Responsibility at Essentiel Antwerp
A journey — not a destination.
"We aim to permanently challenge ourselves by exploring innovative solutions and business models. By embedding sustainability into our business strategy, we hope to play our role in reshaping the fashion industry.
On this path towards more consciousness, we couldn’t be more thankful to see this engagement of both our teams and our community."
Esfan Eghtessadi & Inge Onsea
co-founders Essentiel Antwerp
Every year we publish our responsibility report to give you an update on the steps we’re taking and the choices we’re making.
Showing our true colors
We know that the fashion industry has a major environmental and social impact on the planet. That’s why we believe it’s so important to keep on questioning ourselves and our way of working. We want to be part of the solution. Responsibility is now a core value guiding us in our next steps and working processes.We want to be transparent in what we do, what we don't do (yet) and where we can improve, because we want to do better. We have one clear goal in mind: creating a greener and more socially responsible Essentiel Antwerp.
Our commitments
Since 2019, we have been guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. This international framework sets out 17 goals for sustainable development by 2030, divided into the themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnerships.We have determined four strategic priorities for Essentiel Antwerp – areas where we want to make significant changes, both in the short and long term. These four priorities translate the Sustainable Development Goals into Essentiel Antwerp’s business context and provide a roadmap for the future:
We aim to contribute to a more responsible supply chain
SDG 1 – SDG 3 – SDG 5 – SDG 6 – SDG 7 – SDG 8 – SDG 10 – SDG 12 – SDG 13
We aim to use products with less impact
SDG 12 – SDG 13 – SDG 14 – SDG 15
We believe in diversity, inclusivity and equality
SDG 3 – SDG 4 - SDG 5 – SDG 8 – SDG 9 - SDG 10 – SDG 16 - SDG 17
We want to reduce our ecological footprint
SDG 7 – SDG 12 – SDG 13
2022
Products with (less) impact.
We design with quality and longevity in mind. We’re right on track for our goal to have 50% of our materials crafted from sustainable materials by 2025. According to our initial groundwork, this requires an increase of 5% every season. For Spring/Summer 2023, the collection we created and purchased in 2022, we managed to increase the sustainable materials by 16%. With strong foundations laid, we are hopeful that we can achieve this goal.
More responsible materials
Organic cotton
Organic cotton is grown with reduced use of chemicals, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or GMO crops.
Responsible denim
Since 2020, all our denims are produced in an environmentally friendly way, with significant water and energy savings. In 2021, our Turkish denim manufacturer invested in a fully closed water loop system. This manufacturer also uses computer-driven laser technology to finish our denim wear without water, chemicals or stones, and fully loaded washing machines have been replaced by e-flow technology, minimizing water and chemical use. For Spring 2023, we also introduced a denim made of Lenzing™ Tencel™. The fibers are extracted from sustainably grown wood using a unique closed loop system which recovers and reuses the solvents used, minimizing the environmental impact of production.
Lenzing™ Ecovero™ viscose
Lenzing™ Ecovero™ viscose is derived from certified renewable wood sources using an eco-responsible production process.
Recycled polyester and polyurethane
Recycled polyester and polyurethane are materials that have undergone a process of reprocessing and reuse after their initial use, contributing to sustainability and waste reduction.
30% monomaterial
We strive to make collections that are made of so-called ‘monomaterials’, where the fabric is comprised of only one material. This offers important advantages in the post-consumer recycling process. They have a much higher recycling rate and post-recycling quality compared to mixed material items, which are difficult to separate for recycling. Last year, approximately 30% of Essentiel Antwerp collections were made of monomaterials. Depending on the seasonality of our collections, some items are more difficult to create from monomaterials and require the use of more mixed-fiber fabrics.
Team effort
By organizing internal workshops, we made sure the internal knowledge that is built up, is now also shared throughout the whole design department. In combination with the Corporate Product Policy, we can challenge our suppliers even better in this process of sustainable design. It’s only with this joint effort that we’ll get there.
However, it remains challenging as we are sometimes still faced with large minimum quantities, or substantial surcharges, but we are noticing a shift in supplier behavior as more and more sustainable options become available.
Rethinking fashion
If it comes to a more sustainable future, less is more. We believe that one way of reducing the environmental impact of fashion, is by going circular. We take it upon us to educate our community and to normalize concepts like rental and resale. We want to incentivize our community to think beyond their purchase.
Rental
We started our rental service in 2021. We strongly believe in the accessibility and the shift of ownership it brings to our brand. The rental is organized in select stores in Belgium, UK and the Netherlands. This initiative has been relaunched for the second time in 2022. We’re taking our learnings from each campaign to the next one to improve the service, as well as exploring new possibilities by experimenting with the duration of the campaign and selecting new locations to try out. As we manage this process entirely ourselves, we can adapt and make the service even more future-proof.
Upcycling
In our commitment towards more sustainable design, we’ve partnered with Studio Circulaire to create an upcycled capsule collection. The result is an exclusive collection of 14 completely new styles with Essentiel Antwerp’s signature prints.
By using unsold archive stock, we’re happy to breathe new life into past collections. The collection is limited edition with each unique piece being numbered.
Upcycling
In our commitment towards more sustainable design, we’ve partnered with Studio Circulaire to create an upcycled capsule collection. The result is an exclusive collection of 14 completely new styles with Essentiel Antwerp’s signature prints.
By using unsold archive stock, we’re happy to breathe new life into past collections. The collection is limited edition with each unique piece being numbered.
