I’ve been avoiding publishing this post for about a year now. Ironically, this topic is one of the most important features of our production. Sustainability.
To be very honest, a lot of brands bend the definition of sustainability to better market their products. Sustainability is a vast topic, and there are relatively few ways to compare brands (especially small ones) on the topic. Some certifications exist for fabrics and manufacturing processes, but a company of our size cannot reasonably meet these certifications on our products, even if we technically adhere to them.
You will hear brands use terms like “small batch” and “organic” and imply that these traits make their products more sustainable, which is possible but not guarantied. It can be difficult to tell the difference between practices that actually make a difference, and marketing wank.
Below I have outlined some of the practices we have employed in the last 12 months to reduce the impact that our brand has on the environment. We are always looking for ways to improve our process, and welcome any feedback from our customers.
rECO fabrics.
rECO is our term for products made from scraps, recycled fabric, used garments, or materials we saved from the garbage. Most of the time these are limited based on the supply of the materials. Some examples of rECO products would be baseball caps made from used hunting jackets, tee shirts made from thrifted jersey knit, or backpacks made from old boat covers. We were shocked how much new and good quality used material gets tossed in the trash in our town, several other manufacturers now send us their scraps instead of throwing them away.
No more plastic tape.
We now use paper tape to seal all of our shipping boxes. This is a “no brainer” decision that saves money on shipping, reduces single use plastic consumption, and makes our boxes easier to recycle.
Reduced plastic garment bags.
Many of our products now ship without being poly bagged. Some ship bare, and some have paper wrapping. Some products like white tees still ship in poly bags to keep them fresh, but we are working on a shipping option for customers to opt out, if they so choose.
Wood Pellet heat and passive solar system.
Our new shop is heated by wood pellets; which are a locally made byproduct of lumber mills. Waste material is combined with canola oil to produce a clean burning and energy dense fuel. Because it is manufactured locally, the fuel needed to transport the pellets is reduced.
Wood fuel heat is supplemented by a passive solar radiant heat system which raises the ambient temp inside our shop by as much as 10 degrees, reducing the amount of fuel needed to heat the building.
Conclusion
Again, this is an ongoing process for us, we still have a lot of improvements to make. Any constructive comments or suggestions on the topic are welcome. How are you working to reduce your impact on the environment in your everyday life?