BEEN London: How a handbag can help reduce your carbon footprint

London start-up creates leather bag with 87% less carbon footprint compared to high street

The UK showed the second biggest fall in carbon emissions globally in 2020, down 13% for the year compared with 2019*. With this much-needed silver lining of lockdowns reducing our carbon footprint, consumers are looking for eco-friendly products to help keep their carbon footprint down more than ever before.

Since the start of the pandemic, consumer habits have dramatically evolved. A reported 60% making more environmentally friendly, sustainable, or ethical purchases with nine out of 10 of this percentage likely to continue doing so. A further survey reports 70% of all consumers agree that addressing climate change is more important now than ever and 65% more likely to support a brand that cares about the same social issues they do.**

BEEN London, an award winning East London based accessories brand making minimalist bags using materials heading for landfill, conducted a study carried out by Terra Neutra, an online platform with a mission to help people live more sustainable lives and create a carbon positive world, to see if choosing a BEEN bag made from recycled materials rather than a typical high-street bag could help consumers to reduce their carbon footprint.

The study*** revealed newcomers BEEN London are creating accessories with just 1/10th of the carbon footprint compared to high street giants. This huge carbon saving is the equivalent of leaving your lights on for nearly a year or 418 plastic bags****

Genia Mineeva, Founder & Creative Director BEEN London says: ‘I gave up my career in journalism and UN campaigning to found BEEN London, to prove that it is possible to turn trash into treasure. I always knew that our local manufacturing and that using recycled leathers, old IKEA uniforms, regenerated plastic bottles and even apple cores to make vegan leathers was a more sustainable approach to bag making, but to see that our bags have just 1/10th of the carbon footprint compared to the high-street is something I’m really proud of and can’t wait to build on further’.

Even The British Retail Consortium are taking note of the industry’s carbon footprint, recently announcing a plan to decarbonize UK retail by 2040, citing that the UK has an opportunity to rebuild a fairer, more sustainable economy, in a post-pandemic era, which starts by cutting carbon emissions.

In 2020, Terra Neutra completed the Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Leadership's Innovators for Sustainable Fashion accelerator, for the development of their latest product launch, due Q1 2021, which assesses the carbon footprint of a product, offering customers to individually offset their purchase at checkout, empowering brands and consumers to make environmentally conscious decisions and take climate action. Using this technology developed by Terra Neutra, BEEN London is also planning to introduce this option on its website.

Read more about BEEN London on the branpage: fashionunited.com/companies/been-london