Data-led Digital PR: Turning complex textile-waste data into a high-impact industry benchmark for Fashion Startup LABFRESH
Our collaboration with LABFRESH
LABFRESH is a fashion label built around the principle of “buy less, wash less, wear longer.” The brand designs timeless menswear, including T-shirts, shirts and trousers, using high-quality cotton and stain-repellent technology to help consumers keep their clothes in use for longer.
LABFRESH partnered with ABCD to increase online brand awareness and create a consistent stream of conversation around the brand in its key markets: Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
Turning a sustainability challenge into a media-ready story
Fashion waste is a complex and highly debated environmental issue. For LABFRESH, the challenge was to move beyond broad sustainability messaging and create a campaign that could generate attention, earn authoritative backlinks and establish the brand as a credible voice in the conversation.
ABCD identified an opportunity to make the scale of textile waste easier to understand. We researched how 15 European countries compared in terms of total textile waste, waste per capita and disposal methods, including incineration and landfill.
The result was “The Biggest Textile Waste Polluters in Europe”: a data-driven campaign that transformed a complex environmental issue into a clear, rankable and highly shareable story.
Campaign Results
194 AI citations
177 pieces of coverage
80 backlinks across
3 markets
Building the Fashion Waste Index
To create a campaign with lasting value, we analysed several indicators rather than relying on a single headline figure. The study examined:
- Total annual textile waste
- Textile waste per capita
- The volume of textiles sent to landfill
- The volume of textiles incinerated
- Differences between countries and disposal methods
- This data was used to create a comparative benchmark: the Fashion Waste Index.
The ranking gave journalists an accessible way to explore the environmental impact of clothing consumption across Europe. It also created multiple angles for media coverage, from national rankings and regional comparisons to questions around overconsumption, mass production and waste management.
Turning media attention into SEO value
- To maximise the SEO impact of the campaign, we hosted the full study and interactive dataset as a dedicated linkable asset on the LABFRESH website.
- This gave journalists, researchers and sustainability organisations a credible resource to reference. Every editorial mention had the potential to drive referral traffic, strengthen LABFRESH’s authority and generate high-quality backlinks to the brand’s website.
- Rather than creating a short-lived PR story, the campaign gave LABFRESH an evergreen piece of data-led content with continued value for media outreach and organic search.
The Fashion Waste Index achieved visibility beyond traditional media:
- Political impact:
The index was discussed in the Belgian Parliament, demonstrating that the campaign had relevance beyond consumer-facing communications.
- NGO recognition:
Greenpeace used and reported on the campaign’s findings in its wider discussion of textile waste and the need for reform in the fashion industry.
Coverage examples
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