With the "Swap for New" campaign, the shopping centers' total of 28,5 million visitors annually are made aware of the importance of reuse the discarded clothes if you intend to buy new clothes anyway. Each bag of clothes left in the shopping centers corresponds to a voucher offering a discount on the next purchase.

In cooperation with NGO’s Kirkens Korshær, Røde Kors, Myrorna and Frälsningsarmen the objective is to reduce textile waste, increase awareness and ensure that we reuse as many items of clothing as possible. By 2025, all EU countries must ensure that clothing and textile waste is sorted and collected.

During the previous campaign at Field’s, 1,200 clothing bags were received over a period of one month and 20 stores participated in the campaign with the offer to buy new clothes with a discount. In the current campaign, 25 stores are registered. At Bruuns Galleri 600 bags of clothes for reuse were received in the first campaign. The next campaign will start in the end of August and Emporia conducted the campaign for the first time in May.

80 percent of all discarded clothes have 80 percent of their lifetime left, therefore, it makes perfect sense to hand in clothes for reuse so others can benefit from them“, says Cecilie Thomson, Marketing Manager at Field’s. Sascha Johnsen, Marketing Manager at Bruuns Galleri adds that “we are privileged that we are able to engage our customers in such an important initiative”.

It feels good to create balance in our campaigns. “Swap for New” encourages people to think about their buying behaviour. The clothes I discard can be of benefit to others. We collaborate with Myrorna at Emporia in the campaign. Discarded clothes are given new life and the financial surplus is donated in full to Frälsningsarmén’s social work in Sweden. It’s a win-win, says Christina Holst, Marketing Manager at Emporia.

The campaign helps to raise awareness of textile reuse among our visitors, which is one objective with Steen & Ström’s overall Act4Good work and ESG strategy that will encourage, enable, and contribute to our clients and visitors to have a sustainable approach and lifestyle, says Annika Andersson, Communications Manager Scandinavia at Steen & Ström.

Check out more Act4Good initiatives by Steen & Ström to promote a sustainable lifestyle, https://www.steenstrom.com/our-commitments/promoting-sustainable-lifestyles