Emmy's Year 2023

What kind of impact did our activities have?

The need and interest for companies' responsibility information is constantly growing. We want to proactively and independently respond to these information needs, as dialogue is at the core of our operations and a prerequisite for societal change.

We didn’t start drafting an all-encompassing report, but we compiled the most important perspectives on corporate responsibility for 2023. Without revealing too much, we are happy to say that Emmy’s impact is, in the big picture, on the positive side! For this, we can thank the circular economy business model and our customers.

Environmental Responsibility

The clothing industry is estimated to produce up to 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and textiles cause the fourth largest pressure on virgin natural resources and water use.

Emmy’s goal is to make second hand a real alternative to new. The circular economy of clothing tackles carbon dioxide emissions and improves the efficiency of raw material use.

Emmy’s environmental responsibility work takes place on three levels:

• Accelerating the circular economy transition through societal advocacy
• Reducing emissions in the clothing industry and developing sustainability through second hand business and by offering partners the opportunity to participate in the circular economy
• Promoting circulation and reducing our own carbon footprint (e.g., logistics emissions and responsible packaging materials)

Environmental responsibility highlights of 2023:

• Ålandsbanken’s Baltic Sea Project granted €30,000 to develop digital technology that makes it easy for companies and organizations to get used clothes back on sale. We tested the technology first with the domestic brand Nanso.
• We gained more understanding of the positive environmental impacts of second hand business through Natalia Buchert’s thesis. Buchert calculated the production emissions based on the fiber data of Emmy’s 50 best-selling clothing categories. If we assume that second hand products bought from Emmy replaced new production, together with our customers we saved over 967 tons of CO2e emissions from clothing production in 2023!
• Together with our staff, we carried out a responsibility statement as a counterattack to the overconsumption festival of Black Week. The result was a textile waste corpse, which contained 17 kg of textile waste—the same amount the average Finn produces in a year. The statement received good visibility on social media, and our customers named the corpse Maire A. Jätevuori.

Read our Sustainability Report for more about Emmy’s environmental responsibility work.

Social Responsibility

At the heart of Emmy’s social responsibility is our own staff and the charity work we do together with our customers.
Emmy is a domestic company that employed 46 people in 2023.

Charity work at Emmy is done in three different ways:

• We donate clothes annually to those in need. In 2023, we responded to the requests of the “Autetaan kun voidaan” association and delivered clothing bags to 10 families through them. In addition, we donated 210 kg, or about 700 items, to the Salo reception center. All donated products are in good condition, but they did not meet Emmy’s quality requirements or their sales period had ended.
• We ensure that products stay in circulation. Most products that do not meet Emmy’s quality criteria or whose sales period has ended are delivered to the Recycling Center. All proceeds from the Recycling Center are used to promote the company’s operations and goals, i.e., local environmental work and employment.
• Our customers support charity causes important to them. Emmy sellers have the opportunity to donate their sales proceeds to charity. In 2023, we directed €2,901 of our customers’ sales proceeds to the Finnish Red Cross’s emergency aid for Ukraine, as well as for children through Emmy’s partners SOS Children’s Village Association and UNICEF Finland.

Economic Responsibility

Emmy is Finland’s largest marketplace for branded second hand clothing, and also has a significant economic impact in the second hand sector in Finland.

In 2023, Emmy:

• Generated purchasing power for 10,898 Emmy sellers and 12 companies by paying €1,405,000 in seller commissions.
• Employed 46 people in Finland and paid a total of €1,301,000 in salaries, from which employees paid income taxes to the Finnish state. In addition, Emmy paid €271,649 in social costs from salaries to insurance companies.
• Paid €610,921 in value-added tax to the state treasury.

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Emmy’s impact is the result of cooperation, so a big thank you to all our customers and partners for 2023! At Emmy, we can’t wait to see what the new year will bring.

Sienna Kruk
The author is a sustainability expert and Emmy’s Chief Growth Officer