Shipping
2019
Let’s take a look back at what happened in 2019 — and a look ahead to what we want to happen in 2020. Welcome to the first ever Impact Report.
First, let’s show you our total environmental impact for 2019.
First, let’s show you our total environmental impact for 2019.
Footprint
112 tons CO2
Emissions
Footprint
11,225,407 liters
Water
Footprint
0 tons
Fabric waste
This shows you our water, chemicals, CO2 and waste footprint for 2019 — and then shows you how much we’ve saved in comparison to the traditional industry. We’ve calculated this by using our new tool — The Impact Index (but more on that later). Now let’s begin with the report. It’s divided into three sections.
We're going to look across three main areas:
We're going to look across three main areas:
1Our products
2 Our supply chain
3 Our environmental activism
New materials
The fashion industry is obsessed with two materials — cotton and polyester. Both of these create significant environmental problems. We prefer to use materials that don’t. Last year we expanded our product selection with two new low impact materials. Firstly, a new underwear baselayer collection made with TENCEL™ lyocell. Secondly, a winter accessories range made with recycled cashmere.
TENCEL™ lyocell
TENCEL™ lyocell
TENCEL™ lyocell is created from responsibly sourced wood pulp. This wood pulp comes from responsibly sourced (FSC) forestation and it is dissolved in a closed loop process with an organic solvent. This solution is then forced through tiny holes to create a strong, soft and biodegradable fiber.
Recycled cashmere
Recycled cashmere
Cashmere is an incredible material — but scarce land resources, overgrazing, harsh climates and more means that it takes a hard toll on the environment. Our recycled cashmere is created from worn-out cashmere garments that would otherwise go to landfill.
A – F
This graphic shows you what we consider to be the best fabrics (ranked from Class A to F) — and what proportion of all our products are made with each.
A few months ago we certified almost all of our product range as PETA “Vegan approved” and this shows that no animal products or by-products are used. This certification excludes all our products made with recycled wool and recycled cashmere — as you would expect. But this is only a small percentage of our total products.
We’ve invested in a low impact supply chain since day one — and here you can see an overview of how it essentially works.
1
Raw material extraction
2
Raw material processing
3
Material production
4
Finished garment production
5
Warehouse
6
Customer use
The Impact Index
We always aim to reduce our environmental footprint. But we wanted to show you just how much — and what that means for our planet. So in July last year we introduced the Impact Index — a tool that calculates the amount of resources it takes to produce our clothes, and then compares this against traditional industry practices.
We looked across the entire supply chain — from the raw material production, to the textile manufacturing, through to the use phase. Now you can see the savings on every single product page.
We went carbon neutral
Since June last year we’ve offset over 1800 tonnes of carbon in our atmosphere by partnering with CHOOOSE — an organisation that makes businesses and individuals carbon neutral by investing in UN-verified or Gold Standard carbon reducing projects in developing countries.
Our first project (The Koru Wind Farm in north-westen Turkey) will go on to reduce over 83,000 tons of CO2 from our atmosphere.
Carbon neutral supply chain
As part of the COP25 summit in December last year we committed to having a carbon neutral supply chain by the year 2025 in order to help the fight against the climate emergency. Alongside working more with carbon neutral suppliers we are offsetting more than 100% of our carbon footprint already.
Packaging
Our old envelopes weren’t reusable because they had to be torn to be opened. We’ve now switched this out for new box packaging made with recycled paper — so that they can be opened, closed and reused.
Old packaging
Single use
Also, our recycled plastic poly-mailer has now been replaced with an FSC certified cardboard shipping box. This not only helps protect our forests and eliminate plastic — but it also helps protect your parcel in the mail, too.
Old poly-mailer
Recycled plastic
Wildflowers for pollinators
On Black Friday we wanted to make the day a lot more colorful — so we partnered with Danmarks Naturfredningsforening to commit to giving 10% of our revenue from the sale and planting over 130,000m² of wildflowers. These wildflowers will give bees and other pollinators a place to live, eat and thrive. They will also help restore balance to soils and lay the foundation for new areas of nature.
Certified B-corporation
Certified B-corporation
In September we became a certified B Corp. This means that we’ve joined a group of brands that balance profit and purpose. The process to get certified took months and months of preparation — and everything that we do was scored against tough benchmarks. We managed to achieve a score of 92.8 — which is above average for all other B Corps and we’ve joined the likes of Patagonia and All Birds in showing that we put people and planet first.
