Tag Archives: sustainable business

News

Planet-conscious PR agency partners with recycled cashmere company

A Yorkshire-based, purpose-driven PR agency has been appointed to handle the PR for the second-hand cashmere brand, Nearly New Cashmere Co.

LIT Communication is supporting Nearly New Cashmere Co with a tailor-made digital PR strategy and media relations to help grow the digital presence of its eCommerce store. They’ll also be raising awareness on a local and regional level for the fashion company’s physical retail store in Masham, Yorkshire Dales and their busy schedule of pop-up events.

Established in 2018 and based in West Yorkshire, LIT Communication is a conscious copywriting and PR agency specialising in ethical communications, public relations management and strategy. The agency is a remote-first, 4-day working week business that supports clients from all over the globe to drive organic business growth and brand awareness.

Nearly New Cashmere Co was founded in 2015 by Alison Orr after she decided to pursue her passion for second-hand buying and selling. Now, the sustainable fashion retailer has a growing team and continuously finds innovative new ways to restore and recycle discarded 100% cashmere that would otherwise face a future in landfill – transforming them into high-quality, unique cashmere pieces. The company is on a mission to be the go-to destination for luxurious, sustainable cashmere clothing and accessories at affordable prices. 

Sophie Marsden, Director of LIT Communication, explains: “We’ve recently started to focus on working with climate-conscious and sustainable companies and are delighted that Alison and the team at Nearly New Cashmere Co have chosen us to manage their PR. 

“While we don’t exclusively work with eco-friendly businesses, we are being much more selective about the types of clients that we work with. The opportunity to work with people like Alison and her team, whose values closely align with ours, is fantastic. We can’t wait to communicate the brand’s story and raise awareness of the positive impact that second-hand fashion can have on the planet.

“Our values must align with that of our clients, and we would rather grow slowly without compromising on that. I’m not afraid of turning down briefs from companies that aren’t a good fit for us.”

Nearly New Cashmere Founder and Co-Director Ali Orr commented: “PR is a significant investment for our small business marketing budget. So, we needed to choose a team that could help us multiply our output and maximise every penny spent on marketing. It was clear from their pitch that this would be the case with LIT Communication. Like us, LIT Communication is a small but ambitious team, so it was an easy value-led decision.”

“We have ambitious plans to grow the business. We have a strong returning customer base but plan to make big strides at increasing the top of our funnel in the next 1-2 cashmere seasons. With the cost of paid ads increasing, we plan to achieve this with an email and SMS-based loyalty programme and PR.”

The new client win follows a successful first nine months of the year for LIT Communication after securing new PR contracts with Systemise Fulfilment, Bobble Digital, and That Works Agency.

Fashion, London News, News, North of England, Retail, Retail & E-commerce

Recycled cashmere brand hosts pop-ups at John Lewis this September

Luxury second-hand fashion brand, Nearly New Cashmere Co is set to host two pop-up stores later this month at high-street retailer John Lewis stores in Greater Manchester and London.

The family-run company was established in 2015 by entrepreneur Ali Orr from her home in the Yorkshire Dales. Since then, it’s become a leading shopping destination for cashmere lovers – who can shop for luxury cashmere knitwear at affordable prices. 

The skilled team at Nearly New Cashmere Co works meticulously to restore, repair and hand-finish cashmere pieces to a like-new standard. They’re also passionate about waste reduction and finding innovative ways to reuse discarded cashmere. This process includes transforming jumpers into neck warmers, fingerless gloves, beanie hats and other accessories.

The sustainable fashion brand has a restore and repair service for customers who wish to extend the life of their existing cashmere pieces and exchange service. The exchange service is for customers that want to exchange their old cashmere items for credit to spend at Nearly New Cashmere Co. The team hopes this will encourage people to wear clothing and accessories for longer and positively impact the environment.

Sharing more about what customers can expect at the pop-ups, founder Ali Orr comments: “At Nearly New Cashmere Co, we specialise in repairing and restoring second-hand and vintage 100% cashmere clothing into like-new quality cashmere pieces. We are passionate about saving discarded garments that would otherwise end up going to waste.

“Over the years, we’ve hosted many pop-up stores and stalls at fairs across the UK, and we’re always excited to run these. They’re an excellent opportunity to meet some of our customers in person. 

“We will have an extensive range of men’s and women’s cashmere clothing and accessories available at the pop-up shops, including cashmere scarves, cashmere jumpers, and cashmere cardigans. 

“We appreciate that second-hand and sustainable shoppers are conscious about the products they’re buying, and rightly so. With that in mind, the pop-ups present a great opportunity to chat with customers about the products, the repair and restoration process, and cashmere care and styling.”

The Nearly New Cashmere Co pop-up stalls will take place later this month at the John Lewis store in Stratford, London, from 20-25 September, and the John Lewis store in Trafford, Manchester, from 26 September-2 October. 

Both of these events coincide with Oxfam’s Second Hand September – a sustainable style challenge to encourage people to buy only second hand items for 30 days in the month of September.

