Our thought
Clothes as a form of expression help the majority of us get through the day with a great sense of empowerment. We change as we go through the experiences of life, and our bodies and the way we want people to remember us evolve all the time.
The freedom of changing clothes and putting on a different outfit every day has something fun and exciting to it.
Our reality
Europe wastes 2,080,544 tons of unused clothes each year and this number keeps increasing.
The fashion industry has created an environment where we feel the urge to reinvent ourselves on a daily basis. While retailers produce more clothes than ever before, consumers are constantly drawn to change.
Large amounts of clothes today remain unused or are simply not used enough.
We need to use our clothes more.
On average, an item is used 8 times before being put aside or thrown away, but it takes over 60 uses to neutralise the average 9kg of CO2e emitted per item.
Where the environmental impact of a garment comes from?
Y axis the number of kg CO2e
X axis the number of uses
If we use an item on average 8 times, how do we get to 60 uses?
We share the same closet. Hackyourcloset.com is running the first shared and sustainable closets in Europe.
First, our customers share their style preferences with us. Then, we use technology to source garments* that match their preferences but also match at least 15 other closet hackers.
Our team of personal stylists then prepares a new selection each month and circulates the clothes available in our closets.
A survey to our customers taught us that each garment is used on average 4 times per month. When we achieve 15 rotations, each garment will have been used about 60 times.
*We exclusively use second-hand items, overstocks, samples, or dead stocks.
How do we know if it's a greener alternative?
Greenhouse gas emissions and sustainability are complex matters and shouldn’t be reported without thorough research. Hackyourcloset.com is supported by EIT Climate-KIC** and by researchers from RISE* to ensure the sustainable nature of our service.
*Research Institute of Sweden
**Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on climate innovation to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Let's compare.
An average person consumes 10kg of clothes per year which emits 327 kg of CO2e. We compared the impact emitted from a month average consumption against one monthly subscription to our service.
The first bar represents an average 1-month consumption of clothes (27kg).
The second bar represents 1 month subscription to our closet.
Calculating our own emissions
Each step of our operations has been taken into consideration when we have calculated our emissions. From the clothes arriving to our closet to the first cycle and onwards.
It takes 10 years of access to our shared closets, before you will reach the same emission as a month’s average consumption.
Impact in kg of CO2e | |
|---|---|
Total | 0.208 kg |
Re-used garments | 0.030 kg |
Washing | 0.003 kg |
Drying | 0.018 kg |
Packaging | 0,053 kg |
Transportation | 0,090 kg |
Facilities | 0,014 kg |
Transportation
To ensure the full traceability of our garments, all clothes always come back to us. For each box sent, there’s always a return.
Together with our distribution partners, we have optimized the delivery of our boxes to reduce the number of routes and number of kilometers.
For example, when possible, we exchange the return box for a new box at the same time to avoid different drivers picking up and delivering them.
All of our partners either invest in fossil-free vehicles or compensate for all transportation through different projects (all projects follow the UN’s guidelines The Clean Development Mechanism).
The chart to the right shows the number of kg of CO2eq emitted for the transportation of one box back and forth. First when compensated at 55%, and second if fossil-free vehicles are used.
The first bar represents the kg of CO2e emitted when compensated at 55%.
The second bar represents the CO2 emission when using fossil-free transportation.
From net zero to net positive with
Planboo is planting bamboo for Hack Your Closet in North East India. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world. Through photosynthesis, bamboo captures the inescapable CO2 emissions of our operations.
- Restores land – planting bamboo on degraded soils helps store water and bind soils, locking carbon and nutrients through a shallow hair like root system.
- Absorbs CO2 – 10kg of dry bamboo is equal to 17kg CO2.
- Creates jobs – bamboo is harvested annually. This provides a long-term source of income in some of the world’s poorest regions.
- Find out more at Planboo
Planboo follows a circular business model, first removing and then reducing CO2 emissions. They work with rural smallholder farmers who are paid to plant, maintain and record every bamboo plant. When the bamboo plant is mature in 3-5 years, Planboo connects the harvested bamboo to industry, providing the grower with a long term source of income.
This harvested bamboo can be turned into biobased products for the fashion, furniture, and construction industries. Hack Your Closet bamboo is to be made into reusable packaging boxes!
59% of sustainability claims by fashion brands are found to be false.
The Changing Markets Foundation published a bombshell report based on brand questionnaires and a sweep of more than 4,000 garments being retailed online.
Some brands are using “vague and misleading environmental claims.” Including targets to reach ‘sustainable’, ‘preferred’, ‘sustainably sourced’ or ‘sustainably made’ materials – “criteria for which are often ill-defined and lead to greenwashing”.
So how do we differentiate real commitment from false promises?
Transparency and traceability, leading to sustainability
At Hackyourcloset.com we’ve been in this privileged seat being able to hold the conversation with our suppliers, ask the right questions, and get the answers we need.
The ones who are showing a real commitment to sustainability didn’t think twice about the opportunity to make their garments last longer.
They’ve shown true transparency about their supply chain, and full traceability of their garments from the pre-consumers stage all the way to the post-consumers stage.
Our sustainability goals
When we designed our business model, SUSTAINABILITY was written in the middle of the whiteboard. Before making any decisions, we ask ourselves how the outcome will impact the planet and our the society.
Our community of Closet Hackers makes it possible for us to make an important contribution to the climate crisis. Our mission is to rethink the ways we get dressed and access clothes. Our goal is to create a net positive impact on the industry.