Today I have the pleasure to bring you our first project interiewed outside of Spain, and this is Renoon. I've talked with its founder, Iris Skrami, o
Today I have the pleasure to bring you our first project interiewed outside of Spain, and this is Renoon. I’ve talked with its founder, Iris Skrami, one of its co-founders to discover a bit more about their project and how they are seeing the world of sustainable fashion.
Enjoy the interview!
What is Renoon and why you decided to create it?
Renoon is the new search platform for conscious shopping, created to empower you to find sustainable alternatives to match your values and unique style. Renoon has researched and curated an extremely wide selection of pre-owned and new products that meet rigorous sustainability standards.
I found myself in so much trouble finding a sustainable black cocktail dress for a dinner event. And I realized that if finding sustainable alternatives is so difficult, nobody – even with the highest intentions – would be likely to sustain it.
How does your search engine work? How do you select the products that appear?
Renoon has developed a technology that gathers data and identifies sustainability values. When Renoon finds a new web destination, the products are filtered depending on brand and product characteristics. The information is a combination of public information on material composition, certifications and standards, as well as direct brand proof of their practices. What is unique about the platform is that you can adjust it depending on your own preferred values, depending whether you are Vegan, or really care about Ethical labour. We all want to contribute to sustainability in different ways and at Renoon we can start expressing this in our way.
Which are your sustainability standards to showcase the brands?
Our standards are linked to material composition and certifications of processes, labour, conduct. What is also important for Renoon is consumption: sustainability can also be viewed in a bigger picture, such as with Second Hand. The platform just launched a Pre-Owned section with the brands that it features as first hand as well.
Do you think that sustainable fashion is becoming a hit finally? And why it was so difficult for marks until now to produce this way?
Sustainability is the new must-have for consumers and companies. Covid-19 is a catalyzer of the trend – which is not so much a trend in reality but the new way to act. Until now it has been difficult for brands because of the complexity it brings, especially in the communication with consumers. Renoon is the new platform that helps the two sides talk to each other.
Which has been the hardest issue you have found in the development of your project, and how did you get over it?
The hardest thing has been tidying up the mess that sustainability was before we started. Gabriele, the other co-founder, and I noticed immediately since the beginning that the topic was very debated and confusing because every player in the industry has business interests in saying what sustainability is or is not. What we did is go and meet manufacturers, brands and experts all over Europe. In this way we could hear everyone’s perspective on sustainability and put everything in order in an impartial and objective way. We saw with our own eyes everything that it takes to make a jeans, or the polluting effect of chemical substances.
How have you been dealing with the new Coronavirus situation? Could you give us some advice on how to manage our business in this new times?
Coronavirus has been a great accelerator for our business. Through live online events on social media we were able to engage our audience and grow it during this time. Our team has also shown more passion than ever (we are now 8).
Where do you expect your project to be in 1-2 years?
Our mission is to help consumers worldwide in finding sustainable options that match their Style and Values. We are working relentlessly to make our platform the go-to tool for conscious shoppers. We can already count on many users who have been writing to us and sending suggestions on how to improve our free apps and websites. This really shows that as consumers we are really seeing the damage we have been doing around us and want to build a better future together.
Changing habits as individuals is hard. But with tools and technology it can become so easy.
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