Sustainability at StoreFront

Sustainability is a key pillar of Sprout Technology. In everything that we do and through every opportunity that we explore, we will endeavour to instil sustainable practices into our own work and the work of the entities that we interact with.

With StoreFront being an E-commerce marketplace, we have the ability to connect consumers to brands all around the world, and we want to reward the brands that are making a genuine effort to operate sustainably.

The Current state of Fashion

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the fashion industry is responsible for the production of up to 10% of global annual carbon dioxide output, and produces approximately 60 millions tons of plastic per year. In addition to this, the production of textiles has an incredibly high water footprint. In 2022 it was estimated that the fashion industry uses 93 million cubic metres of water per year, with this number expected to increase as time goes on.

Although these statistics are quite troubling, they present StoreFront with an incredible opportunity to make lasting, positive change to society.

So… What are we doing about it?

To achieve the change that we are seeking to implement, we feel that there are three key areas that should be targeted:

  • Increasing awareness around the issues at hand

  • Sourcing materials more efficiently

  • Increasing the efficiency of production and distribution processes

When it comes to making lasting societal change, the most important thing you can do is change behaviour. Our behaviours are what drives our actions and decisions, with our actions often being deeply ingrained habits or responses to certain situations. In the context of StoreFront and E-commerce platforms in general, modern consumerism prioritises convenience and low prices over sustainability factors such as product longevity, ethical sourcing or environmental impact. There’s a huge disconnect between normal consumer behaviours and the impacts of unsustainable buying, and this is something that we want to change. Even by doing something as simple as making our Users aware of the issues at hand, they are more likely to think about it before making a purchase. By consistently thinking about buying decisions, Users will naturally begin to integrate sustainability considerations to their regular purchasing practices, and as a result their original buying behaviours will have been changed for the better.

While behaviour change is a great step in the right direction, we also need to increase the efficiency of all processes involved in the Product Life Cycle.

The Product Life Cycle refers to the entirety of a product’s journey. For clothing and accessories, this essentially includes sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal. In the fashion world, the majority of sustainability initiatives are aimed at the Downstream stages of the Product Life Cycle - This includes Recycle and Reuse. While these are great initiatives, they lack true impact in the greater scale of things, as they occur in the ‘disposal’ stage of the Product Life Cycle. By no means should these efforts be discontinued - They are a vital part of circular consumerism. We simply feel that we can do better.

At StoreFront, we want to place a greater focus on the Upstream areas of the Product Life Cycle. We believe that doing so will have an amplified positive effect throughout the entirety of the Product Life Cycle, more efficiently reducing the impacts of consumerism on the planet. For this reason, we require Brands to disclose the sourcing and manufacturing locations of each item that they choose to list. This information is displayed in plain view - directly below the price of each item. This allows our Users to make more informed decisions when it comes to purchasing, and as a result Brands will be pushed to source and manufacture more sustainably, as it directly ties in to the nature of their Brand and the public perception surrounding that.

Again, this is a very surface level solution, however as we grow we are aiming to take it much further. A key step in this, is creating our own auditing team so that we can properly assess the performance of material providers and manufacturers. We can score their efforts and create a comprehensive database to inform recommendations for both our Brands and Buyers to utilise. Eventually, this database will allow us to provide each Brand on the platform with a ‘True Sustainability Rating’, further empowering our Users and reinforcing the notion to everyone that sustainability performance is of paramount importance.

In tandem with this, we’ll be seeking to partner with established sustainability certification bodies such as GOTS (Global Organic Textiles Standard) and BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) so that Brands can display the sustainability certifications that they hold on the platform. This will not only increase Buyer trust of the Brand, but demonstrate how important it is to take the extra step to verify strong sustainability efforts.

We truly believe that StoreFront can have a positive, lasting impact on modern consumerism, so join us on our journey and browse better.