Diesel Wins the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy Award
Diesel’s efforts to make denim more circular are making an impact, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
This week, the OTB Group-owned brand received the Circular Economy Award presented by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as part of the 2024 Sustainable Fashion Awards organized by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.
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The award ceremony was held at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan at the close of Milan Fashion Week. The day before, Diesel presented its Spring/Summer 2025 collection on a runway covered in 14,800kg of denim scraps that will be repurposed for insulation.
The award honors circular economy models aimed at redefining the future of the fashion system through structural changes. Ellen MacArthur Foundation selected Diesel for the brand’s work on integrating circular economy principles into its business through partnerships and initiatives that design waste out of the product development process, extend the life of existing products and establish creative collaborations to repurpose products and materials.
Diesel’s partnership with Lee last year, which saw the brands combine deadstock to create new covetable jeans, is one example of the brand’s mission to reduce waste.
In 2023, the brand introduced Rehab Denim, a collection of garments made with more than 60 percent recycled cotton partly from Diesel’s pre-consumer waste. The waste is sent to Diesel’s Spanish mill partner Tejidos Royo, where it is processed into new fibers with other recycled materials like Tencel lyocell with Refibra technology and recycled elastane. The resulting fabric is dyed with Tejidos Royo’s Dry Indigo technology, which eliminates water and uses 65 percent less energy and 90 percent less chemicals than traditional dyeing methods.
Rehab Denim continues to be a part of the brand’s runway collection.
In Tunisia, Diesel is working with to establish a closed-loop recycling system. The project is in partnerships with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. By the end of 2024, 88,000 pairs of jeans made using at least 20 percent recycled fibers, derived from cutting waste from a Tunisian supplier’s processing operations, will be brought to market.
The brand is also promoting circularity through resale. With the Diesel Second Hand initiative, customers can return Diesel garments to Italian flagship stores to be resold on the brand’s e-commerce site throughout Europe. Launched in 2021, this project was also extended to Japan in 2023 with a dedicated format.
Renzo Rosso, founder and chairman of OTB Group and founder of Diesel, collected the award. “I am very proud to receive this award because I consider sustainability as a state of mind and this is what I try to convey to all our teams,” he said. “Fashion is one of the most polluting industries, and I am convinced that we must all play our part in reducing its impact on the planet. At Diesel we are working hard in this direction, and I am satisfied with the results we have achieved.”
Rosso said the circular initiatives like Diesel Rehab Diesel are examples of how “through innovative technologies, beautiful products can be created using waste materials.”
“However, sustainability is not just about recycled fabric; it is also about thinking and acting responsibly towards the environment and towards people,” he added. “I believe in a circular business model where a company creates, produces, sells, collects and returns a portion of the value to the community: this, in my view, is sustainability.”
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