Climate change and COVID-19 have been the fashion wake-up call we all needed. People are catching wind of how dirty the fashion industry is and are gladly waving goodbye to fast fashion and inviting sustainable staples to establish a permanent presence in their lives. Professional women across the world are taking a 360 view of their closets and leaning toward the brands that place sustainability at the forefront of their missions. Consumers are no longer looking at brand names and elite status, rather, they're diving deeper into the companies values, mission, and environmental impact. Today, more than ever, we are focused on the action items companies are taking to continuously push the limits of innovation and a cleaner future. Here are four ways companies are leveling up their sustainability initiatives.

1) Transparency.

Congratulations, each and every one of you has front row seats to today’s transparency race. Grab your popcorn and bloody Mary, because companies are off to the races. Brands are leading with transparency for customers to feel confident in what they are buying, where it comes from, and under what social, economic, and environmental conditions it’s being produced. Everlane is a pioneer and leader of sustainability with their bold slogan “radical transparency.” They weave transparency into every aspect of their business model, sharing the true cost behind all of their products, from material, to labor, to transportation. Just like dating, customers are establishing a new level of trust with companies intertwining transparency into the brands DNA and communicating openly in a way that feels like a personalized, 1:1 conversation.

2) Circular thinking.

The future of fashion is circular, and I am not talking about your high school geometry class. Circular fashion is a system when the production of an item and the end of the item's life are equally as important. Circular fashion is the perfect collision of sustainability and circular economy. It all starts with manufacturing and pushing the limits of longevity and timelessness. Then focusing on materials used and whether or not they are sustainable. Once the customer has decided they no longer need or want the product, rather than trashing the item, the item will be repaired, re-designed, swapped, or sold second-hand. Consider this product to have a second, third, and even fourth life. Take for example, Thousand Fell shoes. They take a material-first approach ensuing materials used can biodegradable or recycled. They have also established a partnership with TerraCycle so unwanted shoes can be broken down into recycled raw materials to be used to create new shoes. Since these materials are not being sent to a landfill, Thousand Fell is creating a circular model so materials can be used and reused continuously. [Relate: Four Steps to Building a Sustainable, Successful, Soul-Driven Business]

3) Resale.

This is an element of circular fashion that is changing how we are approaching shopping habits and rate of consumption. Secondhand style sector has only amplified from the pandemic, and the luxury market is hopping on this surge. It's become every woman’s dream to get their hands on designer styles for a reasonable buy in rate. Today, brands are beginning to introduce resale programs to their customers. Gucci has partnered with The Real Real and the largest luxury names to support second hand. This partnership has allowed Gucci to win over a younger demographic and give the younger generation an entry point into a taste for luxury at an affordable price.

4) Developing textile innovations.

With a sense of urgency to reduce the textile industries environmental impact, designers are gravitating toward innovative materials that will change the way your clothes are made. While coffee, pineapple, and bananas sound like items you would find at your resort vacation’s breakfast, they are in fact natural resources that are used to create fabrics that are shaking up the textile industry. Rather than throwing away coffee grounds, coffee ground fibers can be used to make performance wear with anti-odor qualities, UV ray protection, and quick drying time. Coffee grounds' second life embracing circular thinking. Sustainability has brought a wave of knowledge, advocacy, and innovation to the fashion space. From businesses rethinking their product offering and customers re-thinking their purchasing habits, the future of fashion is certainly changing for the better. As we collectively move forward with a conscious consumption mindset, circularity will be a big part of the future of fashion.

Four Ways Companies Are Elevating Their Sustainability Initiatives

The startup shoe retailer, Thousand Fell, has a line of classic white lace-up and slip-on shoes. Based in New York City, the company was launched by Founders Chloe Songer and Stuart Ahlum last year. But, the brand isn’t just a regular sneaker company. It’s a full-circle economy shoe company that’s creating zero-waste footwear. According to the company’s website, about 2.4 billion pairs of shoes are sold in the U.S. every year. As many as 97 percent of all shoes will end up in a landfill each year. It takes leather soles about 40 years to decompose in the landfill, and rubber soles take twice as long to decompose. Thousand Fell recognizes that waste is a huge environmental issue and wants to be a part of the solution with its biodegradable footwear line. The company’s shoes are all made with materials that can either be “biodegraded, recycled to make new shoes, or upcycled into materials for new projects.” The company uses items like recycled rubbers and bottles to make soles, leather-like uppers, and next generation laces. Other ingredients such as aloe vera, coconut husks, and sugar cane are also used to offer a soft-touch feel, stability, support, and comfort. Thousand Fell’s mission is to be sustainable and to never send another sneaker to the landfill. And to get there, it’s incentivizing its customers to recycle their purchased products. When you’ve worn out your shoes, or simply don’t want them anymore, you can return your shoes to Thousand Fell at no cost. “Thousand Fell owns the material feeds and covers the cost of recycling, as well as the resale or reintegration of recycled material back into new shoes and the issuance of the $20 recycling cash that is sent back to the consumer once they recycle,” wrote Ahlum in an email to TechCrunch. In partnership with TerraCycle, customers can easily recycle their purchased products through the company’s “Thousand Fell Recycling Program”. All you have to do is place your shoes in any box you have. You create an account, request a prepaid UPS shipping label, print it, and affix it to the box. Then, you can mail them via UPS. Once your shoes are scanned for return, you’ll receive $20 that can be applied to your next Thousand Fell order. When the company receives the shoes, they are catalogued, sorted, and broken down to be used to make raw recycled materials “We create sneakers with a life cycle you can follow—and feel good about,” the company’s website states. By taking a step forward to create a zero-waste product that can be used and reused to create a new one, Thousand Fell is going full-circle and doing just that.

With the initiative, Thousand Fell joins a growing number of companies in consumer retail that are experimenting with various strategies to incorporate reuse into the life cycle of their products. Nike operates a "reuse-a-shoe" program at some of its stores, which collects used athletic shoes from any brand for recycling. Several companies are offering denim recycling drop-off locations to take old jeans and convert the material into other products. What's more, Thousand Fell's recycling partner, TerraCycle, has developed a milkman model for reusing packaging to replace consumer packaged items like dry goods, beverages, desserts, and home and beauty products under its Loop brand (and in partnership with Kroger and Walgreens). Across retail, zero-waste packaging and delivery options (and companies emphasizing a more sustainable, circular approach to consumption) are attracting increased interest from investors across the board, with everything from delivery companies to novel packaging materials attracting investor interest. "Thousand Fell owns the material feeds and covers the cost of recycling, as well as the resale or reintegration of recycled material back into new shoes and the issuance of the $20 recycling cash that is sent back to the consumer once they recycle," wrote Thousand Fell co-founder Stuart Ahlum, in an email.

NEW YORK – Footwear brand Thousand Fell has partnered with recycling innovator TerraCycle and package delivery firm UPS to develop a closed-loop shoe recycling programme which encourages consumers to return their trainers in return for store credit. Through this initiative, members of the general public will be able to take pre-paid and packaged used Thousand Fell footwear to one of 14,400 partnering UPS or partner locations that will be distributed back to TerraCycle for product recycling. “Now, with access to the unprecedented support and scale of UPS and TerraCycle, Thousand Fell is doubling down on their mission to never send another sneaker to landfill and securing their foothold as a pioneer in the circular fashion economy,” the US brand says.