Category: Uncategorized

Originally published on TriplePundit.com

Using secondhand materials has the potential to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the fashion industry. The secondhand goods broker Bank & Vogue is demonstrating that’s possible by working with big brands to create products out of upcycled fabrics, like Coach’s new repurposed denim bag.

The fashion industry’s impact on the environment is not a secret. The industry is responsible for an estimated 2 to 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and its annual carbon emissions are on track to increase to nearly 2.7 billion tons by the end of the decade, according to a United Nations Environment Program report. But using repurposed materials such as secondhand denim can significantly reduce emissions and other environmental impacts tied to fashion.

For example, a new partnership between the fashion holding company Tapestry and the secondhand goods broker Bank & Vogue looks to bring repurposed denim into the luxury category. The partners’ first foray, a new take on Coach’s iconic signature Soho Bag, reduced emissions by 80 percent and cut water consumption by 95 percent compared to conventional first-use denim, according to a life cycle assessment.

This project prolongs the life of jeans that are not fit for resale, said Steven Bethell, co-founder of Bank & Vogue. The goods broker purchases post-consumer denim from thrift stores and charities across North America, as well as directly from the public. But because of the way the repurposing process works, only 28 percent of all the denim collected can be sold as repurposed denim, according to the life cycle assessment. The other 72 percent are leftover cutting scraps known as “denim skeletons.” Those skeletons can still be reused once recycled into a textile that can replace virgin cotton. Doing so significantly reduces the environmental impact of the repurposing process by spreading the burdens of transportation and processing over more material.

“There are a lot of jeans that come through to Bank & Vogue that are not fit for resale, so it’s those jeans that we then sorted into a range of colors,” Bethell said. “By sorting the material by shade and tone at scale, and then making that available to the design team, you can see that the bag has three or four colorways. I think that one of the amazing things about sorting post-consumer clothes, there’s a real authenticity to the material.”

Bank & Vogue lowers the manufacturing carbon footprint of the Coach bags by shipping pre-cut pieces that are later assembled in Coach’s factory. “We are sending only exactly what the factory needs, which is really important because we already own the technology of how to recycle these skeletons, the stuff left over,” Bethell said. “I think this unlocks another solution towards a lower carbon footprint product.”

At the Tapestry factory, the manufacturing process was redesigned to accommodate repurposed materials. Tapestry has plenty of experience making sure newly ordered materials comply with the company’s quality standards, but making sure upcycled materials still meet those standards was a challenge that required a whole new system to assess the cut-to-assemble materials.

“We ended up creating a cross-functional checklist for using post-consumer materials, partnering with our compliance teams and folks across the business, to really use this as a pilot case study,” said Megan Dawson-Elli, product sustainability manager at Tapestry. “We look at materials based on style, performance, and impact to make sure they’re helping us work towards our goals to create beautiful products and to create products that meet our targets from a Tapestry ESG perspective.”

The first repurposed denim Coach bag made in partnership with Bank & Vogue launched in Spring 2024. Since then, the brand released two more drops that completely sold out.

Bank & Vogue works with hundreds of suppliers and customers to give products seen as waste a new life, encouraging them to avoid landfills by making reuse a profitable option. Beyond the partnership with Coach, the broker works with brands to source and reuse a variety of other materials, including flannel, velvet and Hawaiian shirts, Bethell said. Some of its other projects include brands like Converse and Wrangler.

“We are excited to have other collaborations in the works that demonstrate that upcycling can not only be a path to a lower carbon production methodology, but these partnerships demonstrate that it can be done at scale,” Bethell said.

The Coach partnership confirms that industrial-scale sustainable fashion is possible, even if design teams have to rethink their processes to get there. That’s something Dawson-Elli wants everyone to know, emphasizing that curiosity is a key piece in a partnership like this.

“It was big for me to see the value in post-consumer materials, and that this is possible,” Dawson-Elli said. “This is not a small collection, this is something that has real units behind it. And having that mentality of being curious and challenging our linear systems — it can be tough, It takes time, it takes creative power to unlock — [but] it starts to feel like there are even more possibilities to think through.”

Published by Action Against Hunger.

March 21, 2025 /3BL/ – Fighting between the M23 armed group and the Congolese armed forces and their respective allies has exacerbated already severe humanitarian needs and compromised the delivery of aid. Action Against Hunger calls on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law, guaranteeing the protection of civilians, humanitarian workers, and vital infrastructure.

The humanitarian crisis has worsened considerably in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially in North Kivu, since the end of January. In Goma, North Kivu’s capital, violent clashes have claimed thousands of victims and damaged essential civilian infrastructures such as schools, health centers and markets. The city’s hospitals are overloaded after receiving thousands of wounded. Most civilians do not have access to drinking water and are at risk of contracting diseases such as cholera and the Mpox virus, which are rampant in the area.

People in Goma and North Kivu depend on humanitarian aid for basic needs, but they are now being deprived of vital assistance. “The looting of entire stocks of nutritional inputs, medicines, and medical equipment, supply difficulties, and the volatile security situation are compromising humanitarian operations not only in Goma but throughout the region”, explains Florian Monnerie, Director of Action Against Hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Before these recent clashes in Goma, ongoing conflict had already displaced 2.4 million people in North Kivu. Of these, some 800,000 people were living in the precarious conditions of displacement camps. Now, hundreds of thousands of displaced people have had to leave everything behind and move again. Once they are back in their villages of origin or in secondary displacement zones, these people will have very limited access to food, water, housing, arable land, and healthcare.

Action Against Hunger is concerned about rising cases of acute malnutrition, particularly for the most vulnerable populations: pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under five. “The children who were being cared for at the three sites for displaced people where Action Against Hunger was working are now being moved with their families, and their access to healthcare is severely compromised. We fear that the nutritional crisis will get worse,” adds Florian Monnerie.

With more than 25.5 million people suffering from food insecurity, the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the three biggest food crises in the world. In North Kivu, Action Against Hunger implements lifesaving nutrition, mental health, and water, sanitation and hygiene activities. From January to November 2024, our teams provided 424,044 consultations for the integrated management of childhood illnesses and managed 1,723 cases of acute malnutrition.

In addition to new challenges posed by the worsening humanitarian crisis, aid funding from the United States is ending. The US was the leading humanitarian donor in the DRC, contributing 68.2% of funding for the humanitarian response plan in 2024. Action Against Hunger, in collaboration with the Congolese healthcare system, had planned to treat 45,000 severely malnourished children and provide healthcare to 360,000 children in 2025 and 2026, but this is no longer possible. With the abrupt cessation of funding, Action Against Hunger will treat the 1,875 severely malnourished children currently being cared for in health centers supported by American funding. Then, nutritional centers not supported by other donors will have to be closed. Malnourished children in these health zones will no longer have access to treatment and will be in mortal danger.

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Action Against Hunger leads the global movement to end hunger. We innovate solutions, advocate for change, and reach 21 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across 59 countries, our 8,900 dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, inequity, and emergencies. We strive to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good.