News, Sustainability

Why Employee Engagement Matters For Your Sustainability Strategy

Rolling out a sustainability strategy for your organisation? Grainne Elliott, CMO, Thrive.App Explains why employee engagement is critical for its success.

Are moves toward sustainability in your organisation’s future? Sustainability is no longer a mere buzzword, and is increasingly at the heart of how industries and governments across the globe and in the UK and Ireland are shaping their tomorrows.

Why the renewed emphasis on sustainability? For one thing, the 2021 COP26 climate conference in Glasgow raised interest once again in the joint efforts of countries and corporations. Consumer demand and brand value are two additional compelling reasons: 81% of global consumers feel strongly that companies have a responsibility to improve the environment, and 66% of consumers say they would spend more on a product created by a sustainable brand.

Numbers like these show that sustainability is about more than doing good for the planet. There’s also a strong argument for the bottom line.

UK-based manufacturing businesses who put sustainability at the heart of their business report a 40% increase in profit margins and a 30% increase in competitiveness. Nearly half of manufacturers see the government’s 2050 net-zero target as an opportunity to generate long-term business growth, reporting that they’ve been pursuing sustainability efforts by actively renegotiating energy contracts and investing in reducing energy consumption in manufacturing processes.

Industries beyond manufacturing are taking steps toward sustainability, whether they’re prompted by government or internal initiatives:

  • CONSTRUCTION: In the UK, the goal is to achieve a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment by 2025 in an effort to lead the world in low-carbon and green construction exports.

  • FOOD PRODUCTION: Emissions in Ireland’s agriculture industry have been rising, so as part of Food Vision 2030, the emphasis is on Ireland becoming a world leader in sustainable food systems and the production of natural premium sustainably produced food.

  • HEALTHCARE: Delivering low carbon quality sustainable healthcare, preserving natural resources, and mitigating climate change are all part of Ireland’s National Health Sustainability Office initiatives.

It Takes the Team: Involving Everyone in Your Sustainability Success

But progress toward sustainability demands more than a vision, strategy, and initiatives. It requires an active role from everyone in your organisation — all team members, from leadership down to the front line, need to be engaged in doing their part to help the organisation achieve sustainability success.

How can you ensure employee engagement in your sustainability efforts? We’ve identified four key factors that contribute to success.

#1 Involve employees in defining your strategy

There’s no better way for employees to feel a responsibility to participate in sustainability efforts than to involve them directly in creating the strategy.

But don’t start there: Begin by involving every team member in actually defining sustainability at your organisation. Every industry is different, and every business or entity within that industry will have a different starting point when it comes to sustainability.

Use communication technology to send out pulse surveys, and provide employees a means to comment on initial efforts to define sustainability. From there, create focus groups or task forces to tackle sustainability strategy development.

#2 Make sustainability program information accessible to all employees

What’s a sure way to achieve low program participation? By excluding groups of employees who aren’t sitting in the corporate office or headquarters.

Program information should be accessible to all employees, even those who work remotely or who aren’t desk-based. Consider that employees in the industries mentioned—manufacturing, construction, food production, and healthcare—and others have teams that are spread out, without ready access to email or company newsletters.

McCue, a commercial fit-out and bespoke joinery company in Carrickfergus, successfully procured 100% of its electricity from a green energy source for its headquarters. But beyond its main office, it has goals that each project will have a minimal impact on the environment. For that to become a reality, the company has been focused on bringing every team member, not just those at HQ, on the same journey toward sustainability.

To do so, they established a three-way collaboration with two of their existing tech suppliers – Thrive.App and SustainIQ. McCue uses SustainIQ, to measure, monitor and report on its sustainability efforts. The real-time reporting software provides valuable data under four key pillars of sustainability which McCue was then able to communicate out to all employees using an app from Thrive.App.

“Our employees have a greater understanding and engagement in what we are trying to do. Our team is actively involved in making us a truly sustainable company which delivers sustainable projects—a win-win,” says Gary Purdy, McCue’s Managing Director.

#3 Make program elements personal & fun

Relevant, targeted communication about sustainability efforts is key to asserting the importance of each individual to the process. Contrast this with a news blast that is organisation-focused, rather than employee-focused, and you’ll see the impact that personalised communications can have.

Allowing employees to generate content showing the efforts of their teams and to recognise each other’s efforts can rally and unify employees across departments and locations. Creating app-based events and competitions around the sustainability agenda (or, better yet, allowing employees to create those competitions amongst themselves) can continually generate interest and promote progress in ways that a company-wide email campaign cannot.

#4 Track and share progress in an ongoing, accessible format

Organisation leaders and stakeholders certainly need to know what’s working and what progress is being made, and of course it’s essential to map sustainability efforts to profits, efficiency and growth.

But in order to stay engaged with and even excited about the program, employees likewise must be kept apprised of progress and impact. Just as critical, metrics on program engagement should be captured so necessary adjustments can be made to make the program more effective for all.

Technology can aid in tracking metrics on participation as well as program successes, and it can go further to communicate those metrics out in engaging ways. McCue has seen this work firsthand, as they’ve captured data and reporting through software installed on their employee app, which they’ve then been able to communicate to staff.