Rénové, the social network for a sustainable fashion community

The Fashion Industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, surpassing the maritime and terrestrial industries. According to the EEA - European Environment Agency - In 2020, textile consumption in Europe had on average the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change from a global life cycle perspective. It was the consumption area with the third highest impact on water and land use, and the fifth highest in terms of raw material use and greenhouse gas emissions. (Textiles And The Environment: The Role Of Design In Europe’s Circular Economy, n. d.)

This situation is mainly driven by the growing trend of "fast fashion," which has led to an increase in products with very short lifecycles aimed at optimizing production costs due to their low quality or durability, making them disposable. This trend allows consumers to purchase a greater quantity of garments without clarity about their final disposal or traceability of the items manufactured. As a result, 92 million tons of textile garments end up in landfills worldwide every year.

Additionally, rénové users, including suppliers, major brands, and consumers, feel the impact of this unsustainable fashion cycle. Factories face surplus stock, consumers purchase single-use items, and the general public contributes to the mounting textile waste crisis.

Furthermore, there is a significant connection to the issue of water usage in the fashion industry. Statistics on clothing washing habits, reused garments, and recycled textiles provide insight into the environmental impact of fashion on water resources. These data points shed light on the urgency of adopting sustainable practices in the fashion sector.

Rénové utilizes technology to extend the lifespan of fashion items, fostering a sustainable fashion ecosystem and reducing textile waste. Our social commerce platform, built using native Flutter and Dart code, integrates AWS serverless services. Through our mobile app, users can engage in conscious consumption by selling, buying, exchanging, or donating fashion items, books, music, and art. The platform features personalized profiles, geolocation-based search, live events, challenges, contests, and seamless social media integration. Additionally, users can explore curated "shop" accounts curated by Rénové.

Demo App

Rénové has various stakeholders, including fashion consumers, with a special focus on Generation Z, sustainable fashion producers and designers, local communities, environmental organizations, and governmental entities. We impact consumers by providing a platform to access sustainable and circular fashion, thus promoting more responsible consumption habits, especially among young Generation Z individuals. For sustainable fashion producers and designers, Rénové offers a market opportunity and visibility for their products, strengthening the local industry and encouraging ethical and sustainable production practices. Local communities benefit by generating employment and economic opportunities through fair trade and artisanal production. Environmental organizations benefit by contributing to the reduction of textile waste and the conservation of natural resources. Lastly, governmental entities can benefit by promoting policies and regulations that support sustainable fashion and local economic development.

Our sustainable and circular fashion project offers significant environmental benefits. It facilitates the reuse and recycling of clothing, thereby helping to reduce the amount of textile waste ending up in landfills. According to figures from the Uaesp, 147,000 tons of clothing end up in the Doña Juana landfill each year. By promoting the purchase, sale, and exchange of second-hand garments, our project helps reduce this figure and conserve natural resources such as water and energy needed for the production of new garments.

Furthermore, by educating our community about sustainable fashion and responsible consumption habits, we contribute to generating a positive change towards a more environmentally friendly lifestyle in Colombia.

Our platform also offers significant social benefits. Firstly, it creates economic opportunities for local communities by promoting fair trade and artisanal production. Artisanal production creates jobs, preserves cultural traditions, and supports local economies, contributing to community development and sustainability. According to Procolombia, the textile industry employs over 600,000 people in Colombia, many of whom work in precarious conditions. By promoting the purchase of sustainable fashion products, we support small producers and local artisans, thus helping to improve their working conditions and generate stable incomes.

Furthermore, by fostering a community committed to sustainable fashion and social responsibility, our project promotes awareness and education on important issues such as gender equality, decent work, and respect for local cultures and traditions.

Additionally, our project aims to address the impact of textile consumption on ecosystems by promoting practices that minimize environmental harm. According to research by the World Resources Institute, textile dyeing is the second-largest polluter of clean water globally, with the fashion industry responsible for approximately 20% of global wastewater. By encouraging the reuse and recycling of clothing, we aim to mitigate this impact by reducing the demand for new textile production, which often involves harmful dyeing and manufacturing processes.

We have a team of experts in fashion and technology supporting our project. The two founding partners have extensive experience in the fashion world: Laura Tobón, a renowned entertainment presenter with a widely recognized public profile at both national and international levels, boasts 3.9 million followers on Instagram. On the other hand, Adriana Rodríguez is an Industrial Engineer, with an MBA in Fashion Business Management and over 10 years of experience in high-impact roles in the Fashion, Technology, and Telecommunications industries. Both share the passion and dream of contributing to more responsible consumption habits in our society and for the planet. This combination of financial resources, technology, and fashion expertise positions us strongly to successfully carry out our project.

