An interactive and open-source city guide to reuse, repair & remake used clothing
The A-GAIN GUIDE shows all Berlin citizens the most efficient, sustainable & creative ways to repair, upcycle, recycle, rent out and pass on their used clothes locally.
The first digital platform of its kind, developed with open-source coding by NGO Circular Berlin & social business LoopLook, informs consumers in a playful way about how to prolong the life of their clothes. The beautifully designed integrated tools indicate the best suited reuse services & initiatives in their neighbourhood.
Local
Germany
Berlin. Other cities will implement this year (Prague and Hamburg), as it is a platform with open-source code and common creative licensed graphics.
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-03-15
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Circular City - Zirkuläre Stadt e.V. Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Arianna Last name of representative: Nicoletti Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: Circular Textiles Lead Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rheinsbergerstraße 34 Town: Berlin Postal code: 10435 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 174 3455960 E-mail:arianna@circular.berlin Website:https://circular.berlin
The A-GAIN GUIDE is a digital platform for the city of Berlin. It aims to contribute to a positive change in the way used clothes are handled in fashion culture and its industries, especially in the urban context: Cities are responsible for 50% of the worldwide waste occurrence.As their populations will further grow, the usage of resources is increasing simultaneously.That is why the A-GAIN GUIDE helps to extend the lifespan of clothing and to transfer textiles into closed loop cycles on the local level.
The platform shows consumers the most essential ways to repair, reuse and recycle their unwanted clothes in Berlin.It consists of three main elements:
- The MAP in the form of an online mapping provides an overview of Berlin-based contact points and service providers for textile repair, upcycling and recycling services.The MAP's filter function selects which shoemakers, alteration tailors, used clothing containers, second-hand & vintage stores, rental services, upcycling designers, workshops are best suited in the immediate environment.
- The GUIDE tool is built as an intelligent questionnaire that guides users through a series of questions and proposes individual solutions for an item or a whole bunch of clothing, which means users can receive tailor-made solution suggestions.
- The DATABASE is crucial for the collection and evaluation of relevant data, which can help the city to build up essential infrastructures and measures to become more circular.
Through the A-GAIN GUIDE, relatively unknown SME services and innovative as well as classic ways of textile reuse are made visible and accessible.
The website and its elements are jointly developed by the non-profit organization Circular Berlin and the social business LoopLook under an open source license to provide the opportunity for other NGOs or municipalities to implement the same principle and thus strengthen the textile circular economy at root - on a national and international level.
Circular Economy
Loved Clothes Last
New Consumption
Society Transformation
Tools for Change
Key objective (KO)1: Waste reduction.
The A-GAIN GUIDE wants to increase the proportion of used textiles that can be saved for reuse and thus reduce the amount of communal textile waste generated in cities. The repair, reuse and recirculating of clothing are strongly promoted by the platform, showing citizens the best options to keep their clothes in use as long as possible and thus avoiding them to be directly landfilled, incinerated or sent overseas. In this way, it makes a significant contribution to the achievement of the Berlin Zero Waste goals 2030. In 2022 more than 11.000 visitors used the A-GAIN GUIDE page and more than 800 used the GUIDE tool.
KO 2: Sustainable consumption & CO2 reduction.
The inevitable change towards a circular system for textiles can especially be achieved with the direct involvement of consumers. Their demand determines the industry's supply and influences the future development of the fashion industry. Through its appealing style, its content and tools the A-GAIN GUIDE educate consumers in a fun and playful way about how to prolong the lifespan of their clothes and thus to actively reduce CO2 emissions, which occur during production or disposal as well as the use of natural resources.
KO 3: Strengthening the local ecosystem
Giving visibility to local independent businesses, the A-GAIN GUIDE promotes and strengthens the local economy. The filter on the map and the GUIDE tool show the closest options to the user and thereby it helps them to avoid long transport routes, reduce CO2 and support their local ecosystem. More than 1500 local actors have been added on the online map.
KO 4: Creation of valuable data.
