What are the 6 Tips to improve your brands sustainability performance that you can start doing today?
Sustainability has now become one of the top concerns of many brands. According to the Harvard Business Review, being a sustainable business can lead to innovation, employee retention, brand loyalty, reduce environmental and supply chain risk and reduces production costs for your brand. There are simply no negative impacts that come from making your brand more sustainable.
Any financial cost that comes from implementing sustainability initiatives in your business, will come back 10-fold. Brands that are sustainable have a distinct competitive edge with the Gen Z and Millennial crowds. – Lizzy Cross – Sustainability Coach
According to the State of Fashion 2022 report, executives also rate sustainability as an opportunity in the year ahead, suggesting that any costs or challenges they encounter relating to sustainability may be outweighed by business benefits associated with improving their company’s impact on the environment and society.
Sustainability is an opportunity to innovate whilst reducing risk.– Lizzy Cross – Sustainability Coach
According to Forbes and a study conducted in 2019, Gen Z Shoppers Demand Sustainable Retail, the vast majority of Generation Z shoppers prefer to buy sustainable brands, and they are most willing to spend 10 percent more on sustainable products. The report also found that Generation Z along with Millennials are the most likely to make purchase decisions based on values and principles (personal, social, and environmental).
So what are the 6 Tips to Improve Your Brands Sustainability Performance
TIP 1: Low Environmental Impact Materials
Tip 1 of the 6 tips to improving your brands sustainability performance is knowing and understanding the materials you use. Understanding the materials that your goods are made from is essential. Educating yourself on every little detail that is in your product is crucial to understanding where you can do better. Choosing low environmental impact materials and fabrics is very important to sustainability and one of the key areas that you can make a massive impact.
According to Research Gate, and the publication – Carbon Footprint of Textile and Clothing Products, 2015, the extraction of oil from the earth and the production of synthetic polymers require a high amount of energy and therefore emit a much higher amount of CO2 as compared to natural fibers. Natural fabrics and materials are typically better for the environment as they take less energy and water to make and emit less CO2. Try and stick with natural fibers, if possible, like hemp and linen. Choose to use organic fibers and fabrics (like organic cotton) and recycled fabrics (like recycled wool) whenever possible. Try and void virgin synthetic fabrics (polyester, acrylic, elastane etc.) as these are made from fossil fuels. If you do choose synthetics, recycled (like rPET) is always usually better for the environment.
Choosing certified mills to make your garments is a great option. Utilizing certified fabrics is very good as well as this can give you assurance that strict environmental guidelines etc. were used to produce them. Some of the certifications include, but are not limited to are Oeko-Tex, Blue Sign, Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS), Global Recycle Standards (GRS), Organic Content Standard (OCS) etc.
If you can begin to identify where you can make improvements to your materials, just even one garment at a time, you can make drastic improvements easily for your brand.
TIP 2: Know the Labour Practices in your supply chain!
The second tip of the five to shift your brand toward sustainability. is to educate yourself on the current labour practices in your supply chain. Ensure you are not utilizing child labour and there is no harassment happening in your supply chain. To do this, ask questions and create a Supplier Code of Conduct or a Vendor Code of Ethics. These types of documents are produced for the purpose of ensuring that a company’s suppliers establish safe working conditions, and their employees are treated fairly. Elements of a supplier code of conduct can include labor practice and standards, environmental policy and standards, ethics, health and safety and review and documentation policies. Begin by creating your own Supplier Code of Conduct or Vendor Code of Ethics and get your suppliers to sign it. This ensures they understand and abide by what your brands requirements are. If they fail to sign it, this might indicate a red flag by your supplier. Download a Guide on how to write a Supplier Code of Conduct here.
TIP 3: Transparency is in the details
Being a brand that is perfect in the eyes of the public, can be a daunting challenge for a brand. Many brands struggle with a balance of making money and what the critical information is to share with the public. Brands are worried, that if you disclose how, you are truthfully doing in terms of sustainability, it will scare customers away. Well, in actual-fact, customers will trust your brand more. Engaging with your stakeholders and asking them about what is important to them in terms of sustainability is a key component a brands transparency.
