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This month, outdoor apparel brand The North Face announced that going forward, member’s of their design team will participate in a Renewed Design Residency. Every six months, five of the US-based company’s designers will spend a week with Renewal Workshop, a company that helps brands gather used clothing, remix and repurpose it (even melding multiple items together) to resell it. The North Face’s goal is to help its team keep sustainability in mind during the design process and get a hands-on sense of how to extend the lifespan of apparel. 

Even if you aren’t playing a part in the 85% of fabrics being dumped into landfills, there are lessons everyone can learn here: 

Unconsumed 👌
We call them ‘consumers’, but increasingly, the ultimate status symbol is drop out of the consumption race. As you’re well aware, in many circles, toting around a chic S’well bottle – showing off that you’re not consuming plastic-packed Fijian water – offers a status boost on par with carrying a designer handbag. And after Marie Kondo’s Netflix series led to a surge of Goodwill donations across the US, it would be all too tragic if those old sweatpants were replaced with new ones. Increasingly, ‘unconsumers’ will embrace repurposed and refurbished products like those offered by The North Face and Patagonia. Beyond fashion, Tesla’s recent cockup with a used car (removing capabilities via software updates) shows it will be a long road to a not-so-new world. What long-term strategy can you initiate now to turn the oil tanker of consumerism around?

Practical purpose ♻️
It’s not just your customers who care about your company’s higher purpose, a whopping 73% of employees want to feel as if they are changing society. You’ve seen what happens when a company’s noble proclamations aren’t aligned with operations. See the walkouts at Amazon over its response to employees’ sustainability concerns and internal unrest at Google. One way to show your brand’s most important stakeholders – the ones who keep the lights on – that your purpose is sincere? Make like The North Face and incorporate it into practical employee training and education. Call a meeting with HR today, and plot how you will give employees a hands-on role in your brand’s larger mission!


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