| While at the start of the year many of us will have been familiar with an entertainment subscription for the likes of Netflix – and recent surveys now show that one in five homes in the UK and the US has a retail subscription – the growth of subscription-based models across other sectors has been accelerated during Covid-19. Food boxes, personal grooming and fashion retailers are leading the way.
In theory, the transition from an ownership model to a sharing-based one is supposed to be good for the planet, as it maximises resource efficiency and minimises waste. For clothing retailers such as Selfridges, the move to rental and resell models are circular business space initiatives that support their ambition of achieving net-zero carbon by 2050.
But as our lead story asks, is this shift to a subscription economy delivering sustainability benefits? High street retailers such as Pret a Manger have recently turned to daily coffee subscriptions, in a desperate bid to win back customers and footfall. But there are unforeseen environmental costs, such as excess packaging, as well as criticism for encouraging overconsumption. And as we’re still at a stage of only tentatively touching elbows, the impact of Covid-19 is hindering even the clothing industry as a service model, which was anticipated to double in size by 2025.
Unfortunately, examples of real sustainability offers, such as Ikea’s furniture rental, remain an outlier. There’s a huge opportunity for business to make their subscription models deliver against their sustainability commitments. | 