Sustainability might make you feel vulnerable, but it will make your brand impervious to failure. Those that truly understand sustainability, understand how powerful and beneficial it is for business. – Lizzy Cross – Sustainability Coach
If you have committed to being sustainable, then you need to start to disclose the information to the public and your stakeholders. To be truly sustainable, you must be transparent. Explaining where you are at in this journey is important, whether at the beginning or a ways through. It not only is great for your customers to see where you are at, it is also good for a brand to be accountable to the improvements it needs to make. Creating goals and targets for your brand is crucial to keep you accountable and on track.
Begin questioning everything about your supply chains and where you can do better. Knowing every detail about your supply chain is powerful. – Lizzy Cross – Sustainability Coach
To be transparent, create a list of all your suppliers and manufacturers and publicly display this on your website. There are lots of brands these days that publicly list their suppliers including Patagonia, Adidas, Arc’teryx, Nudie Jeans etc. Begin to identify where you can make other improvements to increase your sustainability whether it be waste or energy reduction etc. Talk to your customers base and stakeholders to find out what is important to them! Start the conversation about transparency and be open to criticism.
You can read more about the importance of transparency here.
TIP 4: Packaging is more than just a box
Tip 4 of 6 of improving your brands sustainability performance is packaging.
According to a 2020 report released by McKinsey and Company, governments, on all continents, have responded to public concerns regarding packaging waste. A focus by governments around the world is especially high for single-use packaging waste. They are implementing regulations to both minimize environmental waste and improve waste-management processes.
This can be a difficult area for brands to navigate as they have different environments and logistical constraints that their products need to get through prior to even getting in the customers hands. They need to protect their products from various elements (water, dust bugs etc.), so they require durable and weatherproof packaging. When it comes to paper or boxes, make sure you do not just buy materials that can be recycled. This is good step, however, the materials you choose to use for your brand should have recycled content in them. This also goes for plastic.
If you can avoid packaging at all, this is an excellent option too.
Here is a link to 10 different sustainable packaging options you may want to consider.
TIP 5: Waste Reduction wherever possible!
Waste in most supply chains is a huge issue. Conduct a waste audit of your supply chain and find out where all the waste is being created. This waste many include paper, plastic and fabric etc. Choose the low hanging fruit to make some big changes. A simple example could include utilizing fabric scraps back into designs or make them into one-of-a-kind clothes or scrunchies. Wastepaper can be made into little note-takers for your company. You could also implement a take-back or mending side of your business. This way you get a free resource back that can be re-used in the cycle of creation. One really great brand that has made a huge splash in this area is Patagonia. Patagonia has created Worn Wear, an off shoot of their parent company. Worn Wear takes your old Patagonia clothing back and then make them into re-crafted clothing. This way it keeps clothes out of the landfill and gets them used for a lot longer. This helps to reduce waste and landfill emissions.
TIP 6: Get a Sustainability Assessment completed for Your Brand
Getting a sustainability assessment conducted for your brand will allow you to understand the current state of your brand and will identify areas where improvements can be made. This is highly recommended as it gives you direction and more importantly, a starting point.
In conclusion, evaluating where you are exactly on this journey is critical. Training is essential to understanding what encompasses sustainability. Brands state they are sustainable, however sometimes do not have a clue about what this involves. Take a course on sustainable fashion and learn about the governance, environmental issues, social and ethical concerns, circularity and transparency.
Understanding sustainability is important to the success of your business. Get specific sustainability training for your brand. – Lizzy Cross – Sustainability Coach
Having a Sustainability Assessment conducted for your brand can get you started on your way. MODA CIRCOLARE conducts sustainability assessments for brands and assesses the governance of the brand, the social and ethical issues, environmental consideration, transparency, traceability and circularity options. The results are given to a brand by way of a lettered score card, from A to F, and easily can identify where your brand can make improvements. Check out all the consulting packages that MODA CIRCOLARE offers here.
Some extra resources for you:
If you would like to conduct your own mini sustainability assessment quiz, you can download it here.
Having a Sustainability Guide on sustainable fashion is essential as well. Download your copy here.
About the Author:
Lizzy Cross is the founder and CEO of MODA CIRCOLARE, a sustainable fashion consulting agency. Lizzy has over 15 years of experience in sustainability and environmental risk. She is a sustainability fashion expert and coach and helps fashion and apparel brands all over the world to embed sustainability and circularity into their business strategies. Lizzy has a master’s degree in Bio-Resource / Environmental Engineering and has taken Sustainable Business Strategy at Harvard Business School. Read more about sustainable fashion @modacircolare and at www.modacircolare.com
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