Strategy for Aritzia Industry Trends

PRODUCT END-OF-LIFE

Strategy for Aritzia

CURRENTLY:

As far as product end-of-life, Aritzia has taken some steps to ensure its pre-consumer clothing waste is diverted from the landfill: • Working with local Vancouver women’s charities that support underprivileged women by donating clothing (Good 360, The Shoebox Project and Dress for Success)31 .

• Working with a Vancouver based company, Debrand, in order to sustainably dispose of the products it can no longer sell, through mechanical shredding of textiles that are later used to create rags for the the automotive industry or car insulation32 .

OPPORTUNITIES:

Aritzia’s charitable efforts and internal waste recycling systems work mostly on eliminating leftover product after each season. However, a significant amount of post-consumer waste, to which Aritzia contributes, is being accumulated in the landfills. Aritzia should take responsibility and mitigate the amount clothing waste that gets disposed of as well as find ways to help the consumer dispose of it adequately by: • Extending product lifespan by offering services such as tailoring with purchase, as well as mending and waranties on zippers.

• Offering Aritzia product take-back services in order to re-use fabrics and minimize the amount of waste in landfill.

• Labeling ways in which consumers should dispose of items, to decrease the amount of textile waste in the landfills, that could easily be repurposed or recycled.

PRODUCT END-OF-LIFE

Strategy for Aritzia

PSS - TAILORING AND MENDING

• Most common reasons for premature disposal of clothing are fit, fashion change, boredom, and damaged/worn out goods, which could be addressed through PSS models designed to reduce disposal while raising the customer’s satisfaction with the product. This way, fit issues could be addressed via tailoring services sold in the fitting room or at point-of-sale33 . • By offering alteration services, Aritzia could deter returns, ensure the client has a longer lasting item and ultimately have a higher value built into the price of the garment.

PSS - TAKE-BACK PROGRAMS

• PSS models are service based, affording the clothing retailer many opportunities to interact with customers. This offers the retailer to become more responsive to customers’ needs as well as an opportunity to build brand loyalty33 . • Services such as take-back programs can incentiv ize the customer with a discount or store credit to return to the store and make another purchase. They also give additional raw resources in terms of materials and can serve as alternative revenue streams if the items are repaired and sold to secondary used-goods retailers33 .

LABELING TO INDICATE PROPER WAYS OF DISPOSAL

• The care label on the product should specify what customers should do with unwanted items. This may include donating, recycling, disassembling, throwing in the compost, or returning it to your company34 . • The company could provide customers this information in other places as well, like at the point of purchase or on the website.

PRODUCT END-OF-LIFE

PSS - TAILORING AND MENDING Business case: UNIQLO

Industry Trends

• In its efforts to improve its sustainability performance and create added value for its products, fast fashion brand Uniqlo has introduced a free tailoring services for jeans and trousers. This service is available in stores on the spot as well as for online purchases35. It is proven that items that fit better, stay in our closets for longer, ultimately reducing the amount of disposed clothing in the landfills.

PSS - TAKE-BACK PROGRAMS Business case: RENEW by EILEEN FISHER • Eileen Fisher offers a take-back program for brand’s garments that are no longer in use. They take items back in any condition, to be resold or renewed through techniques like overdyeing and mending. The pieces they can’t use, they save because they’re tomorrow’s raw materials and damaged garments are resewn into one-of-a-kind designs36 .

LABELING TO INDICATE PROPER WAYS OF DISPOSAL Business case: A.BCH

• Sustainable brand A.BCH’s product labels have a unique product code on them, which allows the consumer or anyone down the line dealing with the product to find out the details of the composition, how the garment was made as well how to safely dispose of it. The system is hosted on their web-page, so that at any point in the near or far future, a consumer has full access to all the relevant information pertaining to the product in question37 .

SUSTAINABILITY MANUAL

Summary

The scope of this Aritzia Manual is extensive and outlines a multitude of strategies across various business areas that would complement Aritzia’s current sustainability efforts. All the strategies draw upon Aritzia’s overarching goals for achieving a stronger sustainbility performance in areas of Product, Operations and Community. The intention behind all the recommendations is for Aritzia to consider thinking beyond certifications and implement solutions on a broader scale (i.e. Standardizing Codes of Conduct), or implement solutions that address various issues simultaneously (i.e. Localism).

As a billion dollar company, Aritzia has the responsibility of understanding and ackgnowledging all the impacts its products and operations have on both the environment and the people it takes resources from. In order to elevate Aritzia’s sustainbility efforts the approach needs to be comprehensive, and it needs to address issues not only in the supply chain, but also frontline retail, such as in-store recycling and waste management as well as product end-of-life, such as labeling instructions for adequate product disposal.