The Sustainability Activists

Mark Constantine
Co-founder and chief executive, Lush

Mark Constantine has made the most of the world reopening post pandemic, prioritising sustainability and CX, and pursuing a strategy merging the two.

Since Lush’s exit from social media in November 2021, Constantine has been rolling out a programme of experiences, investing £7.4m into growing its estate across the UK and Europe, and launching new eco-friendly ranges.

In May, Constantine opened Lush’s £2.3m Green Hub in Poole, Dorset, an in-house location dedicated to waste management that is also open to the public for events, workshops and community engagement opportunities for local and national businesses, councils and schools.

With only 2% of Lush’s total carbon footprint taken up by packaging, Constantine has continued to invest in this area. In June, Lush partnered with Spongebob Squarepants on a plastic-free collection and, within a fortnight, it had generated £1.3m in global sales. This followed partnerships with Lazy Oaf, Netflix and Nintendo. Lush is also hiring environmental activists for internal roles to “create critical change”.

Constantine’s combined efforts are working – December 2022 marked a new sales record of £40.5m, up 13.1% on 2021 and 11% on pre-pandemic levels.

Helena Helmersson
Chief executive, H&M

H&M boss Helena Helmersson has been on a cost-cutting drive since soaring freight and energy costs almost wiped out the fashion giant’s profits in the September-November quarter 2022.

Her measures are beginning to pay off. The fashion retailer reported operating profit in its March-May second quarter of 4.74bn Swedish krona (SEK) (£350m), down from 4.98bn SEK (£370m) last year but ahead of analyst forecasts. The initiative has not deterred Helmersson – who was previously H&M’s head of sustainability for 10 years until she took over the chief executive role in 2020 – from her pursuit of a greener future for the group.

She has continued to drive change in the industry by investing in new sustainability projects over the past 12 months. These have included a 2030 water strategy, announced in March, which promises to reduce water consumption per product by 38%, investment in bio-based material science company Kintra Fibers in July, a contract with Climeworks secured in November 2022 to decarbonise its value chain in line with the Paris Agreement and an in-store rental initiative launched in November 2022 in its revamped Regent Street flagship – a UK first for the group.

Seeking to prove that retail sustainability can be profitable, Helmersson is at the forefront of the revolution.  

Adam Jay
Chief executive, Vinted Marketplace

Second-hand fashion is increasingly shaping the future of retail and Adam Jay’s work at Vinted Marketplace puts him at the forefront.

Lithuanian online marketplace Vinted was founded in 2008 and now operates in 19 European markets alongside the US and Canada. Jay, former president of Hotels.com and Expedia, was appointed chief executive of Vinted Marketplace in February 2022 and has seen its user base in the UK grow from 1 million registered users in 2021 to 8 million as of April 2023 (and 80 million globally registered members).

Helmed by Jay, Vinted Marketplace is helping reduce inventory waste and actively influencing customer purchasing decisions. An independent survey published in March by carbon emission specialist Vaayu of 350,000 Vinted members found “more than one-third of Vinted orders prevented the purchase of a new item”.

Looking ahead, Jay is targeting further European expansion. It comes as the retailer bolsters sales performance; for its 2022 financial year, it posted a 51% revenue increase to €371m (£319m) with pre-tax losses down 62.3% to €42.9m (£36.9m).

Andrew Keith
Managing director, Selfridges UK 

Andrew Keith may be in the top job at one of the world’s most luxury-oriented retailers, but he wants to use his position to further the sustainability revolution in retail.

Having joined Selfridges in November 2020, he was only there a year before he had to navigate the iconic British retailer through a change in ownership to Central Group and Signa Holding, finalised in August 2022 in a $5.4bn deal. And another big area of focus was, of course, post-pandemic footfall recovery – full-year results for 2021 show that revenues did start to bounce back, with net sales rising 28.5% to £654.3m.

But now Keith has turned his attention to the long-term future, not just of Selfridges but the industry as a whole. In September 2022 he unveiled an ambition for 45% of sales across its four stores and online to be resale, repair, rental or refill-driven by 2030. This builds on an earlier commitment to become net zero by 2040. Selfridges made a foray into rental fashion in October 2022 with its first rental kidswear range and in April this year launched storewide takeover initiative Worn Again to encourage consumers to shop its second-hand pieces, which ran until August.

Alongside product showcases, Worn Again featured in-store second-hand fashion events and The Stock Market – an initiative where customers can have their handbags or footwear valued by authenticators with the option to sell to Selfridges in exchange for credit.

Keith has said he is determined to “create a more sustainable future” and he’s in a good position to get the industry behind him. 

Eric Mazillier
UK chief executive and managing director, Decathlon

Eric Mazillier has spent his entire career, since 1994, working at Decathlon and his commitment to the business – particularly with regards to ESG – is evident.

Mazillier, who was appointed UK chief in June 2020 having previously led Decathlon's South African division, is pursuing three major targets for 2026. This includes making electricity for its stores and warehouses 100% powered by renewable sources – it hit 84.8% at the end of 2022 – ensuring 100% of its repairable products can be repaired at workshops or by customers and making 100% of its products eco-design driven.

Following the launch of its resale marketplace Second Life back in 2021, in April Mazillier made Decathlon the first UK retailer to offer a nationwide sports equipment rental scheme. It has committed £1m worth of products that customers can rent from £10 a day.

