Retail 100 2025: The Sustainability Activists

Hali Borenstein, CEO, Reformation

Hali Borenstein is a new entrant in a crucial category that has found its numbers diminished this year – there are just five Sustainability Activists on our list. Borenstein has been with LA-based fashion brand Reformation for a decade, and chief executive since 2020.

She has described the company’s mission as making “killer clothing without killing the environment”.

The brand has grand sustainability aims, including producing all its fabrics from recycled materials by the end of 2025 – a marked distinction from other direct-to-consumer apparel companies in the ‘fast fashion’ space, which have faced criticism for practices with a high climate and human cost.

Reformation has been profitable every year since 2016, reaching $350m (£260.4m) revenue in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation. “A true core value for us is that we needed to build not only a sustainable business, but a business that can fund itself and its expansion,” Borenstein said during a fireside chat at an NRF conference in 2024.

Paul Hayes, CEO, Seasalt

Last year, Cornish clothing brand Seasalt launched in the US, opening its first American store in Falmouth, Massachusetts. It continued opening UK stores in Sheffield, Aberdeen, Trentham and Malvern, as well as Kenmare in Ireland. It also teamed up with Nordstrom to sell clothing through that brand’s platform, adding to a suite of tie-ups including M&S, Next and Zalando.

It was also the year the sustainability-focused brand attained B Corp status with an impressive score of 100.2 (80 being the threshold for certification by the independent body).

The company’s environmental commitment includes increasing the use of certified sustainable materials in its products and transitioning to become a net-zero business by 2040. Seasalt is a full member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a certified user of organic materials and, according to B Corp, “has set validated Science Based Targets to reduce impact on the environment”.

After an impressive Christmas during which sales rose 10% year on year for the five weeks to December 30, 2024, chief executive Paul Hayes warned that the UK’s Budget had created a harder climate for the company, which might well be felt more in the coming months.

It anticipated “significant cost pressure… necessitating a heightened focus on cost management in order to drive profitable growth,” Hayes said. But if growth wanes, it’s from a strong base: In August 2024, Seasalt reported a 146% rise in annual operating profit to £7.9m.

Adam Jay, CEO, Vinted

Adam Jay is spreading his wings as the chief executive of Lithuanian-founded marketplace Vinted, a company that prides itself on making shopping more sustainable. The past year has entailed innovation and expansion. In March 2025, the company opened its first-ever physical pop-up in London for one day only. House of Vinted featured themed rooms and wardrobes, workshops, and a café, planting a flag for future forays into experiential shopping.

Vinted also broadened out into electronics as well as clothing. According to the company’s sustainability report, 40% of Vinted purchases replaced new ones. “This is the main way we impact emissions together,” Vinted said.

The company’s revenues grew 61% year on year in 2023, when it also became profitable. It made €17.8m (£15.2m) that year, compared to a net loss of €20.4m (£17.4m) the previous year. Jay told Vogue Business the app is “growing very well” and data underlines the claim. Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile Data report in January 2025 found Vinted to be the third most-downloaded retail app in the UK.

Eric Mazillier, CEO, Decathlon UK

Decathlon, the French sportswear giant with a strong sustainability stance, had a “transformative” year in 2024, with a 5.2% rise in revenue that it attributed in large part to the role it played at the Paris Olympics.

Lest that make it seem like the success was a blip, however, the retailer was keen to point out that it is also going through a global restructuring and expansion, with 200 new stores opening, alongside “rigorous cost-control measures”.

Partnerships have been a big focus for the brand, including one with Asda in the UK that has seen hundreds of Decathlon products added to the grocer’s site, and a strategic partnership with Indian ecommerce platform Myntra. Digital sales now represent 20% of total revenue, including online sales, marketplaces and in-store connected orders.

Decathlon also achieved revenue growth while reducing carbon emissions. Its emissions have dropped 13% since 2021, and it continues to work with industrial partners to decarbonise the production process, as well as making longer product lifespan a priority, and helping customers reuse, repair and recycle equipment. In 2024, it sold 1.35 million second-hand products and repaired 3 million.

Eve Williams, VP and general manager, eBay UK

eBay, increasingly styling itself as a ‘pre-loved pioneer,’ made more changes in the past year to facilitate circular economy sales and encourage users to sell and buy on the platform rather than discarding old and buying new.

In Eve Williams’ second year heading the brand’s UK division, eBay launched a new tool in May 2024, to help sellers list and sell second-hand fashion, perhaps setting its sights more squarely on Vinted’s market share.

In October 2024, eBay went much further, removing private seller fees in the UK for all items except cars. In December, it followed up with a trade-in option for tech that rivals Vinted’s move into technology, and other resellers like Music Magpie. Before Christmas, also like Vinted, it made a foray into bricks-and-mortar with a London pop-up, selling pre-loved gifts in time for Christmas 2024.

eBay also announced more support for circular fashion businesses, via the expansion of its Circular Fashion Fund, saying it would invest $1.2m (£895,000) into business start-ups by the end of 2025.

Total company revenue was up 2% to $10.3bn (£7.68bn) on an as-reported and FX-neutral basis, eBay said in its latest earnings statement in February 2025.