Mammut among the rising stars of the circular economy

The textiles industry still ranks as one of the worst environmental polluters on a global basis. This is the unfortunate conclusion reached by the consulting firm Kearney in its Circular Fashion Index 2023.

Nevertheless, Mammut is one of the rising stars in this year’s Circular Fashion Index. The outdoor apparel specialist from Seon in the canton of Aargau has been rated in the index for the first time. The company has been awarded a high score for its use of recycled materials and customer communications. In actual fact, the authors of the report describe Mammut’s detailed, material-specific instructions on how to care for their products as exemplary. These product-specific care tips are designed to help extend the life of the textiles.

Mammut also scored well on account of its repair service. In this context, the pilot project to return clothing, first launched in 2021 by Mammut in partnership with The Renewal Workshop in Germany and Austria, was taken in consideration as a positive factor.

For this year’s index, Kearney evaluated a total of 200 global brands from 45 countries. However, only the elite group comprising Patagonia, Levi's and The North Face scored more than seven points in all of the categories analyzed. OVS and Gucci from Italy also made it into the top ten. With Esprit in eighth place, ranked behind the US brand Madewell and ahead of Canada’s Lululemon Athletica and Lindex from Sweden, there is just a single German brand in the top ten.

Overall, just 19 brands achieved a score of more than five out of ten points in the evaluation. According to Mirko Warschun, Partner at Kearney, the majority of brands have “failed to educate consumers about the importance of sustainability and to inform them about measures such as recycling, upcycling and clothing rental”, he explains in a press release. ce/stk