Sustainable Fashion
The world's first open-access circular supply chain
Creating a sustainable, circular supply chain for fashion starts with making products from natural materials like organic cotton, in factories powered by renewable energy. It also means creating products that are designed from the start to be sent back and remade into new ones once they’re worn out, keeping materials out of landfill and in the loop.
But to really make a difference and end waste in the fashion industry, we need to share this technology with everyone.
Using natural materials, renewable energy and designing every product to come back to be remade meant building new technology to make a circular economy model possible.
Every product we make is designed to come back when it's worn out. We make new products from the material we recover. Because many of our new products are made from our old products, it's quite hard to start a story that goes in a circle as the end and the beginning are the same thing.
Putting the environment first
When we read that 10% of worldwide CO2 comes from clothing, that 60% of clothes are made from or with plastic and that a dump truck of textiles waste goes to landfill or incineration every second, we knew we wanted to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Our products are made from GOTS certified organic materials, using renewable energy and designed to come back to be remanufactured when they're worn out.
It's the advanced technology in our circular supply chain that makes this possible. Out in business-as-usual land, clothes are mass produced speculatively, producing massive amounts of waste: 40% of clothing is never worn.
Natural and organic
Our products are printed to order and made from organic cotton using renewable energy. Each item is designed to be sent back when worn out, and new products are made from the material that's recovered.
Organic cotton farming methods are better for producers and the ecosystem around the farms. Instead of more toxic pesticides and fertilisers, co-planting and insect traps are used along with the special ingredient - cow poo. It encourages biodiversity and leads to the extra soft feel of our organic cotton clothing.
Fewer inputs also means less water, but even organic cotton is still a thirsty crop. So where you grow it matters. The fields that grow the organic cotton for our products are in the North of India, where the monsoons fill reservoirs that supply almost all the water needed.
Water clean enough to drink
Wastewater from dyehouse effluent is a major source of pollution in the clothing industry. Where our products are dyed, the water is recovered, cleaned and recirculated. After settling and skimming, the water is filtered using reverse osmosis and distillation. This is basically sucking up water through really fine sand over and over, then boiling it.
Salt is added back in so that the dye adheres and all the cruddy mulchy stuff left over is dried out and used for road markings. About 95% of the water is recirculated and recovered.
At the end, the water coming out of the filters and going back round to be reused again is crystal clear, literally clean enough to drink. Once it has been cleaned, it is then used at the input for the next batch. It is a closed loop system.
Powered by renewable energy
Clean, renewable energy is a vital tool to reduce the worst effects of climate change. Throughout our circular supply chain, renewable energy is used. Our manufacturing operations run on solar power and, in India, the factory owns two wind farms and a 150kw PV array. Renewable energy is affordable, reliable and something we are committed to using.
Within the factory, machine-to-machine communications technology allows the team to dynamically turn equipment on and off only when it is needed, balancing our manufacturing demand with on site generation.
Made to last
These circular economy products are made to last and we encourage everyone to care for them properly and use them for as long as possible. They're printed to order using water based inks one at a time and in real time, so there’s no waste from over-stocked designs and sizes. What is made is only what people need, when they need it.
When they are no longer wearable, each product is designed to be sent back to us and the material reprocessed, respun and made into new products through our Remill process. This is how we're taking sustainable print on demand to the next level, so anyone can join the circular economy fashion movement. You can find instructions on how to do this inside every product on the washcare label.
All sustainable products are produced by TEEMILL.