Green startup interview: Hello Renoon

Renoon makes it easier and faster to find sustainable fashion items online. Iris the co-founder of Renoon, talked to Eutopia. This is her 100-second Interview.

The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions. Renoon is in a very unique position to advance the change by combining fashion data at the product level from hundreds of websites, which makes it easy to shop fashion online in the most sustainable way – whether it’s new, pre-owned, or rental.

Eutopia wanted to find out more about the fascinating story of Renoon, so we asked Iris a little more about the Dutch startup.

How did Renoon get its name?

” When we think about sustainability we think about REducing, REusing, REcycling, and REthinking. Well, with our app we want to bring transparency, clarity, and community around making fashion responsible. There is no better moment than “noon”- midday – when the light is at its brightest and we can all see clearly, that there is a new journey to take. So here you have it: Renoon. Re+noon. “

What’s your story?

” I never planned to become an entrepreneur, but I felt such passion to solve the problem I found that I could not ignore this call. I had just turned 26 and it felt so scary to leave a well-initiated corporate career. Originally I’m Italian, born and raised in Milan, so my passion for the beautiful things in life – fashion – has always been part of me. When I was studying I remember reading about a company putting together business and social/environmental purposes: that’s what I want to do – I told myself. I spent the first years of my career in Amsterdam, playing with technology and seeing both its power FOR and AGAINST my sustainability values. If you would have told me 2 years ago that in this little window of time I would have been CEO of a company based on an idea I had, listed in the Under30 of Forbes, making that initial calling of putting purpose in business, I wouldn’t have believed it. “

Where did the idea come from?

” About 2 years ago I was looking for a black cocktail dress. It had been years that I had made changes to the way I was eating and it hit me: why am I not putting the same effort into re-thinking the sustainability of the clothes that I buy?! So I decided that the black dress needed to be a “sustainable choice”. Little did I know that it would take me 1 month and a half to find a dress that matched my sustainability values. That’s how the initial problem came about. I then found 3 other crazy enough people that left everything and joined me in building a tech company that aggregates sustainability data on clothing and creates a community of people wanting to match their values with the things that inevitably they are going to buy. “