- Comparable sustainability data from over 250 brands available for the first time for Zalando via the Higg Brand and Retail Module (BRM)
- Zalando discloses all of its private label tier 1 suppliers and contributes to the Open Apparel Registry
BERLIN, DECEMBER 17, 2020 // With the launch of its sustainability strategy, do.MORE, in October 2019, Zalando committed to continuously increasing its ethical standards, and by 2023 to only work with partners who align with them. Together with this, Zalando has made sustainability assessments mandatory for all brands selling on the platform. In the initial assessment round targeting the first cluster of brands, Zalando received sustainability information from over 250 brands via the Higg BRM. Partners reported on their activities for 2019. Results show that brands are performing better in the social and human rights sections than in the environmental sections.
On the basis of the Higg BRM from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and Higg Co, Zalando has started assessing its over 3,000 brand partners and private labels, and aims to scale a global standard for measuring sustainability. The Higg BRM is a tool that provides brands and retailers with a comprehensive way to assess their performance around social and environmental parameters, such as human rights, fair wages or carbon emissions. For the first time and together with SAC and Higg Co, Zalando has gathered comparable sustainability data and insights from its partner brands to understand where the challenges of the industry are both individually and collectively.
Zalando recognizes its part to play as both platform and brand, and therefore has also completed the assessment at the group level. Overall, Zalando scores are on par with industry average in both the social and environmental sections. As part of the next steps, Zalando is currently participating in a verification pilot with the SAC to further strengthen the accuracy and credibility of the self-assessment data. The learnings from this pilot will be used to inform next steps in scaling the verification approach to the BRM.