Journey to a closed loop: Our circularity strategy
Our target
Our Circularity Strategy
Our Circularity Strategy
At HUGO BOSS, we are convinced that the future of the fashion industry needs to be more circular - especially with regard to the conservation of our planet's precious resources. At the same time, we want our customers to enjoy our high-quality products for as long as possible. Therefore, we have already taken the first steps in this direction and have developed a concrete HUGO BOSS Circularity Strategy with the following core components:
- circular products
- circular business models
- customer involvement
It all starts with design: our circular products
HUGO BOSS products stand for highest quality and long-lasting design. Meeting our product demands, in terms of circularity, calls for the joint creative potential of employees from a wide range of areas such as design, product development, and sourcing and operations, apart from industry exchange, and collaboration with start-ups. To ensure that the newly developed design strategies for circular products will be realized, HUGO BOSS trained its teams in circular design in collaboration with the sustainable design agency circular.fashion in 2021. In the future, circular design training programs will be firmly anchored in the company to enhance our commitment to reducing the impact of our products (about 16.500 tons of products are sold on an annual basis).
Based on this, the company has developed a guideline for circular products, the HUGO BOSS CIRCULAR Product Policy. The policy defines the criteria of a circular product that make a product of our brands BOSS and HUGO circular and takes three main principles into account.
Our checklist for circular products at HUGO BOSS
-
1. Is the product made from renewable or recycled materials?
The focus is on the use of renewable as well as recycled raw materials. Renewable materials include, for example, cotton, wool and regenerated cellulose fibers such as viscose. For recycled materials, we give preference to pre- and post-consumer textile waste and waste products from other industries. Since we believe that PET bottles serve a better circularity-purpose within the beverage industry where they can be recycled several times, they are avoided and we are actively working on ways to completely exclude the PET bottle from our CIRCULAR product portfolio.
-
2. Is the product recyclable?
Our CIRCULAR products need to be recyclable. They are, therefore, designed to be either recycled as a whole, or the individual components need to be designed to be taken apart and returned to their respective cycles.
-
3. Is the product designed for longevity?
In the design stage of our CIRCULAR products, in addition to high quality and longevity, we also focus on versatility and ways to make the product easier to repair over the course of its use.
All our circular products are identified as CIRCULAR via a corresponding hangtag at the product.
Further information on our circularity criteria can be found in the HUGO BOSS CIRCULAR Product Policy.
Open and closed loop recyling
Recycled and recyclable materials are an important part of our circularity strategy. Two different recycling methods can be used:
1. Recycled closed loop
Recycled closed loop materials are those that originate from recycled textiles. For us both pre- and post-consumer textile waste are valuable material sources, as our aim is to avoid waste wherever possible. In 2022, in this way, we managed to use 70 kilograms of recycled post-consumer textile waste in our products.
2. Recycled open loop
Recycled open loop materials are those that are made using waste from other industries, such as agricultural waste and industrial waste.
Our circular business models as part of our sustainability strategy
With its circular business models centered on resale and repair services, HUGO BOSS is contributing to keeping products in circulation for the longest possible time.
HUGO BOSS resale platform*: a new life in changing closets
For the French market, HUGO BOSS offers its own premium resale platform "HUGO BOSS Pre-Loved". Integrated into the online store, the platform offers selected, second-hand HUGO BOSS products from our brands BOSS and HUGO – in the customary high quality. Customers who return their products to HUGO BOSS for this purpose will receive store credit, which they can then use in one of our stores or online to purchase new or Pre-Loved HUGO BOSS products.
Care and repair services*: for a longer life cycle
The resale business model is supplemented with care and repair services for products from HUGO BOSS in selected German cities, to be followed by other central markets. The repair service in our stores will focus on suits, jeans, shoes, jersey products and leather goods and is intended to make them lasting companions for our customers.
*In 2022, we helped a total of 290 kilograms of products achieve a longer lifetime as part of these two services.
How we engage our customers
It is close to our hearts to make our customers aware of the need for more sustainable handling of and, thus, for longevity in their products. In this way, resources can also be conserved in the long term. The focus is on gentle cleaning and care. To this end, we offer special material guides in our online store with practical information on quality, wearing comfort, product care and the sustainability aspects of a range of materials.
Resource conservation in design, packaging and cutting
We already handle resources responsibly in the product packaging area and, for example, use recycled materials. By 2025, 100% of our plastic packaging is made of recycled or other more sustainably sourced material.
HUGO BOSS also strives to minimize production waste. To achieve this, we use intelligent cutting programs that calculate the most efficient distribution of product components across the fabric in order to waste as little as possible. Our largest in-house production site in Izmir has also set itself the goal of reducing the volume of waste by 3% within one year. Production waste can’t be prevented completely, however, so we try to make sensible use of it – for example, by offering giveaways such as key rings and wallets made from leather-trimming waste.
