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A Conscious Spotlight: Alchemist

Together with Otrium, Alchemist shapes a future where conscious business practices and style coexist harmoniously, proving that fashion can be both. 

29 JUNE 2023
To celebrate Otrium's 2022 Impact Report, we're shining the light on brands rated Conscious by Good on You. Through our collaboration with Good on You, a leading independent rating organisation, we aim to empower our customers to shop responsibly. Good On You assess brands on three key areas, people, planet, and animal welfare. Today, we look into the captivating story of Alchemist, a conscious-rated brand that has been making waves in the fashion industry.

A Journey of Impact and Ethical Fashion

Alchemist's story began 18 years ago when Caroline Mewe founded the brand with a vision to merge fashion and ethical business practices. Inspired by her upbringing on a small northern island in the Netherlands, Caroline believed that fashion could be both stylish and ethically made. Right from the start, Alchemist embraced environmentally friendly materials and ethical production practices, setting an example for the industry.
With their eyes set on the future, the brand has set progressive goals for the next five years. They are determined to expand their conscious practices by incorporating more eco-friendly materials and striving for greater transparency in their supply chain. Alchemist actively engages in community initiatives and forms partnerships to promote responsibility in the fashion industry. 

Alchemist's Achievements and Future Goals

Alchemist courageously introduced responsibility into fashion, combining beauty and ethics. By using environmentally friendly materials, reducing waste, and implementing ethical production practices, Alchemist set a new standard for conscious fashion. Today, they continue to push boundaries and challenge the status quo.
Looking ahead, Alchemist aims to further improve their conscious practices by incorporating even more eco-friendly materials and production methods. The brand is committed to expanding supply chain transparency and ensuring the ethical sourcing of materials. They will actively engage in community initiatives and partnerships to drive conscious practices in the fashion industry. 

Our partnership

The partnership between Alchemist and Otrium is a powerful force driving sustainable fashion forward. Alchemist leverages Otrium's advanced technology and marketing tools to efficiently manage inventory and reach a broader customer base. By collaborating with Otrium, Alchemist avoids excess inventory and respects minimum order quantities, demonstrating their commitment to social responsibility and fairness. Moreover, Otrium's platform elevates Alchemist's brand visibility, attracting conscious consumers and promoting responsibility. This partnership goes beyond numbers and sales—it is about making a genuine impact and driving positive change within the industry.
Otrium's technology and marketing tools enable Alchemist to effectively manage inventory and connect with new customers, reducing waste and maximising revenue. The increased exposure and brand awareness among a larger customer base contribute to Alchemist's impact. Otrium's marketing and promotional efforts drive traffic and sales to Alchemist's products. By relying on Otrium's expertise in selling excess stock, Alchemist can focus on their core business activities while reaching a broader audience.
Alchemist's extraordinary journey exemplifies the transformative power of sustainability in the fashion industry. With a fearless combination of fashion and ethics, they inspire others to challenge the norms and embrace responsible practices. Together with Otrium, Alchemist shapes a future where conscious business practices and style coexist harmoniously, proving that fashion can be both. 

