Community relationship-building and inclusivity

Create a business model centered on trusted expertise and conducting extensive due diligence to ensure business partnerships, products, and store experiences are mission-aligned and unique. Cultivate social value within a local business community to bolster client satisfaction and organically spread the word about unique sustainable shopping experiences. 

Le Prix Clothing was founded by Robyn Hobbs in 2012. This second-hand clothing store has curated fashion pieces that are unique on account of the brand, vintage or fabrics. The store has grown its assortment of second-hand and upcycled fashion finds through partnerships with local businesses, such as an upcycler of baby clothes and a clothing start-up at the local University. Le Prix Clothing has become an incubator for smaller local brands without a retail space, by providing store space to pilot the brands’ products. Le Prix began offering sustainable bath and shower products during the COVID-19 pandemic following the self-care trend through a key partnership with a local brand. 

For new and local brands partnerships (i.e. brands that will be carried in-store), the product sourcing process includes extensive inquiry into product materials or ingredients, production processes, packaging materials, and other aspects of the product’s or brand’s origin. Le Prix’s owner filters out “greenwashed” products and brings in samples of products that meet its sustainability standards to test their performance in-store. This process has led to approximately 12 to 15 brand partnerships, all of which are with female-owned businesses. 

In the business’s early days, Le Prix used donated hangers and bags for displaying and packaging products. The owner observed that consumers shopping second-hand still enjoy a traditional shopping experience, including visibly pleasing display and packaging. Le Prix replaced used bags with recycled paper bags for a more pleasing experience. Business cards and clothing tags are now also made of recycled paper. Le Prix calculates weight diverted from landfill by giving clothes another life by tracking the weight of each purchase. At the time of the interview, La Prix estimated it had diverted 2.4 tons of waste through customers purchases.

Pathway maps represent the sequence businesses followed to implement successful sustainability practices and identify emerging ones within firms. The pathways also reveal the diversity of actors that begin to form sustainability enabling ecosystems for businesses to adopt, deploy or test sustainability practices.