On the way to being eco-friendly!
We are part of the Fast Retailing group whose CSR policy covers several areas as you can see
here.
In line with the group, we hope to improve our stance in the following areas:
- consumer health and therefore product safety by banning the use of toxic or harmful chemical products,
- a selection of eco-designed fibres with a lower impact on the environment or society than conventional fibres,
- traceability in our supply chain,
- and of course, sustainability.
There's still a long way to go but we are committed to becoming an increasingly eco-friendly brand.
We have 4 key targets that we're aiming towards:
1. health
Over 90% of our swimwear and over 50% of our lingerie in our 2019 Spring/Summer collection have been approved by the Oeko-tex® Standard 100 Class II
for items in direct contact with the skin.
Our aim is to have 100% of our lingerie and swimwear ranges approved by the system.
Find out more here.
Textile products receive the STANDARD 100 approval on the basis of a complete OEKO-TEX® list of criteria after being tested by one of the OEKO-TEX® member
institutes for potentially harmful chemical products and therefore guaranteed to provide efficient protection for consumers.
2. the impact of our products on the environment
We began to use increasing amounts of eco-friendly raw materials, namely textile fibres, in late 2017.
The fibres come from reusing fabric that is lost or wasted in conventional manufacture (e.g. polyamide) or are of organic origin (e.g. cotton).
There are many advantages to these fibres being used or reused in our fabrics:
- recycling waste or lost raw material.
- reducing water, energy and natural resource consumption e.g. petrol required to make virgin plastics.
- reducing any related pollution.
All our eco-friendly fabrics can be traced and are approved by GRS and GOTS among others.
It's an additional traceability guarantee for our supply chain.
The Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) oversees the organic aspect of textiles from harvesting raw materials and responsible manufacture
in terms of social and environmental issues to labelling to provide consumers with a reliable guarantee.
The GOTS system covers the entire textile production process including:
raw material integrity and traceability, respect for the environment, consumer health, social criteria.
Find out more here.
The GRS is an international voluntary standard that is part of Textile Exchange whereby third parties draw up certification criteria for the recycled content,
control chain, social and environmental practices and restrictions in terms of chemical composition.
The GRS is for companies that want to check the recycled content of the products (complete and provisional)
and ensure social, environmental and chemical practices involved in their production are responsible. The GRS aims to outline requirements
confirming content declarations and working conditions
are as described as well as minimise environmental and chemical impact.
It applies to companies working in ginning, spinning, weaving, knitting, dying, printing and sewing in over 50 countries.
Find out more here.
3. traceability in our supply chain
We give our clients the chance to trace the origin of products and their components at each stage of the supply chain from raw material to distribution.
We trace all the factories we have direct working relationships with and build partnerships based on trust with our long-term suppliers.
All the manufacturing workshops
we work with are committed to adhering to our Fast Retailing group's code of conduct. Find out more here.
Adhering to the latter involves a schedule of social and environmental audits.
The audits are conducted by independent impartial providers and other stakeholders.
A few seasons ago we began publicly publishing information about products and the subcontractors who make them.
4. sustainability
Every single person in our teams plays a part in the quality we provide to our clients. From the designers who are well ahead in developing our collections to the constant review
of any comments from our clients,
quality has always run in our veins. We now want to design products that are even more sustainable.
We're broadening our range of permanent products with the sense of longevity and anti-fast fashion. The idea is to get the right product that you keep your entire life!