From Assumptions to Insight: How Zeeman Mapped the Environmental Impact of Its Textile Range with bAwear Score

Zeeman is a Dutch retail chain offering affordable apparel and home textiles across Europe. As part of its 2023 to 2027 strategic plan, Zeeman committed to understanding the environmental footprint of every product in order to continue minimizing its impact on the planet.

Client Zeeman Dutch retail chain, affordable apparel and home textiles

A commitment that had to work at scale

Zeeman is a Dutch retail chain offering affordable apparel and home textiles across Europe. As part of its 2023 to 2027 strategic plan, Zeeman committed to understanding the environmental footprint of every product in order to continue minimizing its impact on the planet. Turning that commitment into practice across a large, diverse product range, spanning men's, women's, baby's and children's apparel as well as interior textiles and decorative items, required a practical way to assess environmental impact at scale.

Four goals, and data that would not cooperate

Zeeman set out to:

Getting there was not straightforward. Supply chain data was inconsistent and fragmented across such a wide range of products, which made full-scale Life Cycle Assessment calculations for hundreds of products impractical within a reasonable timeframe.

LCA-Based Impact Measurement with bAwear Score

Zeeman implemented the Quick Score tier of bAwear Score to calculate cradle-to-gate environmental impact, measured against ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (Hierarchist) and following ISO 14040/44 principles and the direction set by the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for Apparel and Footwear. Where Zeeman could supply primary data, such as material composition, spinning method, fabric construction and transport, bAwear used it directly. Where primary data was not available, bAwear filled the gaps with worst-case secondary data from its own database and ecoinvent 3.8. Combining the two made it possible to build detailed product scenarios without waiting on data that suppliers could not yet provide.

"By applying our streamlined LCA approach, we combined Zeeman's primary data with worst-case secondary data where necessary. This allowed us to calculate the cradle-to-gate impact, identify data gaps, and advise on reducing the environmental footprint of their products."

Anton Luiken, CTO at bAwear

Clear patterns across the range

The assessment surfaced clear patterns across Zeeman's range, giving the team actionable intelligence to reduce environmental impact:

Together, these insights gave Zeeman evidence-based guidance on colors, construction and treatments, a clearer picture of where to focus process improvements, and a proven, scalable framework it can use to extend transparency across thousands of products over time.

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"Collaborating with bAwear has significantly enhanced the transparency of our textile range's environmental impact. We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint through targeted product design improvements, innovations in production processes, and thoughtful material choices. This partnership underscores our shared commitment to sustainability and paves the way for a future where impact transparency and data-driven decisions become the industry standard."

Arnoud van Vliet, Head of CSR and Sustainability at Zeeman

"Collaborating with bAwear has significantly enhanced the transparency of our textile range's environmental impact. We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint through targeted product design improvements, innovations in production processes, and thoughtful material choices. This partnership underscores our shared commitment to sustainability and paves the way for a future where impact transparency and data-driven decisions become the industry standard."

Arnoud van Vliet, Head of CSR and Sustainability at Zeeman

"The purpose of our collaboration with Zeeman was to provide credible impact insights and seamlessly integrate sustainable practices into their operations. This partnership demonstrates that with scalable tools like bAwear Score, companies can rapidly identify hotspots and drive meaningful, impactful changes across their supply chains."

Jesse Dolstra, COO of bAwear

Fast, credible insight, even with data gaps

Turn LCA data
into competitive advantage

Zeeman assessed nearly 200 products with the Quick Score tier and found its impact hotspots across materials, processes, colour, energy and transport. Start with a Quick Score on your highest-volume products and see which choices move the needle.