Wool has excellent performance properties, is a natural and renewable fibre, and is recyclable and biodegradable at the end of use. BAM uses transaction certificates to verify the origin of our wool. This helps us to ensure it comes from sources with responsible land stewardship practices as well as high animal welfare standards, including a ban on mulesing and other harmful practices.

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 and we're actively working to ensure responsible cultivation practices and as well as assessing the exact benefits of bamboo cultivation.

Wool needs to go through a few processes, including cleaning, scouring, and blending to ensure the best quality, before it can be sold on to yarn mills for spinning and finishing. These processes usually happen in the same region as the farms. BAM uses merino wool because of its performance properties, high quality and softness.

Jigao Jilin were the first company to produce viscose from bamboo and continue to lead the way as a responsible viscose producer in China. They are rated joint 3rd best on the Canopy Hot Button Report which ranks viscose and MMCF producers on environmental performance and commitment to protecting ancient and endangered forests. They also hold OekoTex Step level 3 certification – one of the most rigorous industry audits assessing the use of chemicals, quality management, environmental and social impact. They have completed an EU BAT assessment and are in the process of completing the ZDHC MMCF module.

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. 

We identified this supplier as part of our supply chain mapping. This facility is a wet processor using water and chemicals in their processing. They are signed up to the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) Gateway and the Supplier to Zero program. They rank as “better” 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.

We sourced this knitwear product from our trusted supplier, Golden Empire. They subcontract out the garment production and finishing to this specialist knitwear factory to ensure we get the best quality product. Even though we do not have a direct relationship with this factory, we monitor them in the same way as all our garment factories using audits and utilising the Fair Wear Foundation's tools.

BAM are a certified B-Corp. We 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.