The Amazon
The Amazon Rainforest is one of the world’s primary carbon sinks — and sources of oxygen. But forest fires have devastated millions of acres of it. So on August 27th we donated 10% of all sales to Amazon Watch — an organisation that fights to protect the Amazon Rainforest by protecting indigenous people’s rights within the community.
A-Z Guide to
Fashion is dirty:
The A-Z Guide
At the beginning of 2019 we introduced our A-Z Guide on the impact of the fashion industry. We hope this will be a guide to spread awareness about the enormous impact the fashion industry has on our environment and people.
Going zero waste
Our workspace in Copenhagen has been growing — so naturally our waste has, too. At the beginning of 2020 we made a commitment to buying second hand furniture, ordering vegetarian and vegan catering, eliminating plastic — and offsetting our entire office carbon footprint. So far, things are right on track.
2020
Room for improvement
No one is perfect. We want to keep learning and reducing our impact.
Here are some of the initiatives we have planned for 2020.
50.9
Average score for ordinary businesses
80
Qualifies for B-corp certification
92.8
Our current score
110
Our goal for 2020
New materials
Although organic cotton is better than conventional cotton, it still takes a toll on the environment. We aim to produce over 45% of our products in Class A fibers — so next year we’re going to be working on increasing the range of low impact materials by looking into organic hemp, organic linen and regenerative cotton. Synthetics also shed a lot of microfibers - so we want to increasingly tackle the challenge of microplastics by using natural alternatives.
Design for deconstruction
We’ve always designed non-seasonal collections and we believe that things should be designed to last — but this year we want to both design for longevity and design for deconstruction. Because if we don’t, then who knows what will happen to them when they reach their end of life.
Goodbye elastane
In 2020 we’re working on reducing the amount of virgin elastane we use in our products — and we aim to use Class F fibers like this less than 5% of the time. In the beginning we decided to use small amounts of elastane because there were no other alternatives for good stretch and comfort. But now we’re looking into using recycled elastane and other more sustainable alternatives.
Transparency
Supply chains are complex. We want to change that. So by using our new Impact Index we hope to create a full overview of where everything is made — and what goes into them. We’re off to a good start, but there are still certain things that we can’t trace right now.
Emissions
Water
Waste
Chemicals
For example, our organic cotton and recycled cashmere is not 100% traceable. It won’t be easy to trace — but we’re going to try. We’re also going to be opening up the dye recipe books to discover what chemicals are being used. Even if we know that they are vegan, organic or natural — we’d like to know more, and so would you.
Packaging
Our new packaging has greatly reduced the amount of plastic and paper waste — but there’s still room for improvement. We’re aiming to enable all of our packaging and shipping materials to be reusable by the end of 2020.
You’ve made it to the end. Thank you for reading — and we hope you have a great 2020.
Want to find out how much you’ve saved with us? Click below to create an account and view your Impact Index savings.
Introducing:The Impact Report
Introducing:The Impact Report
New materials
A – F
Certified vegan
2 Our supply chain
2 Our supply chain
We’ve invested in a low impact supply chain since day one — and below you can see an overview of how it essentially works.
1
Raw material extraction
2
Raw material processing
3
Material production
4
Finished garment production
5
Warehouse
6
Customer use
7
End of life
100% of all our garment suppliers are known — all of them are in Europe and all of them have super strong environmental and social certifications.
100% of all our fabric and trim suppliers are known — and...
60% of all our raw material suppliers
are known.
60% of all our yarn material suppliers
are known.
We’ve also confirmed that 80% of our factories run partially on renewable energy, and that...
60% of them recycle all their
textile waste.
The Impact Index
Transparency
We went carbon neutral
Carbon neutral supply chain
Packaging
Wild flowers for pollinators
The Amazon
Going zero waste
Room for improvement
Improving our B-corp score
Our goal is to achieve a score of 110 by the end of the year. There’s a lot of work to be done.
Improving our B-corp score
Our goal is to achieve a score of 110 by the end of the year. There’s a lot of work to be done.
New materials
Design for deconstruction
Goodbye elastane
Transparency
Packaging