We selected the Pilot stage because our solution has already been launched in at least one community, but we are still iterating at the business model level. So far, we have built and tested a social commerce platform focused on sustainable and circular fashion through our mobile application. We have assembled a team of experts in fashion and technology to support the project, and we have incorporated key features and functionalities that promote interaction and transactions among users. In terms of users or beneficiaries, we have managed to attract over 400 active users, which has allowed us to gather valuable feedback and initial validation of our proposition. We are focused on continuously improving the user experience and increasing our user base while we continue to refine our business model to ensure sustainable and successful growth in the future.

We are applying to Solve because we believe in its mission to support innovative solutions that address pressing global challenges. Specifically, we see Solve as an opportunity to access a network of partners and resources that can help us overcome various barriers hindering the growth and impact of our solution.

Financially, we face challenges related to securing funding for further development and expansion of our platform. Solve can assist us in connecting with potential investors, donors, or funding opportunities that align with our mission and vision. Additionally, Solve's network may provide access to mentorship and guidance on financial planning and sustainable business models.

Technically, we aim to enhance the functionality and scalability of our platform to better serve our users and accommodate future growth. Solve can facilitate connections with technical experts, mentors, and partners who can offer insights, best practices, and support in developing and implementing technological solutions.

Legally, we seek guidance on navigating regulatory frameworks, intellectual property rights, and compliance requirements, especially as we expand our operations across different jurisdictions. Solve can provide access to legal expertise and resources to ensure that we operate ethically and within the bounds of the law.

Culturally, we recognize the importance of fostering a diverse and inclusive community within our platform. Solve's network can help us build partnerships with organizations and communities that share our values of sustainability, diversity, and social responsibility.

In the market, we face challenges related to competition, user acquisition, and market penetration. Solve can help us refine our market strategy, connect with potential collaborators, and access new markets or customer segments.

The innovative aspect of our project lies in the combination of a sustainable fashion marketplace with an active and engaged community, as well as the integration of gamification tools and live events to encourage user participation and engagement. Additionally, our platform serves as a facilitator for exchanges and transactions, thereby extending the lifecycle of garments and promoting circular fashion practices.

Our main goal is to build a committed community of users who share sustainability values and seek to purchase fashion products consciously and responsibly. To achieve this goal, we will implement a series of strategic actions during the first six months of the application's operation:

1. Launch and Promotion: We will announce the app's launch on our social media and website, generating interest and expectations among our followers. We will use engaging promotional content to highlight the benefits of joining our community and encourage app downloads.
2. Generating Interest: We will organize live events and collaborations with influencers and experts in sustainable fashion to generate interest in our platform. We will post exclusive content on social media and use content marketing strategies to attract new users.
3. Engagement and Participation: We will implement challenges, contests, and live events within the app to encourage active participation from our community. We will highlight user success stories and solicit feedback through surveys to continuously improve the user experience.
4. Consolidation and Growth: We will celebrate the first 6 months of operation with special promotions and exclusive discounts for our users. We will launch new features and updates based on user feedback to stay relevant and competitive in the market.

These actions will be carried out through a combination of digital marketing strategies, collaborations with influencers, live events, and continuous attention to the needs and preferences of our user community. We are committed to building an inclusive, inspiring, and sustainable platform that promotes a conscious and responsible lifestyle in the fashion world.

Our impact goals revolve around fostering sustainable consumption habits and reducing the environmental footprint of the fashion industry. Specifically, we aim to:

1. Increase awareness and adoption of sustainable fashion practices among our user community.

2. Reduce textile waste by promoting circular fashion and extending the lifecycle of garments.

3. Empower individuals to make informed purchasing decisions based on sustainability criteria.

4. Foster a sense of community and collaboration among users to amplify the impact of sustainable fashion initiatives.

To measure our progress towards these goals, we are working to track key indicators such as:

• Number of active users engaging with sustainable fashion content and participating in community events.
• Volume of textile waste diverted from landfills through our platform's initiatives.
• Percentage increase in the use of eco-friendly materials and production methods among sellers on our marketplace.
• Feedback and satisfaction ratings from users regarding their awareness and adoption of sustainable fashion practices.

These indicators help us assess the effectiveness of our strategies and guide continuous improvement efforts to maximize our impact on promoting sustainability in the fashion industry.

