Urban Renewal represents and expresses our commitment to sustainability, circularity, and reducing our impact on the environment. Established in 1983, Urban Renewal was created to focus on repurposed, remade, and one-of-a-kind vintage goods and it’s a mission we continue to nurture today.
OUR PROGRESS
THIS YEAR...
01
Recirculated 50,000+ pairs of secondhand denim
02
Given new life to 66,000+ secondhand flannels and 45,000+ sweaters
03
Upcycled deadstock fabric into 80,000+ remnant styles
04
Handpicked + recirculated exactly 7,431 pieces of one of a kind vintage
TO DATE...
01
Recirculated over 7 Million garments, keeping them out of the landfill
02
Salvaged over 1 Million pairs of vintage denim
03
Committed to circular fashion for over 50+ years
RENEWAL TIMELINE
Urban Outfitters opens the first store in Philadelphia, PA. Its mission was to provide second-hand clothing, furniture, jewelry, and home decor for college aged customers in a casual fun environment.
Urban Renewal is established as a brand at Urban Outfitters with the focus of making styles from recycled clothing, adding innovative and creative improvements and helping to eliminate textile waste.
Urban Renewal surpasses 1 million units recirculated.
Urban Renewal introduces the Remnant category, making new styles from deadstock and remnant fabrics out of Los Angeles.
The Urban Renewal Store at Herald Square opens, becoming the biggest dedicated store for Urban Renewal and home to one-of-a-kind collaborations with some of the most creative and innovative upcyclers in the industry.
Urban Renewal surpasses 1 million pairs of denim salvaged, recirculating at least 50,000 pairs each year for the last 10 years.
The URBN Impact Report highlights our ambitious plans to apply our creative thinking and entrepreneurial mindset to our industry’s challenges in environmental and social responsibility. Read the full report to learn more about our commitments to sustainability, circularity, and community.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
COTTON
In 2023 we joined the US Cotton Trust Protocol and the Better Cotton Initiative to further our commitment to responsibly sourced cotton.
RESPONSIBLE MATERIALS
By 2027 60% of our total direct-sourced raw materials will be sourced more responsibly. Currently 10% of our direct-sourced raw materials are responsibly sourced.
PACKAGING
100% of our mailer bags and boxes are made from recycled and recyclable materials.
CIRCULARITY
Through our partnership with FabScrap, we’ve found end-of-life solutions for the waste generated during our product creation, and to date we’ve diverted over 20,000+ lbs of textiles.
More to come and so much to do, but… here are some of the ways we’re making mindful, eco-conscious decisions as a brand.
We launched our BYO bag program in UO stores in October of 2021, and we’ve already saved over 200,000 bags from circulation. Additionally, all UO shipped mailer packaging is made from recycled and recyclable materials, and by December 2022, all shopping bags in store will be made from 100% recycled materials.
We partner with Trex, an eco-friendly composite decking company, to divert our UO polybags from the landfill. In the last year alone, we have recycled over 100,000lbs of plastic and almost 7 million polybags.
We will continue to donate product to help lessen our waste production overall. This year, we launched a partnership with the Philadelphia Furniture Bank to donate excess home items. We will continue to search for end-of-life options for product from stores & production.
Our main distribution center has one of the largest solar arrays in the USA, with a 22-acre roof and a net-effect of 22 million kilowatts per hour of saved energy, equivalent to 965 tons of CO2 or 24,212 trees per year. Our home office houses a Bloom Box Energy system that converts chemical energy into electricity with a lifetime energy generation of 26,666 MWh.
CLO, a software-driven design tool, reduces the number of samples we need from 2.5 to 1 per garment, eliminating around 8,000 garment samples a year, and reducing waste due to mutilation. The carbon footprint of any CLO garment is significantly reduced because of reduced logistics and transportation.
Our stores and offices have always been built with an Adaptive Reuse strategy, centered around preservation through reuse. We recycle concrete to make walkways, and materials and artifacts found onsite are used as part of the building process. Old doors are collaged together to form walls and wood floors are reclaimed.
OUR PARTNERS
Community has always been central to our brand, and we’re proud to work with partner organizations to combine efforts and maximize our impact.
COMMUNITY CARES
Active Minds
Introducing our new partner Active Minds, the leading nonprofit supporting young adult mental health...
INTERVIEWS
As part of Urban Outfitter’s commitment to reducing our impact on landfills...
INTERVIEWS
BlackStar, the Philadelphia based organization celebrating visionary BIPOC...
Using two big ideas—circularity and better choices—as our guidemarks, we continue to rethink the way our products impact our world.
Urban Renewal and our One-of-a-Kind Vintage collections represent and express our commitment to sustainability, circularity and reducing our impact on the environment. Since its launch, Urban Renewal has recirculated over 6 million garments, keeping previously loved pieces and fabrics out of the landfill.
Shop Urban Renewal
Shop One-of-a-Kind Vintage
We are actively working on making better choices for the products we create - from the materials we use to the partners with whom we work. In March 2022 we launched KOTO, with sustainability and inclusivity as core elements of the brand. The collection uses recycled cotton, recycled polyester, and responsibly sourced US cotton, which can be traced back to the domestic family farms where it is harvested.
Shop Responsible Materials