BIPSE ASSIGNMENT

Business venture: Green Closet

Introduction/ Business Model

Today, the second largest contributor of pollution after Oil is the fashion industry.

When clothes made of natural fibers end up in landfill, they behave like food waste and

produce the greenhouse gas – methane. However, synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon,

which are made from plastic, do not biodegrade at all. In addition to this, the bleach, dye and

chemical prints used during the production process, leach into the soil and groundwater. Our

hunger for cheap and fast fashion is poisoning our planet. In order to tackle this massive

issue, we have come up with a business venture that addresses this issue through the three R’s

– Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Our business venture is named as ‘Green Closet, signifying

our attachment to the protection of planet. Our business model has three categories. The first

category includes clothes that have been pre-owned but are in a perfectly fine condition. The

second category includes fresh new clothes made of completely sustainable materials. The

third category includes high end sustainable fashion products, that can be given on a rent

basis to the customers in order to promote reusability and reduce the production of new

clothes that will end up in a landfill somewhere. The vision of our business model is to

promote sustainable fashion in an affordable manner.

Impact Opportunity

According to business insider, production of fashion consists of 10% of total global

carbon emissions. It causes water pollution and dries up water sources, while 85% of all

textiles go into dump every year. Moreover, washing clothes releases 500,000 tons of

microfibers into the ocean every year which is equal to 50 billion plastic bottles. The average
life of a garment today is only 2.2 years. According to research, an average person today buys

60% more items that they used to 10 years ago. Ironically, consumers keep their clothing for

only half as long as they used to. A survey in Britain found that one in three women found

clothes old after wearing them twice or thrice. Also, some consider it a fashion faux-pas to be

photographed in an outfit twice. All these factors has led to landfills full of clothes made of

synthetic materials like nylon and polyester which is extremely harmful for the environment.

Textile production alone releases 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases every year which is

more than the combined emissions for all international flights and shipping. Hence, there is

an ever increasing need to stop the alarming rise of production of fast fashion and resort to

sustainable fashion products.

The latest McKinsey, State of Fashion Report written in partnership with the Business

of Fashion (BoF), reveals that 66% of consumers globally are willing to spend more on

sustainable fashion brands. However, sadly sustainable fashion represents only 1% of the

entire fashion industry.

Theory of Change

Green Closet is aimed at making sustainable fashion consumer’s part of life. Our

mission is to promote the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Green Closet has three

main categories which caters to every section of the society. Green Closet’s products can be

used by people belonging to every strata of the society. The first category includes products

that are pre-owned which can be brought by customers at a very affordable price. This

motivates people to reuse and aims at reducing production of new clothes as much as

possible. The second category includes first-hand products that are produced using

sustainable materials. If these clothes end up at landfill they will be decomposed in a natural

way. Therefore, they are not hazardous for the environment. The last category includes high -

end products such as bridal outfits that consumers will only prefer to wear once. Products in
this category can be rented by the consumers on a per day charge. This business model will

increase awareness among consumers about the problems of fast fashion pollution and

importance of sustainable fashion. The immediate changes that this business venture aims to

achieve customer base who are interested in sustainable fashion. As per recent studies, about

66% of consumers are ready to adopt sustainable fashion. Hence, it is a very good

opportunity to penetrate an untapped market. The long term goal of Green Closet is to

significantly reduce carbon emissions and water pollution caused by huge amounts of textile

production. It largely wants to create a customer base who are open to reusing clothes,

recycling old clothes and reducing the extent of textile production.

Strategy for Scale

The capital for Green Closet was raised through Angel Investors and Bootstrapping.

Green Closet is established in metro cities of Mumbai and Delhi. We are aiming to open

another outlet in Bangalore by the end of 2022. Green Closet is also available online on

websites such as Myntra, Amazon, Nykaa Fashion and Flipkart. We also have our own

website through which consumers can place orders. We provide world-wide shipping. Our

strategy is to reach more people with the same impact. We intend on having extensive

advertisements and promotional offers in order to increase awareness about the brand. Our

strategy is to spread awareness about sustainability in fashion. Today thankfully, increasing

number of youth are becoming more and more aware about sustainable fashion. There is an

increasing drive for affordable sustainable products. Consumers are choosing to rent rather

than own goods outright. As per the latest study, the resale market could be bigger than fast

fashion within ten years. In Australia, every 10 minutes, people dump 15 tonnes of clothing

and fabric waste. This adds up to 800,000 tonnes or 31 kilograms per person, every year.

Through Green Closet we aim to reduce the dump upto 600,000 tonnes within one year. The

long term goal is to reduce the dump upto 320,000 within 5 years.