Green Knowledge: Is sustainability a privilege?

Green Knowledge – COSH! is leading the way in sustainable shopping with its user-friendly online platform, featuring a catalogue of fashion brands marked with clear sustainability labels. Having expanded into the German market in collaboration with Green Fashion Tour from a successful base in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, COSH! offers a tailored shopping experience, curates over 1,000 brands, rates sustainability, and spotlights circular fashion, resale, and more. Its founder, Niki de Schryver, discusses the challenges of promoting sustainable consumption, emphasizes the importance of financial backing, and addresses areas for improvement in second-hand store presentation.

Interview: Cheryll Mühlen

When and how did you conceive the idea for Cosh!, and could you explain the meaning behind the name “Cosh!”?

COSH! stands for Conscious shopping, with the tagline “Conscious shopping made easy.” My background includes global work in production and sustainability, notably as a production manager at Bruno Pieters, a sustainability trailblazer. Later, I ventured into e‑commerce and online marketing, achieving success, but feeling a misalignment with my values. Following studying at Vlerick Business Management School in Belgium, I joined a sustainability hackathon in Brussels with 1,000 like-minded individuals. We discussed societal issues, including fashion, and identified a lack of consumer awareness of existing sustainable fashion initiatives. This led to our initial concept: connecting consumers with pioneering initiatives, offering guidance rather than adding more competition.

Looking forward, what’s your ultimate dream for the future once everything settles?

COSH!‘s mission is to transform the fashion industry into a circular and slavery-free one. This is what drives us every day, and all our efforts are geared toward achieving that goal. In an ideal scenario, we aim to establish collaborations with a certain number of cities and local councils.

We currently have 30,000 users in four countries.

I’m curious if the markets see profit opportunities in pursuing this direction and collaborating with you. Can you explain the services Cosh! provides?

Well, many decision-makers focus on profit, but our community recognises shared values and a sense of belonging. Our team’s retail, sustainable fashion, and branding expertise contributes to our community’s shared values. With 30,000 users across four countries, we provide an alternative experience to the Avocado Store marketplace, guiding you to local boutiques, instead of only online shopping. Our printed maps remain popular, and we cooperate with schools, travel agents, and European Union funding programs. Collaborating with German cities, we promote sustainable alternatives to events like Black Friday. We’re developing dashboards to illustrate our PR value for cities and transparently broadcasting the impact we are making in their city. Our focus is on network value rather than sales promises; unlike marketplaces, we don’t want to push for more sales all the time. We don’t want overconsumption as our business driver. Sales are also dependent on store owner’s efforts; stores should also consider branding and customer experience’s impact.

How does your personal passion for sustainability influence your work at Cosh!?

At COSH!, we’re dedicated to offering a diverse range of choices to cater to individual styles and budgets. It’s crucial to provide options at different price points. While lower-cost products may be sourced from distant places, ethical manufacturing involves empowering communities abroad. When it comes to expenses, I prefer supporting companies committed to sustainability from the start, rather than applauding larger companies for only a small fraction of 2% of their operations being a little bit more environmentally responsible. This ethos guides COSH!.

What sets Cosh! apart from other fashion tech companies when it comes to sustainability and transparency, especially when it comes to working with local retailers and their approach to data connectivity?

Many people say we should work with big companies to make more money, but I disagree. This often makes innovative fashion tech startups lose their integrity. In our business model, local retailers or impact entrepreneurs pay a membership fee, which includes an annual brand screening. What’s unique is that all the supply chain data from different brands and stores is connected across cities, unlike traditional affiliate marketing business models that derive income directly from the brands they promote as sustainable. Fashion tech traceability or LCA tools companies often sell Software-as-a-Service solutions to large corporations, but that’s not enough for transparency and traceability. No one is verifying the data that goes in.

But still, money continues to drive many initiatives in the current landscape. If not from large fashion companies, where could this influential power originate?

We’re fortunate to have impact investors supporting our mission. We executed a funding round last year and are about to conclude another for this year ‘2023’. I’m incredibly grateful for the investors we have. As long as we’re not compromising our mission, these investors are highly impact-focused. Having the right people on board from all sides is crucial.

You advocate that we can avert climate collapse by limiting our annual purchases to just five items and prioritising second-hand or upcycled products. How realistic do you think this vision is, both in terms of keeping to the five-item limit and making sustainable choices for the rest of our needs?

*laughs* Unfortunately this is the choice one should make in terms of its wardrobe; only changing our wardrobe will not solve the climate collapse; more measures are needed.

Until last year, I, and I assume many at the forefront of sustainable fashion, had the idea of limiting my purchases to ten items a year. Personally, I find the concept of limiting myself to five items quite challenging. However, I have team members who buy only second-hand goods and manage to stick to this limit. They’re really committed. Personally, I am more inclined to support local craftsmanship. When it comes to the concept of free will and reducing our purchases to just five items on a larger scale across communities, we’re not there yet, to say the least.

Given how challenging it is for someone like me, who’s already well-informed, to limit their shopping or even find stores where I could shop second-hand regularly if you don’t live in a metropolitan area, I wonder about the additional challenges other people encounter in this regard.
Now that we’re talking about it, I’ve noticed a growing trend of well-curated secondhand stores. Personally, due to my specific body type, secondhand shopping can be more challenging, considering the various types of secondhand shops. Some provide a boutique-like experience, which is vital for guiding people to the right stores. This aspect is often underestimated by retailers. The in-store atmosphere is crucial; it’s like hosting a gathering. However, I’ve had experiences where I felt unsure if I was allowed to enter or if the store was closed. It’s like walking into a space.

It seems like Cosh! provides advice on-the-go too.

In April, I visited a shop, and they faced post-Covid challenges. These designers specialized in made-to-order and one-of-a-kind pieces, avoiding mass production. They shared their concerns about a lack of clients, with many visitors leaving without making purchases. Their fitting room was overflowing with items. After several phone discussions and my revisit in July, two months after becoming COSH! members, they had implemented my advice, resulting in significant changes to their shop’s layout and approach. In Dutch, we say “geen blad voor de mond,” meaning I can’t hold back when I see something that needs improvement.

But it seems this character trait comes in handy. With all your knowledge, how do you see the value of clothing today?

Fashion today isn’t just one style – it’s many. We need to change how we see fashion. To change our view, let’s praise people who re-wear clothes instead of buying new ones, promoting sustainability. Clothing prices aren’t just about production costs; selling also plays a role in the mark-up. I’m not a fan of big sales and discounts. When you buy discounted items, the stores don’t earn enough due to reduced prices and taxes. When scoping the price of a garment we must not only take into account that it has passed many hands and steps in the production process, but equally the stores and all marketing that stores must make, including helping you with styling and offering a nice shopping experience. If you’re on a tight budget, it’s fine to buy quality sale items. But if you can afford it, it’s better to avoid sales to help fashion become more sustainable by paying a fair price in full. All in all, I’m not encouraging people to spend saying spend less; I’m saying buy fewer, high-quality items, even if they cost more. This way, you’ll love and reuse your clothes, help the environment, and support a more ethical fashion industry.

cosh.eco

For consumers, COSH! is entirely free, and for retailers, membership offers the opportunity to join a growing community. Currently, 122 German stores are registered on the platform, featuring a diverse range of well-established and up-and-coming local flagships.

The platform not only supports more conscious consumption but also local retailers. Users can create customised shopping routes based on their style and budget, and receive transparent information about the sustainability credentials of participating retailers and brands.

COSH!‘s extensive screening system across 7 impact categories differs from the norm by excluding brands from self-assessment. Instead, they focus on screening local stores, and upon their request the brands they stock.