Chengdu, Shaowu & Pucheng, China

Bamboo is an inherently lower impact crop than hardwood trees because it needs little to no irrigation or pesticides, grows rapidly so needs less land, can be harvested without damaging root systems and surrounding habitats and even has the potential to store carbon and regenerate soil health.  We’ve mapped the sources of our bamboo, are actively working to ensure responsible cultivation practices and are assessing the exact benefits of bamboo cultivation

China

Textile recyclers create new fibres by using waste fabric and scraps. This cuts the amount of textile waste ending up in landfill and reduces the need for new cotton to be grown. The cotton material is collected, put into the recycling stream and then sorted for colour. Any foreign contaminants (such as sewing threads or trims) are removed. The remaining material is shredded in a special machine that mechanically takes the cotton scraps back to fibre form.

Madhya Pradesh, India, Turkey & Kyrgyzstan

Growing organic cotton releases fewer greenhouse gases, needs no pesticides and uses less energy and significantly less water than conventional cotton. Cotton farms are often small holdings with the cotton sold on to processing companies. We can’t identify each of the hundreds of small farms who likely supply BAM’s cotton. Instead, we rely on transaction certificates to trace back to country level and guarantee our cotton is organic.

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Petroleum comes from fossil fuels and is the base for synthetic fibres. Less than 10% of BAM’s fibres come from virgin, fossil fuel-based petroleum because they are a non-renewable resource. We’ve used them in this instance to give your garment better performance and durability. We want to eliminate the use of virgin synthetics and are exploring recycled and/or lower impact

Hebei, China

Our two viscose suppliers, Sanyou and Jilin, are rated 4th and 7th on the Canopy Hot Button Report which ranks viscose producers on environmental performance and commitment to protecting ancient and endangered forests. Both hold OekoTex Step level 3 certification – one of the most rigorous industry audits assessing the use of chemicals, quality management, environmental and social impact. Both are committed to completing the ZDHC MMCF module once it launches.

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Once the cotton has been processed back into fibre form, it is usually blended with virgin fibre and spun into yarn. Blending with virgin fibre improves the yarn to a high enough quality to be used for clothing. It is hard to trace where recycled materials come from. We rely on transaction certificates to verify the recycled content of our materials as well as to verify the responsible social, environmental and chemical practices used in their production.

Madhya Pradesh, India, Turkey & Kyrgyzstan

Cotton plants need to go through a process called ginning, where the seed is removed from the fibre. This usually happens in the same region as the farms, before the bales are sent to yarn mills to be cleaned, carded (combed), and spun into yarn.

Guangzhou, China

Elastane comes from petroleum derived from fossil fuels. In addition to being an unsustainable material it can also contaminate textile recycling streams and won’t biodegrade in landfill. We are actively searching for lower impact alternatives, in the meantime strictly limiting our use of elastane when needed for performance – to improve fit, allow the garment to retain its shape over time, prolong the life of the garment and keep it in use longer.

Jiangsu, China

Established in 1992, this supplier is one of the largest producers of polyester fibre in China. They are at the forefront of recycling technology. Their investment in the research and production of bio-based polyesters aims to replace conventional polyesters in the future.

Jiangsu, China

One of the largest mills in the country producing yarn and fabric. They measure their carbon footprint with specific targets to reduce energy usage and carbon emissions. Two sites have solar panels installed. They are implementing a detailed life cycle assessment of their operations and will share this data with customers. This transparency is essential to BAM. It lets us measure the impact of our products more accurately and then plan how to reduce it.

Jiangsu, China

(Fleece)We identified this supplier as part of our supply chain mapping. Our goal now is to build up a better picture of the mill, understand their practices and processes as well as the environmental and social governance in place. In this way we can assess their impact on our products.

(Insulated Material) We’ve been tracing our supply chain for four years. The complexity of this work is highlighted here. As yet we don’t know the exact supplier of the yarn we use for this product. As we work our way down the supply chain we need to build relationships and trust with each supplier before they will share their commercial information with us. We still have a blank space here but we’re working on it.

