Clothing Sustainability
Our clothing products are certified STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX®. Meaning that the products are tested for the use of harmful substances.
Circular Supply Chain
Creating a sustainable, circular supply chain for fashion starts with making products from natural materials like organic cotton, in factories powered by renewable energy. It also means creating products that are designed from the start to be sent back and remade into new ones once they’re worn out, keeping materials out of landfill and in the loop.
Every clothing product you buy is designed to come back to the factory when it's worn out. The factory then makes new products from the material recovered. It's the advanced technology in our manufactures circular supply chain that makes this possible.
Production & Cotton
In business-as-usual land, clothes are mass produced speculatively, producing massive amounts of waste: 40% of clothing is never worn. Because of this our products are made custom to your order and from organic cotton using renewable energy.
Organic cotton farming methods are better for producers and the ecosystem around the farms. Instead of more toxic pesticides and fertilisers, co-planting and insect traps are used along with the special ingredient - cow poo. It encourages biodiversity and leads to the extra soft feel of our organic cotton clothing.
Water Management
Fewer inputs also means less water, but even organic cotton is still a thirsty crop. So where you grow it matters. The fields that grow the organic cotton for our products are in the North of India, where the monsoons fill reservoirs that supply almost all the water needed.
Wastewater from dyehouse effluent is a major source of pollution in the clothing industry.
Where our products are dyed, the water is recovered, cleaned and recirculated. After settling and skimming, the water is filtered using reverse osmosis and distillation. This is basically sucking up water through really fine sand over and over, then boiling it.
Salt is added back in so that the dye adheres and all the cruddy mulchy stuff left over is dried out and used for road markings. About 95% of the water is recirculated and recovered. At the end, the water coming out of the filters is crystal clear, literally clean enough to drink.
Energy
Clean, renewable energy is a vital tool to reduce the worst effects of climate change. Throughout the circular supply chain, renewable energy is used. The manufacturing operations run on solar power and, in India, the factory owns two wind farms and a 150kw PV array. Renewable energy is affordable, reliable and something we are committed to using.
Within the factory, machine-to-machine communications technology allows the team to dynamically turn equipment on and off only when it is needed, balancing our manufacturing demand with on site generation.
Packaging
By 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. This is bad. Instead of plastic packaging, we use a rip and splash-proof mailer bag made out of paper. Big orders come in cardboard boxes, with paper-based tape.
In Summary
These circular economy products are made to last and we encourage everyone to care for them properly and use them for as long as possible. They're printed to order using water based inks one at a time and in real time, so there’s no waste from over-stocked designs and sizes. What is made is only what people need, when they need it.
When they are no longer wearable, each product is designed to be sent back to us and the material reprocessed, respun and made into new products through our Remill process. You can find instructions on how to do this inside every product on the washcare label. Scan it and get a Freepost code (UK Only).