The lingerie startup that makes sustainable bras

It’s rare for a rapidly growing startup to pursue ambitious climate targets. It’s especially rare in the fashion industry. Online sleepwear and lingerie company Nudea is trying to prove that you don’t have to be Patagonia to be a climate leader in the apparel industry. 

The five-year-old startup began auditing its supply chain emissions in 2020, one year after opening its doors. Since then, it’s eliminated plastic in all packaging, instituted a bra recycling program and, last year, ensured that most of the materials in its products came from natural or recycled fabrics. To mitigate the impact of its remaining annual emissions, the company — which is a B Corp, a third-party certification from non-profit B Lab Global for companies with a high level of social and environmental standards — purchases carbon credits. This year, those credits will support energy efficiency projects in social housing near its UK headquarters.

It’s accomplished all this and achieved nearly 200% revenue growth over the last year. Nudea has raised nearly $2 million in investment, most recently from an equity crowdfunding round.

“As we scale, we’re going to be producing more, shipping more, sending products to customers. It’s only natural we will be increasing our carbon, but what can we reduce, what can we get ahead of, and what can we offset?” asks CEO Priya Downes. 

Source: Nudea

Tackling supply chain hotspots

Downes launched Nudea in 2019 after starting her career in luxury fashion at brands such as Burberry and Chanel. She found lingerie to be much more technical than the luxury fashion products she’d come from. “When I started my own brand it was really important to me that I… created these (sustainability) processes that were really important to start with,” says Downes.

Nudea worked with BeZero to complete its first climate impact audit in 2020, which assessed the carbon footprint of its products along with water and toxic dye usage within its supply chain. (BeZero no longer offers this service.) The data enabled Nudea to embed a climate framework into product development early on. It recently undertook its second emissions audit. 

The data identified two supply chain hotspots: raw materials and product distribution. 

To reduce emissions from raw materials, Nudea has reduced use of virgin fabrics year over year. In 2023, 90 percent of the material in Nudea’s products came from natural and recycled fabrics, up from 55 percent in 2022.

Related webcast

Carbon Credit Confidence: Mastering Impact, Quality and Price in Procurement

Join Dr. Carla Woydt at CEEZER, and industry experts from Cultivo and JPMorganChase to learn how to navigate delivery and pricing risks in the voluntary carbon markets.

September 17, 2024

Register

Product distribution, particularly the final mile to the customer, accounts for over one-third of the company’s emissions, according to its 2023 emissions report. “That comes from being an online business,” says Downes. 

Cutting delivery emissions is an ongoing challenge for the brand. In 2023, Nudea partnered with a last mile delivery service called Urb-It, which aimed to complete all last-mile customer deliveries via public transport or bike. But Urb-It only covered deliveries in London, which made up just one-fifth of Nudea’s customer base. The service also couldn’t pick up products from Nudea’s warehouse, adding to the complexity of the partnership. Ultimately, Nudea chose to discontinue the partnership. Last-mile delivery remains an emissions hot spot for the brand. 

The move to recycled bras

In addition to its hotspots, Nudea has cut emissions in other areas of its supply chain. All packaging in customer shipments is recycled paper and cardboard, rather than plastic. To reduce downstream emissions, the brand provides customers with a bra wash bag to increase the lifespan of its products and reduce waste, and attendant emissions from new purchases. 

The company has made these investments while keeping its prices roughly in line with other high-end lingerie stores. 

In 2022, it began partnering with TerraCycle in the U.K. to offer a bra recycling program. Anyone can send in any bra for recycling. Bras have over 26 components, says Downes, making them a complex item to recycle. TerraCycle’s process breaks the garments down into individual materials: Underwires are smelted down to create new metal products; fibers are shredded and become insulation and stuffing for other products, according to Nudea’s website.  

The company now recycles 0.4 bras for every 1 it sells new, and aims to increase this to one bra recycled per new sale by 2025. 

Carbon credits mitigate leftover emissions

After deploying its arsenal of emission reduction strategies across its supply chain, Nudea still has unabated emissions each year. “I think you can’t be a growing business and not have a carbon impact,” says Downes. “If we can’t completely erase our carbon impact, what can we do to mitigate it?” 

The company began purchasing carbon credits rated AA by BeZero in 2020. These purchases supported several ecosystem restoration and conservation projects. 

This year, Nudea changed its carbon credit strategy to prioritize projects closer to home. Its carbon credit retirements mitigating its 2023 emissions support energy efficiency retrofits of pubic housing near its headquarters in Buckinghamshire county, less than 50 miles northeast of London. The carbon credits, developed by Powering Net Zero (PNZ) Group, fund installation of new insulation and heat pumps. In addition to reducing home energy consumption, the retrofits also trim residents’ power bills.

“I wanted to have projects that tangibly meant something to me and the brand…. (PNZ) can actually allocate funds to housing in my area,” said Downes about her decision to support the local carbon projects. 

A price on carbon drives climate action

Nudea embeds climate awareness throughout the customer journey. The brand displays the climate impact of each garment on product web pages and has designed its garment recycling program with customer education in mind. Downes has also found that the company’s annual sustainability report has increased customer engagement with the company’s climate strategies. 

By purchasing carbon credits to mitigate its ongoing emissions, Nudea is putting a real on its carbon. That commitment to pay for its ongoing emissions means that climate impact shows up in the company’s bottom line and offers a model for other young online apparel sellers.