On the heels of EYELEVEL and ECOR’s collaboration announcement, Patagonia becomes first to innovate with the two circular-economy industry leaders.
[AMSTERDAM, NL] – EYELEVEL and ECOR recently formed a strategic partnership around their shared vision to co-create circular retail environment solutions, and the first results of the cooperation have been facilitated by Ventura, CA-based outdoor retailer and environmental champion, Patagonia.
EYELEVEL’s heritage with retail experience design coupled with ECOR’s sustainable core material promised to yield retail products including point-of purchase and point-of-sales displays, cabinets, signage, luxury packaging, and merchandise materials. This collaborative portfolio enables brands to design and develop waste-free store concepts that are fully recyclable and circular at the end of their use.
Ben Jensen, EYELEVEL’s Director of Design & Innovation shares, “The future of retail is circular. It’s incredibly rewarding to know that our purposeful partnership with ECOR has been validated with Patagonia’s forward-thinking spirit and action. We’re eager to keep collaborating with other visionary brands to realize their sustainability dreams.”
Challenge: EYELEVEL was approached by Patagonia to re-think the materials used in their Summer 2018 Outdoor show booth to be more earth-friendly.
Solution: All medium-density fibreboard (MDF) from the previous booth design was removed and instead 100% bio-based and recyclable ECOR panels were applied, replacing the booth’s core construction, mid-floor fixtures, and all displayed graphics.
Result: The same ECOR material used in the booth is now being upcyled as a permanent retail fixture base in stores, and now a full line of said fixtures is being rolled out across greater Europe. The initiative also inspired a circular graphics prototype program where seasonally-run campaign signage made of ECOR can be sent back to EYELEVEL for recycling, reproduction, and re-use in subsequent efforts.
“As a business, everything we do goes back to our mission statement: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” Says Alberto Zanini, Patagonia’s Visual Merchandising and Design Manager for Europe who oversaw this project’s development. “The project with EYELEVEL and ECOR answers all three parts of this core purpose and our hope is that like-minded brands will follow suit with similar circularity-in-retail projects. That is the way to truly effect change.”
This project serves as a proof of concept for the future of sustainable retail. Many brands with a brick-and-mortar presence are searching for environmentally-friendly alternatives and sustainable practices. By designing both processes and products with circularity in mind, brands will be able to extend their sustainability goals into the build environment.ECOR’s Corporate Director of Circular Economy, Eric Logtens, is excited to have been so instrumental in this project. “This is a rare opportunity for three organisations that are all committed to creating positive environmental change to join forces and expertise. Merely showcasing the possibilities of constructing a beautiful booth from non-toxic materials, thereby offering a viable alternative to MDF, would have been a great merit in itself,” says Logtens. “But contributing to Patagonia’s value case, story and help reduce its carbon footprint truly allows for ECOR’s ‘all-in-one’ approach of enabling others to reach their circular economy ambitions.”
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About EYELEVEL
EYELEVEL is a global team of designers, doers, planners, and makers with a vision to be the first choice partner in innovation and sustainability for leading brands that strive to reinvent the customer experience. We’re in the business of global brand theatre; we craft the experiences, objects, and spaces that allow the brands we love to take center stage. This journey started over 20 years ago, and more than 620 people, 14 offices, and four continents later, we’re tackling an even greater challenge: how do we leave this retail industry better than we found it? We’re innovating through earth-friendly practices, corporate social responsibility, and a renaissance of our roots: design thinking methodology applied to business solutions.
About ECOR
ECOR enables others to achieve their circular economy ambitions. NOBLE Environmental Technologies Corporation has developed the ECOR technology. It is a waste-to-product manufacturing process and results in high-performance, sustainable and healthy materials, which uniquely enable the circular economy principles of starting with waste resources and enablement of recycling at the end of a product’s life cycle. ECOR is made of 100% recycled cellulose fibers locally sourced from urban, farm and process waste materials, is completely free of toxins and VOCs and C2C certified. ECOR is solely made with water, pressure and heat whilst offering an advanced design, great performances and versatile design opportunities. More information at www.ecorbenelux.com
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For more information:
EYELEVEL
Miranda Fung, Brand Marketing Manager
Tel.: +1 (503) 360-5751
E-mail: Miranda.Fung@eyelevel.com
www.eyelevel.com
ECOR
Kevin Davis
Tel.:858.779.4538
E-mail: kevindavis@ecorglobal.com