Izmir, Turkey

This yarn supplier & fabric knitter, based in Izmir, is a family run business with over 50 years’ experience in yarn spinning and fabric knitting. The facility houses an R&D centre to ensure they are innovating to create the best products. They use solar energy and are reducing energy consumption in order to reduce carbon emissions.

Wujiang, China

We identified this supplier as part of our supply chain mapping. Our goal now is to build up a better picture of the mill, understand their practices and processes as well as the environmental and social governance in place. In this way we can assess their impact on our products.

Shandong, China

This fabric mill in the China’s Shandong province has been specialising in weaving and dyeing denim for 33 years. They are signed up to the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) Gateway providing them resources on best practice. They rank as “good” on our scale of “good, better, best” because they are embedding best practices into their production methods and are transparent in reporting their wastewater and chemical handling policies.

Jiangsu, China

We identified this supplier as part of our supply chain mapping. Our goal now is to build up a better picture of the mill, understand their practices and processes as well as the environmental and social governance in place. In this way we can assess their impact on our products..

Izmir, Turkey

This yarn supplier & fabric knitter, based in Izmir, is a family run business with over 50 years’ experience in yarn spinning and fabric knitting. The facility houses an R&D centre to ensure they are innovating to create the best products. They use solar energy and are reducing energy consumption in order to reduce carbon emissions.

Wujiang, China

We identified this supplier as part of our supply chain mapping. This facility is a wet processor using water and chemicals in their processing which is why we are now working with them to sign up to the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) Foundation Gateway. This not only gives them advice on best practice it also allows them to transparently share their practices so that we can understand and measure their impact.

Shandong, China

This fabric mill in the China’s Shandong province has been specialising in weaving and dyeing denim for 33 years. They are signed up to the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) Gateway providing them resources on best practice. They rank as “good” on our scale of “good, better, best” because they are embedding best practices into their production methods and are transparent in reporting their wastewater and chemical handling policies.

Shenghong, China

We identified this supplier as part of our supply chain mapping. This facility is a wet processor using water and chemicals in their processing which is why we are now working with them to sign up to the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) Foundation Gateway. This not only gives them advice on best practice it also allows them to transparently share their practices so that we can understand and measure their impact.

Denizli, Turkey

This dyehouse is signed up to the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) Foundation Gateway. This gives them advice and resources on best practice. We’ve assessed the information they provided, and they rank as “good” in our scale of “good, better, best”. This means that they are embedding best practices into their production methods and are transparent in reporting their wastewater and chemical handling policies.

Lida Denim

(Denim)We identified this supplier as part of our supply chain mapping. Our goal now is to build up a better picture of the mill, understand their practices and processes as well as the environmental and social governance in place. In this way we can assess their impact on our products.

Blue Wave Trade Co Ltd, Fujian, China

Elissa & Simon run family-owned Blue Wave, a highly technical manufacturer specialising in performance wear. They are dedicated to providing a safe working environment, paying fair wages and offering professional development opportunities to workers, particularly to female employees – the factory carries a BSCI 3rd party audit.

Golden Empire Garment Group: Jiangsu, China

Established in 2003, Golden Empire’s specialist expertise has allowed us to develop new and innovative bamboo products. They’ve been incredibly supportive in our work to trace our bamboo viscose back to the source. They are members of the HER Project which strives to empower low-income women working in global supply chains and they use &Wider to allow all factory workers to anonymously provide feedback about working conditions through their mobile phones.

HC Organize: Denizli, Turkey

(Leggings)This is a family run business and we’ve been part of the family since 2014. In 2019, they built a brand-new factory with a larger capacity. They provide free transport & meals for workers and the new factory has a BSCI ‘A’ rating. Erkan and his team pride themselves on producing garments of the highest quality and always champion using more sustainable materials.

Fluid Sourcing, UK

The Fluid team are highly experienced professionals specialising in technical outerwear. BAM started working with them when developing our pioneering high performance, low impact and fully recyclable outerwear. We knew this was going to be a challenging new product category for us and we wanted to push the boundaries – the expertise the Fluid team brought to the project was invaluable.

Plymouth, UK

BAM launched the Employee Ownership Trust in 2021 which means our employees now equally share ownership of 10% of the company. BAM is a living wage employer in the UK and is accredited by the Living Wage Foundation.