more you understand what works for you and your business,” explains the toolkit.
“Once you have a baseline to work from, you can begin to set goals to work towards. Goals give you a clear focus and can be helpful when communicating your sustainability commitments to your staff and customers,” it explains.
This first chapter also covers the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and why they can be a useful tool for businesses to adopt and use as a guide to incorporate sustainable practices into their operations.
The shop environment
The second chapter explores the shop environment and focuses on, packaging, water, electricity and gas use, end-of-season stock, shop fittings and fixtures, e-commerce, and staff.
“The majority of your business’ footprint will come from your suppliers but making changes in your shop environment still has an important role to play. Any step, no matter how small, is important if we are to meet the UK government’s net-zero target by 2050,” explains the second chapter.
“It also helps demonstrate your commitment to sustainability to your customers and actions such as cutting out waste and making your shop more energy efficient can save you money too,” it continues.
Sourcing sustainable suppliers
The third section of the toolkit energizes retailers to challenge their suppliers to provide adequate proof that their products are being made responsibly. It highlights the importance of direct questions which cut through generalisations and allow retailers to be more informed on the sustainable credentials of any product. The chapter also tackles the challenge of identifying sustainable brands and sign posts organisations and certifications that retailers can reference.
A specific section also focuses on circularity. “Circularity has become something of a buzzword in sustainable fashion. In its simplest terms, a circular economy is a system in which goods and resources are kept in use for as long as possible.”
It continues: “UK citizens have 118 items of clothing in their wardrobe, 26% of which has gone unworn in the last year, and yet 45% of people bought new clothing each month. A circular model embraces a number of solutions to reduce our unsustainable reliance on raw materials, extend the lifespan of the clothing we use and bring it back into the system, or back to nature, at the end of use.”
“Circularity is not a product or business model, it is a way of running our economy and involves collective effort from multiple stakeholders,” it explains, implying that retailers can then learn about the actions already adopted by some in the market to create a more circular economy, recycling, repairs and upcycling, rental and resale.
Speaking to customers about sustainability
“Drapers’ Sustainability and the Consumer Report 2022 found that, 77% of consumers across multiple age categories think about sustainability when making a purchase and 45% believe the responsibility lies with retailers and brands, more than governments, manufacturers and consumers,” it further explains.
After presenting these statistics, this chapter of the toolkit goes on to cover different consumer group attitudes to sustainability and the importance for retailers of avoiding greenwashing.
The toolkit also presents two insightful and informative independent retailer case studies with Trad Collective in Leeds and winner of the High Street Shop of the Year Sancho’s in Exeter, sharing how they embrace sustainability in their business and the benefits to their business, as well as Fashion Lectures videos featuring Pinnock on climate crisis, circularity, and sustainability.
“When Pure London hosted its f/w 2023 edition at Olympia London, I was overwhelmed by the positive response from brands, buyers and visitors. As a global platform for fashion, we have a responsibility to educate, inform and advise retailers on the most challenging issues facing the industry,” said Gloria Sandrucci, event director, Pure London.
“Across the three-day event our sustainability ambassador, Olivia Pinnock, met with hundreds of independent retailers to give them tailored one-to-one advice and support in their sustainability journeys. During and following the event, we have continued to see many small business owners downloading the Toolkit and feedback on this unique resource has been overwhelming positive,” added the manager.
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