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Conscious

“Conscious”-rated fashion brands on Otrium: What You Need to Know

Are you tired of sifting through fashion brands, trying to determine which ones are truly conscious? We get it. At Otrium, we aim to make it straightforward to shop conscious brands. Our goal is to provide transparency by showcasing brands' efforts toward improving their impact, and empowering you to make informed decisions. Here's the deal: we don't believe in perfection. There’s always room for improvement. However, we want to support brands that are doing better and show you what conscious fashion entails. That's why we've teamed up with Good On You, industry rating specialists who provide objective, third-party ratings. With their expertise, we can provide verified conscious ratings on our platform, making it easier for you to shop brands that best align with your values. You'll find ratings of 3 (It's a start), 4 (Good), or 5 (Great) from Good On You. We want to encourage brands to keep improving while empowering you to support the ones that are making a difference. What will you find?
Outlet fashion platform Otrium measures avoided carbon emissions and waste with carbon-calculating software VaayuExperience the report at undefinedOtrium, a purpose-driven fashion outlet platform, publishes a comprehensive analysis of the avoided carbon emissions and waste of modern off-price business models with the support of Vaayu, the climate tech start-up. Vaayu used its  proprietary AI and machine learning technology, alongside its team of in-house Life Cycle Assessment  experts, to gather  insights from over 45 fashion brands (both available on and off Otrium) and data from almost five million fashion products live on Otrium to calculate carbon at a granular science-based level. The research explores the broader role that modern outlet business models like Otrium can play in contributing to a more circular fashion industry by providing an alternative to waste streams for unsold stock. It represents a new contribution to understanding the end-of-life phase of fashion products as one of the largest data sets on unsold stock practices. In 2022, based on these calculations, Otrium prevented 6,496 tonnes of carbon emissions (CO₂e) and 104 tonnes of waste by providing fashion brands with a profitable solution to clear unsold inventory, compared to an alternative scenario in which off-price businesses like Otrium do not exist. That’s the equivalent of 2,219 round-trip flights between Amsterdam to NYC for one passenger (undefined) or throwing away 130,524 pairs of jeans (Vaayu database, undefined).Otrium partners with over 400 fashion brands like Mara Hoffman, Everlane, Outerknown and CLOSED to reach new consumers for every item of clothing produced and extend the life of their collections. Now, with the help of  Vaayu, Otrium has access to live carbon tracking at a product and brand level, enabling the business to monitor across transactions and use this data to drive real-time decision-making around impact. Envisioning a future where all clothing produced is worn, and no new clothing ends up in landfills, Otrium aims to empower its brand partners to take a more demand-focused approach to production and innovative ways to reach new consumers. Through data-sharing and customer insights, Otrium encourages more accurate forecasting. To support its five million members globally in making informed choices outside trend and seasonal models, Otrium is working with sustainable and ethical brand rating organisation, Good On You, which benchmarks the brands on Otrium based on their social and environmental impact. Otrium also revalues damaged items like returns, repairs them and feeds them back into the cycle.Says Co-Founder, Max Klijnstra, “We founded Otrium to play a part in reshaping how fashion is produced and ultimately sold. Our business model is a first step in solving the growing challenge of unsold inventory. As a next step, the results from our Otrium 2022 Impact Report  will inform and strengthen our sustainability strategy and climate targets. We will also use it to transparently communicate our progress with our community, brand partners and the fashion industry. At Otrium, we will be working steadily towards improving our impact one step at a time.” Says Marlot Kiveron, Head of Sustainability at Otrium, “Our ultimate goal is to have a net positive impact. This means giving back more than we take through our business model, and operations. Creating impact is constant. The goal of this report is to measure our progress and to stay accountable by sharing this externally. Understanding the impact of both our business model as well as our operations in real-time, helps us to accelerate positive change.”Says Namrata Sandhu,  Co-Founder and CEO of Vaayu, “We’re at an inflection point when it comes to the climate and new research shows that we’re currently not on track to keep global warming below 1.5C. Retailers have long been transitioning reactively; thinking about systems change and circularity, and wanting to truly understand and lower their impact. But Vaayu actually enables them to work proactively, by harnessing our generative AI and machine learning technology to calculate emissions in real-time, and then lowering them using these science-backed insights. Our work with Otrium is the first of its kind to investigate the carbon emission and waste saving potential of off-price business models.”To explore Otrium’s interactive 2022 Impact Report please click undefined.
As of March 2023, 53% of Otrium’s team is women – including half of our executive leadership. Our team is a vibrant mix of perspectives, passion, and diversity – spanning multiple continents and cultures. We're celebrating two themes that aim to empower women globally: The official 2023 International Women's Day goal to #EmbraceEquity and the United Nations' #DigitALL campaign that aims to foster innovation and technology for gender equality. Both themes highlight the need for inclusive and transformative technology and digital education – topics at the heart of Otrium. We aim not only to create a future where all clothing is worn, but also a future where equality is at the forefront and all people have access to the resources they need. Ultimately, we want a future where these statistics are no longer true:• Only 63 per cent of women are using the Internet in 2022 compared to 69 per cent of men (ITU, Nov22) • By 2050, 75% of jobs will be related to STEM areas. Yet today, women hold just 22% of positions in artificial intelligence, to name just one. (WEF Report) • A study of 51 countries revealed 38 per cent of women had personally experienced online violence. (2022 Gender Snapshot Report) We’re thrilled to spotlight some of the women making a difference at Otrium through technology, fashion, and beyond. A big THNAK YOU 👏🏻 to all 100+ women behind Otirum.