"We should view every euro and every minute that we spend on our sustainability vision not as a cost but as an investment to stay relevant for our customers, to further define our role in the fashion industry, and to attract the best talent globally."

Rubin Ritter, Co-CEO

Our Progress at a Glance

In this inaugural progress report, we highlight what we have achieved over the past year and provide a more detailed roadmap for the coming years.

Driving Carbon Emissions to Zero — a Race Against Time

We are carbon neutral in our own operations, deliveries and returns and set science-based targets to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Reimagine Packaging, Minimize Waste

We’re continuing to implement circular thinking into our packaging designs. Items were shipped by Zalando with 7.8g of single-use plastic packaging – by 2023 this will be zero.

Defining Sustainable Fashion

We offer one of the largest sustainability assortments in Europe. We identify products as being more sustainable through the sustainability flag, meaning products fulfill at least one of our sustainability criteria. We raise our minimum requirements on a yearly basis to drive positive change in the industry and scale innovation.

Extending the Life of Fashion

We intend to build on the initiatives launched in 2020 to become a fully circular business and scale systemic change within the fashion industry.

Raising the Bar on Ethical Standards

We want to address human rights topics across the entire business in a standardized way and only work with partners who fulfill our requirements. That is why in 2020, we made sustainability assessments mandatory for all partner brands and are rolling this out by 2023.

We are the first platform to use the Sustainable Apparel Coalition's Higg BRM tool as a basis for this assessment and strive to be able to tell our customers what brands are doing both in their operations and supply chains when it comes to sustainability.

Preparing Our Workforce for the Future

The world of work is constantly evolving. Personal growth and development are more important than ever for employees, and new industries continue to emerge that disrupt the status quo.