As European cities are leading the way in sustainable shopping – from purchase of pre-loved clothing and accessories to eco-friendly packaging, Savoo conducted a survey amongst Europe’s 30 most populous nations. The research was based on the metrics: Sustainable Development Report (SDR) ranking, recycling rate, consumption footprint, waste per capita, and the number of flea/street markets and antique stores. Savoo is a pan-European money-saving and online-fundraising platform that offers shoppers excellent discount deals and when these deals are used, a percentage is donated to several charities across Europe. As per the survey, Finland leads the SDR, what’s more Zara has listed used apparels.

Finland leads the way

Based on the Sustainable Development Report’s ranking of all 193 UN Member States, Finland sits on top with 86.51 score out of a possible 100. The other top-10 European countries were: Denmark, Slovenia, Austria, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Germany. In overall score, Finland was rated alongside Denmark with 7.2 points, Slovenia and Austria with 7 points, Sweden with 6.9 points, the UK with 6.5 points, the Netherlands with 6.4 points, Belgium 6.2, Spain 6.1 and Germany 5.9 points.

Finland has the distinction of having reduced its consumption by an impressive 20.37 per cent between 2010 and 2020, which is considered the fourth biggest reduction after Italy at 26.03 per cent, Sweden at 21.99 per cent and Greece at 20.75 per cent. The UK had the worst score in this regard, with a – 26.09 per cent.

The survey however found that Finland had only 53 flea markets and antique stores for its population of 5,540,720, which puts it behind other European nations. Additionally, its recycling rate amongst the top 10 European countries rated as per the Sustainable Development Report ranking was on the lower side at 41.6 per cent compared to Germany leading with 67.1 per cent and Slovenia at 59.3 percent. Spain was reported to be the least recycle-friendly country within the top 10, with 36.4 per cent. Finland recorded a textile waste per annum at 14,934 tonnes which was on the lower side as well, when compared to Germany wasting 391,752 tonnes of textile per annum.

Malta is the worst in sustainable shopping

The report also compiled the top 10 European countries that have the least sustainable shopping practices. Heading the list is Malta with an overall score of 4.4 points, followed by Ireland with 4.6 and Greece 4.8 points. The tiny country of the super-rich, Luxembourg scored 5 points along with Romania and Portugal. The relative less affluent Bulgaria and Hungary fared better with 5.2 and 5.3 points respectively. Lithuania and Croatia ended the list with 5.4 and 5.5 points respectively.

Zara has the most-listed used apparel

Savoo spread the research across resale apparel platforms Depop, eBay, Vestiaire Collective, and ASOS Marketplace to find that Zara was at the top. Depop has the most Zara items listed at 439,696 and a total number of listings standing at 670,616 items. Sports brands Nike and Adidas were at the number two and three spots with total listing of 610, 141 items and 467,025 items respectively. H&M came in fourth with 407, 216 listed items. In terms of monthly average searches for pre-loved items, luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci were the most searched at 5400, 2900 and 2400 searches. Interestingly, luxury pop fashion brand Prada had only 1300 searches per month and iconic British brand Burberry a thousand.