RE—SSENTIEL
We encourage our customers to rediscover, revive and recelebrate Essentiel Antwerp favorites. We launched our resale service in September 2022 and we're excited to give our community a permanent platform where they can extend the life of Essentiel Antwerp items. We invest in our pieces — from design to fabric choice — and always with the aim of a long-lasting future, way beyond the first sale. This circular initiative started in Belgium only, but quickly expanded to other markets like the Netherlands, France and Germany. We're proud to have enrolled this initiative as a first fashion brand in Belgium and are even more proud to see the response it gets from our customers internationally. We feel encouraged to continue this path towards innovative business models. Thanks to this initiative and the community around it, 997 Essentiel Antwerp items were given a new life. Watch the full video, find out how to RE—SSENTIEL and get to know the whole process behind it.
Rethinking fashion
If it comes to a more sustainable future, less is more. We believe that one way of reducing the environmental impact of fashion, is by going circular. We take it upon us to educate our community and to normalize concepts like rental and resale. We want to incentivize our community to think beyond their purchase.
Rental
We started our rental service in 2021. We strongly believe in the accessibility and the shift of ownership it brings to our brand. The rental is organized in select stores in Belgium, UK and the Netherlands. This initiative has been relaunched for the second time in 2022. We’re taking our learnings from each campaign to the next one to improve the service, as well as exploring new possibilities by experimenting with the duration of the campaign and selecting new locations to try out. As we manage this process entirely ourselves, we can adapt and make the service even more future-proof.
Upcycling
In our commitment towards more sustainable design, we’ve partnered with Studio Circulaire to create an upcycled capsule collection. The result is an exclusive collection of 14 completely new styles with Essentiel Antwerp’s signature prints.
By using unsold archive stock, we’re happy to breathe new life into past collections. The collection is limited edition with each unique piece being numbered.
RE—SSENTIEL
We encourage our customers to rediscover, revive and recelebrate Essentiel Antwerp favorites. We launched our resale service in September 2022 and we're excited to give our community a permanent platform where they can extend the life of Essentiel Antwerp items. We invest in our pieces — from design to fabric choice — and always with the aim of a long-lasting future, way beyond the first sale.
This circular initiative started in Belgium only, but quickly expanded to other markets like the Netherlands, France and Germany. We're proud to have enrolled this initiative as a first fashion brand in Belgium and are even more proud to see the response it gets from our customers internationally. We feel encouraged to continue this path towards innovative business models. Thanks to this initiative and the community around it, 997 Essentiel Antwerp items were given a new life. Watch the full video, find out how to RE—SSENTIEL and get to know the whole process behind it.
RE—SSENTIEL
We encourage our customers to rediscover, revive and recelebrate Essentiel Antwerp favorites. We launched our resale service in September 2022 and we're excited to give our community a permanent platform where they can extend the life of Essentiel Antwerp items. We invest in our pieces — from design to fabric choice — and always with the aim of a long-lasting future, way beyond the first sale.
This circular initiative started in Belgium only, but quickly expanded to other markets like the Netherlands, France and Germany. We're proud to have enrolled this initiative as a first fashion brand in Belgium and are even more proud to see the response it gets from our customers internationally. We feel encouraged to continue this path towards innovative business models. Thanks to this initiative and the community around it, 997 Essentiel Antwerp items were given a new life. Watch the full video, find out how to RE—SSENTIEL and get to know the whole process behind it.
Carbon footprint 2022
One of the milestones of our sustainability trajectory defined in 2022, is the measurement of our company’s carbon footprint. This exercise has helped us to learn which are our main impacts and gives us insight into how we can prioritize improvements and set targets.
Since we know that the main source of our emissions is our indirect emissions, we decided to carry out a full analysis of scope 1,2 and 3 emissions: a challenging exercise which we will further refine in the future.
Our total carbon footprint for 2022 is 6.079 tCO2e.
Scope 1 is 272 tCO2e, scope 2 is 203 tCO2e, scope 3 5604 tCO2e.
The result of our first carbon footprint calculation indicates that we have a total emission of 6079 tCO2 equivalents. Due to the nature of our business, our scope 3 emissions account for up to 92% of our total emissions. Within that category, 54 percent of our total emissions and our inbound transports account for 22% of our total emissions. The heaviest impact in this inbound transport is caused by the use of air transport for inbound deliveries.
Materials: We identified our most polluting materials including wool and silk. Researching alternatives for the most polluting materials is already part of our strategy and this exercise has further helped us in prioritizing our shift to more sustainable material options.
Our next step is to learn from this first measurement.
Therefore, we will draft a climate plan over the course of 2023, tackling multiple challenges:Conscious selection and use of materials for our products. We want to build a deeper understanding of the impact of our materials, and how to improve it.
Continuing to work on our inbound distribution flow to lower our air transport. Increasing awareness. With our team, we want to explore how we can all contribute in our daily jobs, from travel to energy use in our stores, store design and waste management.
Further exploring the possibilities of innovation and alternative business models, aiming to prolong the lifecycle of our garments among our customers.
Trainings
In November 2022, we launched an internal training application called “UQ coach”.
We invite our store staff to participate in trainings to keep them updated on company information and the Essentiel Antwerp way of working. In total we have 219 users of which 141 store people and 78 people working in our Headquarters.
We now have 12 trainings available, with topics like the use of our systems but also information about the materials, care labels, visual merchandising, the buying process, etc... We have a 70% completion rate for these trainings, which encourages us to continue this learning path.
Next to the training aspect of the application, we also use this tool to improve our internal communication.It’s a way to break down the silos and make sure everyone’s aware of what’s going on cross departments.
This ensures a higher level of transparency and involvement. From sharing upcoming collaborations, collection previews, store highlights to weekly reporting on performance, all the latest is to be found on the wall of the app.