In addition, the analysis of the platform-generated data is supposed to close information gaps in regard to textile waste streams and to help the city in investing in new infrastructures and technologies. We have collected data about used clothes and repairing preference from more than 800 users.
KO 1: Appealing design, to be replicated by others.
The A-Gain Guide is characterized by a geometrical structured landing page, designed in large squared boxes, defined topic areas and clear communication. The whole design reflects a sleek, urban-creative and modern aesthetic in a fresh and friendly color palette that is highly attractive for the younger generation as well as for a more mainstream audience. The “stitched” illustrations highlight the overall thematic context of the platform. The fashion topic is highlighted by pictures kindly provided by local designers. The MAP as well as the GUIDE tools are smoothly functioning and showcasing information about Berlin’s service providers in simplistic formats. The CI is also used for all communication channels.
KO 2: An inviting user experience and the easiest user interaction.
The user is friendly addressed when entering the website, followed by an immediate introduction to the website’s unique content and opportunities (Calls to action). The landing page gives immediately an idea of what to expect when navigating through subpages and using the tools. The website and its tools are designed to offer personalized information to the user and promptly react to his/her needs by a responsive adaptation, thus creating a fluid and exciting experience.
The MAP is an easy-to-use and accessible tool with a wide zoomable overview of the local textile service offers. Its search and filter options specify the selection, which can be changed and applied throughout the use. The GUIDE, in turn, is built as an interactive “problem-solving” questionnaire, whose sequence built-up depends on the responses of the users. From the start, the user is guided and involved in carrying on with answering the questions through nice colors, illustrations, and nice forms to click on.
The highly attractive aesthetic experience of the A-Gain Guide is exemplary for a platform of its kind.
KO 1: Citizens engagement.
From our perspective, the citizens are the key drivers heading towards a more inclusive, circular and sustainable textile economy.
By inviting Berlin-based small and medium sized companies (SMEs) to offer their services on the A-Gain Guide, we directly involve the citizen-entrepreneurs to play an active role within the local reuse community.
By using the GUIDE tool, citizens are included and engaged in giving valuable information on their consumption behavior and needs, as well as in sharing their tailored results with others, thus becoming multiplicators.
KO 2: Inclusive language and communication.
The platform is available in two languages (German and English), making it easily accessible to the majority of the city inhabitants. The A-Gain Guide’s interactive design and the uncomplicated visual and written communication aim to address a wider range of target groups (families, youngsters, mainstream fashion consumers, etc.). In addition, a glossary is included within the GUIDE function. It explains different concepts and definitions related to fashion and sustainability that might be new to the users. In this way the platform is accessible for different knowledge levels about textiles and used clothes.
KO 3: Inclusion & Diversity. Communication campaign.
The influencers, models, supporters and ambassadors, who have been and are involved in the A-Gain Guide marketing campaigns, reflect the full diversity of society. Sustainability, inclusion, equality and diversity are core values of the project.
KO 4: Accessibility & Affordability.
The A-Gain Guide is free to use and open to anyone with an internet connection. Also, the listed stakeholders do not have to pay to be visible on the platform. Besides this, the website is created with open-source coding, so that other non-profit associations can easily replicate it without having to invest big sums.
The A-GAIN GUIDE is the ideal instrument to be applied at city level to involve the citizens in the transformation towards a circular textile economy with a zero waste policy.
From the beginning, both citizens and local textile stakeholders (such as NGOs) have been shaping the A-GAIN GUIDE. For example, the partnering LoopLook team conducted a survey in early 2020 to engage with the demands of fashion consumers in order to understand their openness and readiness for a new sustainable way of consumption, also regarding re-use techniques.
Moreover, the platform users have the chance to directly communicate what new tool or information they would like to be featured next on the A-GAIN GUIDE, by answering the last question of the GUIDE tool. In this way, the citizens can actively shape the future developments of the project.
Furthermore, during the street style shootings, citizens were spontaneously asked to share some of their personal clothing re-use stories with us to be promoted on our social media channels. Also they have the chance to contact us directly through Instagram, Facebook or contact form messages. Their freedback is always a valuable source of information for us.
