Sustainability can’t just be talk. If we can’t measure it, we can’t change it.

The word ‘sustainable’ is everywhere. When we say we’re a sustainable brand, what does that mean?

Our bamboo and organic cotton is more sustainable than conventional cotton. But what does that mean in real, measurable terms?

We knew that in order for our sustainability claim to mean something, we had to be able to measure exactly how much better for the planet our clothes were compared to traditional conventional cotton.

And that’s what we’ve done.

You have to know what you’re measuring

The first step was to know what we were measuring. Sounds obvious but that meant we needed to identify not just our suppliers, but their suppliers and their suppliers and their suppliers. We traced right back to the bamboo growers.

Then you have to measure it

We asked Green Story to measure our impact.  They carried out a product life cycle analysis to look at the impact of cultivating and harvesting our raw materials. They looked at the impact of processing the fibres and the fabric and producing the garments. And finally, they measured the impact shipping to our warehouses in Devon.

Then you have to compare it to conventional cotton

Green Story have built a model that allows them to compare our products to conventional cotton. This is, in their words ‘the global standard of Life Cycle Analysis methodology with data sourced from accredited partners around the world’.

What that means is that they can assess the impact of a product with accuracy and transparency. For example, if one country’s electricity grid uses more renewable energy than another then a garment factory in that country would have a lower carbon footprint. Likewise, if one country has less natural rainfall than another then their agricultural irrigation levels may need to be higher.

Everything is considered in their model.

Then you get to see exactly how much less impact bamboo and organic cotton has

You’ll see there’s something new on our product pages: little icons under each image tell you how many litres of water that garment has saved compared to a conventional cotton equivalent. And how many miles of emissions have been avoided. And how much land has been farmed pesticide free.

We’ve spent years getting into the detail so that we can see exactly how much better for the planet our clothes are. And so that you can see it too.

And whilst it’s heartening to see the savings we’re making, in truth, this is just the springboard to the next step. If we’re going to be impact positive by 2030, we have to do more. We have to look at where we still have an impact and we need to reduce it.

When we talk about sustainability, it isn’t just talk.