While sustainability is high on his agenda, so is driving growth. In 2022, Decathlon’s most recent financial report, the group’s annual sales advanced 12% in constant currency, from €13.8bn (£11.9bn) to €15.4bn (£13.2bn) while net profits rose from €913m (£780m) in 2021 to €923m (£790m).

Joe Metcalfe
Founder and chief executive, Thrift+ 

Joe Metcalfe founded his circular fashion platform in 2018 and now Thrift+ has given more than 500,000 items a new lease of life and donated over £1.5m to UK charities via its seller community.

This is the second sustainable fashion foray for former consultant Metcalfe, having founded click-and-collect charity shop venture Charity Street in 2016.

In June 2022, Asos signed a trial partnership enabling customers to request a free Asos x Thrift+ bag to send unwanted clothes to Thrift+ to be sold. In return, customers receive credits that can be converted into vouchers for Asos and other retailers to purchase pre-loved clothing or donate to charity. Thrift+ has since added Crew Clothing and Karen Millen as partners.

Awarded B Corp certification in October, Metcalfe is looking to secure new brand partnerships and amplify marketing, and is using a £1.9m crowdfunding round, raised in December, to support this. 

Thrift+’s growth is part of a wider industry shift – one he responded to and then helped ramp up the pace of change.

Victoria Prew
Co-founder and chief executive, Hurr

Helping luxury fashion brands lead the sustainability charge is Victoria Prew, boss of peer-to-peer wardrobe rental platform Hurr. Prew established Hurr in December 2018 and the website boasts an unlimited ‘virtual wardrobe’ for luxury rentals, including curated edits, the latest trend pieces and celebrity wardrobes.

Buoyed by the rise of sustainable fashion and the rental revolution, Prew has scaled the business to carry an inventory worth more than £1m from names such as Burberry, Celine and Dior, while partnerships with eco-consultancy Eco-Age and fashion charity Traid have further bolstered the business’ ESG credentials.

High street fashion brands now want in on the rental market and are using Hurr's white-label rental service to do so. In June 2022 John Lewis launched a ‘dress for hire’ rental service, using Hurr, enabling customers to rent an item of clothing for up to 20 days. In November, Frasers Group’s Flannels and etailer Matchesfashion unveiled rental ranges supported by the Hurr platform.

As more retailers seek help to meet their circularity commitments, Prew appears well positioned to take advantage.

Maddie Smith
Managing director UK and Ireland, The Body Shop

Maddie Smith has been advancing The Body Shop’s sustainability credentials since her appointment in January 2022.

The former Estée Lauder executive – who boasts a retail career spanning 25 years – is rolling out the retailer’s ’activist workshop’ store format and refill stations globally.

In the UK, this has included overseeing The Body Shop’s Battersea Power Station store launch. Opened last October, the store boasts a community workshop and refill station for products such as shampoo and shower gel, with 90% of the store made from recycled or sustainably sourced materials.

With refill stations now active in 800 stores worldwide, the programme in 2022 alone is estimated to have prevented more than 500,000 plastic bottles from entering the environment.

Despite Smith taking The Body Shop back to its activist roots, she faces challenges ahead leading the business into growth. For the first quarter of 2023, revenues fell 9.4% in constant currency terms to BRL849m (£134m), while adjusted EBITDA was down 6.1%. With parent company Natura reportedly eyeing up a sale of The Body Shop after difficulties making the retailer more profitable, Smith will be in the spotlight.

Isabella West
Founder, Hirestreet and Zoa

With the UK rental market set to grow 10% every year until 2028 and GlobalData forecasting it to be worth £2.9bn by 2029, Isabella West is building a sustainable fashion empire ready to capitalise.

Founder of one of Britain’s first rental fashion brands Hirestreet and white-label rental-as-service company Zoa, West is making rental hire possible for some of the UK’s best-known high street fashion retailers, such as Marks & Spencer and Decathlon. West’s businesses make rental more accessible to the average shopper, but she also says they are helping to make a greater dent in the wear-once waste pile generated by fast-fashion brands rather than her luxury competitors. Hirestreet now boasts 1.8 million users renting 10 outfits a year and offers the opportunity to hire three items for a fortnight for £40.

It is a compelling offering – or at least retailers think so. In May Asos launched its first-ever rental collection with Hirestreet and in August Schuh announced its first Hirestreet-driven footwear rental collection too. It comes after M&S, which is an investor in Zoa, expanded its range on the Hirestreet platform in October 2022.

Eve Williams
Vice president and
general manager,
eBay UK

Eve Williams is determined to make eBay “the smarter, more sustainable place to shop” and has made progress on this goal since being promoted to vice-president and general manager of the marketplace’s UK business in March.

The former Asos exec, who joined eBay in 2020 as chief marketing officer, had previously overseen campaigns such as eBay’s pre-loved fashion partnership with Love Island and the introduction of a new brand platform, The eBay Way.

Over the past six months, Williams has doubled down on eBay UK’s sustainability efforts. This includes a partnership with Marks & Spencer and Oxfam in July to sell second-hand school uniforms; acquiring authentication and digital ID firm Certilogo to enhance its pre-loved fashion business in May; and launching sustainable homewares hub Better Than New in April to incentivise shoppers to consider more eco-friendly options.

ROI from this activity is yet to be shared but, with UK revenues already having grown 5.9% to £1.4bn in FY2021 and burgeoning consumer demand for greener alternatives, Williams’ strategy is a savvy one.