The creation of the project started with a multi-stakeholder workshop, which Circular Berlin realized in May 2019 involving different actors of the reversible supply chain for textiles in Berlin (charities, designers, bigger brands, etc..) and citizens as well. One of the results of this workshop was the participants´ shared wish and need for a platform for citizens, where they could have easy accessibility to information about what to do with their second-hand clothes as well as about the different opportunities for them to prolong the life of their clothes.
Also, the local government of Berlin (especially the Environment and the Economics Senate Departments) has been involved in the creation of the platform, not only as funding partner, but also in the determination of important platform features, looking from the perspective of the third sector players as well as citizens´ needs.
In the implementation process, we met potential partners throughout Germany from NGO’s and initiatives similar to ours (e.g: Circular Munich, FabCity Hamburg), to reflect on how the A-Gain Guide tools could be beneficial to their own federal regions.
As several organizations from Europe have been reaching out to Circular Berlin about circular textile strategies, their opinions and feedback have been influencing the design and development of the A-Gain Guide tremendously. For example, we have been in exchange with the Impact Hub Network across different European cities, such as Amsterdam in the Netherlands, as well as with the Prague city hall team, where the governments are forward-thinking circular economy strategies.
The creation of the A-Gain Guide involved both technical and managerial disciplines such as User Experience and User Interface Design, Graphic Design, Web Programming and IT/database structure, Marketing measures and Project Management. Hereby, all of those contributing partners, based in Berlin, discussed the design & implementation strategy together closely in a kick-off workshop and several following up-date meetings. Some of our team members have a background in fashion design, which actually made it possible to understand the complexity of relevant stakeholders and services within the field of fashion.
Regarding the provided content information, references were made in the field of environmental science and management, psychology and social science (e.g: consumer behavior). In this case, we mostly referred to external sources outside of our direct interaction, yet worked with institutional partners in the fields of statistics and research regarding Berlin-related current numbers and data on textile waste streams.
As an argument for the urge to implement the A-Gain Guide for Berlin, it was necessary to make links to announced EU-wide strategies and legislations supporting the circular economy.
First of all, the A-GAIN GUIDE includes an extensive stakeholder mapping (more than 1500) showing all the actors of the Berlin textile recovery ecosystem. The deriving impacts already achieved are:
1. These small circular economy businesses, mostly employing people from marginalized and low-income communities, get enormous visibility by new customer segments connected to the internet. This kind of digitized visibility is essential for the growth of the textile circular services sector on the city level.
2. Citizens get easy accessibility to services close by which they probably have not known or heard about. In this way, more circular consumption patterns are highlighted and explained, promoting their advantages for the people and the planet, but also a corresponding price sensitivity.
On the other hand, through our own setup of social media channels, press and networking activities, launch events and interviews (like at 202030 - The Berlin Fashion Summit), we are bringing that ecosystem into a modern up-to-date context and are underlining the importance and relevance of it according to political frameworks.
Furthermore, in supporting citizens to find the best solutions for their used clothes on a local level, the platform embodies and stimulates a renewed way of thinking regarding the value of clothes and discovering new solutions and supporting their local economy.
Impact in numbers: The project has already brought more than 11,500 visitors to the website and through different activities reached between 150,000 and 750.000 people. 815 users have already tried the GUIDE tool: 327 Berliners were looking for upcycling solutions, 304 for repair offers, 268 wanted to donate textiles and 268 wanted to sell their clothes. The total amount of textiles for which these 815 users alone were looking for service offers to extend the life of the clothing is 4,463.5 kg, i.e. almost 4.5 tonnes.
The A-GAIN GUIDE is the first platform of its kind in many aspects. First of all, it is conceived and realized with open-source code and supposed to be easily replicated by other non-profit organizations. This disruptive element makes it possible for the platform to be simply applied by further cities and sectors with same or similar goals, thus potentially achieving an even greater impact than the one reached by the platform itself.