Our solution aims to revolutionize sustainable fashion by combining a marketplace for eco-friendly products with an engaged community. We have developed a mobile application that seamlessly integrates serverless services from AWS using Flutter and Dart, resulting in a stable app available for download on Android and iOS platforms. The innovative aspect of our project lies in the fusion of a sustainable fashion marketplace with an active and engaged community, alongside the integration of gamification tools and live events to encourage user participation and engagement. Additionally, our platform facilitates transactions to extend the lifecycle of garments, promoting circular fashion and reducing textile waste. Looking ahead, our next technology investments will focus on enhancing the user transaction experience through web 3.0 and 4.0, incorporating tools such as virtual and augmented reality for product purchases and immersions in the metaverse for exploring new profiles. We also plan to leverage artificial intelligence to provide outfit and product suggestions by identifying user preferences. Furthermore, our search engine will gather data to offer insights to the larger industry, optimizing production not only in economic resources but also in natural resources.

We have a total of 7 team members, including full-time staff, part-time staff, and contractors. Our CEO works full-time for the company and oversees various aspects of the operation. Additionally, we have a dedicated team of experts who support her in different areas.

For the commercial area, we have 2 community managers—one full-time for physical and in-person community engagement and another part-time for digital community management.
We are supported by a TI partner who provides a senior team of expert developers working full-time for the company.
In the administrative area, we have a legal partner and an accountant to handle financial matters.

We have been actively working on our solution since its inception during the pandemic. Over the past couple of years, our business idea has evolved into the robust business model we are currently implementing. Our solution was formally constituted in 2022, and since then, we have been dedicated to refining and scaling our approach to address the needs of our target audience effectively.

Our team is deeply committed to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within our organization. We believe that diverse perspectives lead to better outcomes and innovation, and we strive to create an environment where everyone feels valued and included.

Firstly, our leadership team is intentionally diverse, with representation from various backgrounds, cultures, and identities. We recognize the importance of diversity at all levels of our organization, and we actively seek out individuals with different perspectives and experiences to contribute to our team.

We are committed to promoting the inclusion of students who are on the verge of graduating, and to support this mission, we have formed an alliance with the most prestigious design school in the country, La Salle College. Through this partnership, we aim to empower emerging stylists by providing them with opportunities to showcase their talent and creativity. As part of the alliance, these stylists visit our clients' closets to digitize fashion items that users no longer use and publish them in their profiles. This initiative not only gives students practical experience but also enriches our platform with unique and diverse fashion offerings, fostering a sense of community and collaboration within our ecosystem.

Our business model revolves around providing value to our users through a comprehensive platform that promotes sustainable and circular fashion. We offer a range of products and services to our key customers, which include both buyers and sellers in the fashion industry, as well as individuals interested in adopting more sustainable consumption habits.

For our buyers, we provide access to a diverse marketplace of eco-friendly fashion items, including clothing, accessories, books, music, and art. Our platform allows users to browse through profiles of sellers, engage in transactions, and participate in community events and activities focused on sustainability and circularity.

On the seller side, we offer a platform for individuals and businesses to showcase and sell their sustainable fashion products. Sellers can create public and private profiles, upload their products, and connect with potential buyers. We also facilitate transactions and provide tools for sellers to manage their inventory and sales.

Our users are motivated to use our platform because of the growing demand for sustainable fashion options and the desire to contribute to a more eco-friendly and ethical fashion industry. They appreciate the convenience and accessibility of our platform, as well as the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and businesses.

In terms of revenue generation, we monetize our platform through protection services for transactions. In a free trade and collaborative economy environment enabled by the app, we offer a purchase protection service for users who want to safeguard their money when purchasing products or services. We charge a 15% fee for this service.

Additionally, we leverage our platform's capabilities for data collection and analysis to provide valuable insights to the fashion industry. Through our geolocation-based search engine, we gather information on user habits and preferences to optimize industry resources not only economically but also environmentally. This aspect of our business model enables us to generate revenue through data analytics and insights services provided to industry stakeholders.

Our company aims for significant growth in various aspects. Currently, we have a functional platform that has been tested by over 400 users and is a free app downloadable from anywhere in the world. This technical feature reflects the scalability of our platform from a technological perspective, as our infrastructure is designed to support an increase in the number of users without compromising performance or user experience.

To achieve our expansion goal, we plan to invest in marketing and promotion strategies aimed at increasing awareness and adoption of our application. Additionally, we seek to strengthen our partnerships with sustainable fashion brands and expand our product and service offerings to attract a wider audience. We are committed to continuously improving our technology and functionalities, using user feedback and market trends to drive innovation. With these initiatives, we expect to significantly increase our user base and consolidate our position in the sustainable fashion market.