How to Incorporate Sustainability Into Your Business Model, According to Five Popular Clothing Brands
While fashion is an industry that offers freedom of expression and joy, unfortunately, it is also known for unsustainably churning out new products and trends, encouraging waste and mistreating factory employees in the process.
However, many brands are taking a stand and committing themselves to high ethical standards – otherwise known as the Fashion Revolution. From ethically sourcing production materials, to instituting systems for customers to recycle products, it’s becoming increasingly clear that style and sustainability can, and should, go hand and hand.
If you’re looking for some inspiration for shopping (or making) responsibly, the following brands not only encourage looking good, but doing good as well.
Girlfriend Collective is a size-inclusive activewear brand that promotes both confidence and sustainability. Their clothes are made from recycled material — the bras are made from 79% polyester, and their leggings and bras are made from recycled water bottles. This trendy, Insta-popular brand proves that cool-girl brands can still embody socially-conscious values such as diversity and an eco-friendly production process.
Sustainability, closed-loop processes, and ethically made aren’t simply buzzwords for Amour Vert—they’re the values the brand lives by. This CA-based collection is effortlessly chic, modern and elegant, and, most of all, consciously created. For gorgeous garments, jewelry, and even home goods, Amour Vert is the brand to shop for a truly sustainable closet. Notably, Amour Vert uses compostable packaging to store and ship garments, partners with mills to produce sustainable fabrics, and plants a tree per every tee-shirt purchased.
For Days is an apparel company that uses a closed-loop system. That means, rather than the typical “make-use-waste” life cycle of products, a closed-loop system reduces the need to continuously extract new resources to make new products. So what does For Days do, specifically? After you no longer want your For Days loungewear, you can send your items back in exchange for new ones. The old items are then recycled and remade into new materials.
RE/DONE is a trendy clothing company known for their denim. More than that, RE/DONE, as the company proclaims, is “a movement to restore individuality to the luxury fashion space, a movement to keep heritage brands relevant, and a movement to create sustainable fashion. Notably, they upcycle and reconstruct old Levi’s jeans, bringing new life into these vintage wardrobe staples.
Perhaps one of the most mainstream eco-friendly companies, Patagonia truly embodies its core values of causing no unnecessary harm and using their business to protect the environment. Since 1985, Patagonia has pledged 1% of its sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. Since then, they’ve awarded $89 million to domestic and international environmental groups. Plus, 72% of their line is Fair Trade Certified sewn, and 72% of their line uses recycled materials. They also have a goal to become carbon-neutral by 2025.
Whether worked into a business model or incorporated into a supplemental initiative, there are many ways that brands can be eco-friendly, live their values, and promote sustainability. These campaigns to minimize waste while delivering a premium product not only serve their customers, but the greater good.
We hope these examples inspire you to support sustainable brands, or incorporate environmentally-conscious practices into your own brand. Not sure how to amplify your brand’s do-good values? Drop us a line at hello@theordinarygood.com – we’re happy to help!