Moreover, the state-of-the-art aesthetic, based on catchy yet universally understandable graphics and bright colors, goes far beyond the usual and mainstream “green” and “sustainability” communication forms. This aspect, combined with the interactivity of the programmed tools, makes the platform a fantastic instrument to reach young citizens as well as new audiences that would usually not look for this kind of content.
Regarding the map function, unlike other similar digital mappings, the A-GAIN GUIDE includes a precise filter as well as detailed information in regards to the listed services.
The GUIDE tool is a one-of-a-kind application, connected to a matrix of information and locations on the map as well as to a curated list of online circular economy businesses. It has been conceived and wonderfully designed to help citizens, while collecting valuable data for the city. Another innovative aspect of the platform is the possibility for the user to share the GUIDE results through social media, thus incredibly enhancing its reach.
Based on scientific research, we were given valid sources and arguments for the necessary change in fashion design production and consumption towards a more sustainable future. Our approach is focused on the principle of efficiency and sufficiency with the goal to prolong the life of clothing and thereby reducing textile waste and saving resources. Also, we believe in the power of the consumer and the local infrastructure to install an optimized collection, re-distribution and recycling process for a circular economy within a region like Berlin and its suburbs.
The project plan was conceptualized and set up by the initial coordinators / partners. It was turned into the desired end-product through milestone planning and agile adjustments when they were needed.
Through its open-source code and Creative Common licenses for the graphics, the A-GAIN GUIDE website and tools are easily transferable to other cities or industry sectors. The code has been already used for the creation of a public platform for social businesses in the Netherlands and the team is already concretely discussing the replication of the A-GAIN GUIDE in Hamburg and possibly in Prague in 2024.
Besides the open-source aspects, other transferable elements would be very beneficial if transferred into other contexts:
- First of all the collected data, such as the input of the GUIDE users or the numbers around research actions on the MAP, is extremely valuable for both the textile industry and local governments. The data is going to help public and private institutions in understanding the local textile reversible supply chain sector as well as the consumer behavior in its relation. Both cities and industry stakeholders need to implement more circular business models alongside educating the consumers to use them and need more specific information in order to create markets, policies and infrastructures.
- The data collected, in the form of statistics and analysis can be beneficial also for other cities and sectors.
The platform has already created a network and can contribute in the extension of this beyond Berlin and German borders. Elsewhere replicated A-GAIN GUIDEs will be connected and together help each other in different ways, such as Europe wide campaigns or marketing collaborations to enhance international online visibility. The growth of such a network has the potential to contribute to a dynamic exchange between government, business and society as well as to create crucial synergies among its public and private actors, thus in the long run support some of the most important transformations needed.
Reduction of textile waste on a global scale: Globally, around 87% of all used or unsold clothing is landfilled or incinerated with disastrous global consequences for the environment and people, not least through the use of polluting chemicals, high CO2 emissions and the waste of valuable resources.
Transforming consumption patterns: According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and other reports, renting, reselling, repairing and refurbishing garments, are all essential approaches towards the establishment of a functioning circular economy of fashion. The platform promotes these business models and concepts, while making them accessible and appealing to a wider audience.
Decarbonisation of fashion: The drastically increasing consumption of textiles makes the fourth largest factor in the ecological footprint of EU citizens, yet the average lifespan of clothing has decreased. According to Wrap UK, extending the life of clothing by an average of 9 months would already reduce the CO2, water and waste impact of textiles by approx. 20%. The promotion of sustainable consumer behavior in relation to clothes life-spans is a key area of action for the industry to achieve the 1.5 degree climate target.
Zero waste and carbon net cities: As cities all over the world bear the greatest responsibility for carbon emissions as well as for waste generation, they need to implement systemic infrastructures and efficient legislation in order to achieve local Circular Economy systems.
Protection of the environment & human safety: Especially through a more sustainable consumption and use of textiles, can the export of textiles to countries lacking modern waste management systems be reduced. Thereby avoiding the creation of illegal dump sites and pollution disasters, the lives and health of people living around landfills and dumps can be protected.
