ReNewing the Fashion Industry Ethically

While premier brands are still debating over whether the fashion industry’s extreme wastefulness can be controlled holistically, there are quite a few others who have already built their empire with absolutely sustainable and ethical operations. One of the best examples for this is definitely ‘Everlane’ with a supply chain that seeks transparency and environmental responsibility to its core. Their marketing communications have been at par to promote their idea of providing premium quality timeless basics that are made to last, causing minimum wastage, chemicals and plastics.

Material Initiatives

Broadly, they have been working hard to completely eliminate virgin plastics from their overall chain including packaging, poly bags, offices as well as stores and shift to organic fabrics by 2021. All of us are aware that as and when plastic is added to the environment, it basically never leaves the planet. In their commitment to not add to any more quantities of plastic, they have shifted as much as 75% of their raw materials used for apparels and 45% of their footwear components to recycled fishing nets, plastic bottles and other products deemed as waste, which they now term it as ReNew. Even something as trivial as their plastic shipping bags have been renewed to create furniture and are constantly developing material innovations to figure out functional alternatives. To curb the humongous amounts of dangerous exposure to the soil caused by cotton farming through pesticides, they’ve also been moving towards shifting to certified organic cotton only by 2023. Although Everlane prioritizes natural fibres, they do inculcate reworked synthetics that stand the test of performance and durability. Their denim apparels are manufactured at a factory called Saitex, certified by LEED which recycles 98% of their water used along with renewable energy resources that are generated on the site and utilises byproducts to develop affordable houses. Another certified dyehouse called bluesign® is responsible for dying their silk products cleanly. Besides adhering to the guidelines issued by the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare, they prioritize not utilizing any leather or suede obtained from animals bred for their hides. Their sneakers are prepared from leather which is tanned by a tannery using 47% less electricity, 62% less water as well as emitting 46% less Carbon dioxide even in comparison to other LWG certified facilities.

RePurposing the Everlane Way

The brand claims to have repurposed about 6.5 million plastic bottles, textiles as well fishing nets for their apparel and accessories under ‘ReNew’ and ‘ReKnit’ footwear. Their absolutely reworked material lends durability, performance as well as weight advantage to most of their functional outerwear products. Their partnering mills across Italy help in collection of well utilised cashmere and woollen sweaters through recycling initiatives and then are washed and combed to produce new yarns which are further blended with virgin core fibres for renewed strength and longevity to prepare ReWool and ReCashmere. Their partnership with Debrand allows them to recycle their Forever Sneaker by enabling customers to drop sneakers off when they’re willing to recycle them while they’re already prepared from natural rubber, repurposed laces and recycled cotton upper. As part of their Alpaca supply chain all their suppliers and vendors are required to sign their Humane Treatment & Animal Welfare statement further enforcing their urge to focus on ethical treatment of animals. They also plan to conduct an animal welfare audit with vendors associated to them. They are also consistently working as a community of responsible producers along with their peers associated with Responsible Alpaca Standard International Working Group for setting standards across the alpaca supply chain. The most impeccable thing about their production processes is that with a facility that handles so many shipping components and products, they have reached a milestone of 100% landfill free through rigorous recycling and reuse programs along with waste-to-energy efficient partnerships.

Infrastructural Sustainability

They have access to plenty of natural light via skylights and SHGC (Solar Heat Gain Co-efficient)- compliant windows and also make use of LED lights whenever required. All their benches, shelving and checkout counters made of wood are made from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified wood components. They use post-consumer fabrics as well as recycled material designed for durability and repurposed before recycling for signage as well as other places where possible.  Even their carpet tiles are prepared from recycled rubber while their rugs are made of natural materials. With the help of large-scale investments in renewable energy certificates for producing renewable energy for national grid through wind, solar, power and geothermal they utilise 100% power at their stores and offices. Not only it slashes emissions but also reduces dependency on fossil fuels as well. They completely avoid usage of single-use plastics for all in-store activities and use glass cups and reusable flatware as alternatives. All employees on their first day are provided with reusable kits and their partnership with Fare Resources focuses on a food program where organic and locally sourced ingredients are prioritized while single-use plastic and food waste is dramatically reduced. They constantly engage in educating their team about local ballot initiatives as well as appropriate recycling and composting techniques.

Business Ethics

Everlane besides being heavily invested in environmental ethics hasn’t side-lined the importance of ethical working environment. They maintain integrity for their factory partners as well as build stronger relationships with employees and even have third-party auditing facilities for evaluating fair wages, labour conditions, reasonable working hours and safety as well. Their Everlane Compliance audit undertaken by Interek and ARCHE Advisors complete about 50 announced and unannounced audits annually for all their partnering factories for ensuring compliance with their standards as well their vendor code of conduct. Their sustainability claims are also audited as part of their Think Green Initiative audits. While shortlisting partners, they consider auditing Health & Safety Standards, Labour COnsitions, Fair Wages, Energy Use, Carbon Emissions, Water Use & Treatment as well as Recycling Programs before finalizing them. Their offices also work towards educational initiatives.

Certifications

They are proud bearers of roughly 10 certifications namely Bluedesign certification that helped eliminate about 900 potentially harmful chemicals, GOTS Organic Cotton Certification, California Prop 65 Prohibited Chemicals, CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) Banned Substances, REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals) certified, ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) contributors, GRS (Global Recycling Standard) certification of recycled materials, Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare, RWS-certified (Responsible Wool Standard), non-mulesed wool and OEKO-TEX® that cover certified materials, suppliers and each and every production process. Wherever possible they work only with LEED certified factories which requires evidence for reduced consumption of energy at every step. Their other factory certifications include WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production) and SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit).