World Environment Day: Brands and their sustainability initiatives

Environmental sustainability has become the buzzword now and everybody in the fashion industry is talking about reuse, reduce, rework and recycle. Fashion brands have initiated various projects making a commitment to move towards being more sustainable.

IANSlife lists down some fashion and beauty brands to know about such initiatives:

AMERICAN EAGLE

As part of American Eagle's broader sustainability goals, the brand has introduced 'Real Good' products. With an aim to be carbon neutral by 2030, the brand is making a commitment to move towards more sustainable raw materials and reducing water and energy usage. Customers can now identify the sustainable items in the collection with the 'Real Good' badge. The collection includes materials that have been sustainably produced and/or sourced, such as recycled polyester and nylon, as well as cotton that's recycled, organic, and/or sustainably sourced through the Better Cotton Initiative. Real Good jeans are made in factories that meet expectations which include water reduction and management, wastewater that is less in volume and does not contain restricted or hazardous chemicals and water recycling.


PANERAI

Panerai reinforced its commitment to a sustainable environment and a healthy ocean by announcing its partnership with Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) to develop ocean literacy activities as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

The partnership will develop programs and actions with the final objective of developing transformative solutions to the existing and future challenges that face the ocean. From 2021 to 2030, the Ocean Decade will promote science-based management of the ocean and marine resources to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.


Panerai also unveiled the SUBMERSIBLE eLAB ID in April 2021, an environmentally-sustainable watch edition to date that has a total of 98.6 per cent of its weight come from materials integrating a high rate of recycled elements. Panerai also introduced the eco-friendly Luminor Marina eSteel featuring a new recycled steel alloy in both its case and dial.

CHOPARD

At the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Chopard unveiled their "Journey to Sustainable Luxury", a commitment to a multi-year programme to improve the environment and the lives of those at the very beginning of the supply chain.


It also supports artisanally run mines through the Alliance of Responsible Mining (ARM).

In May 2020, Chopard announced that they will be sourcing gold from the Barequeros in El Choco Colombia in conjunction with the Swiss Better Gold Association (SBGA). The Barequeros are artisanal gold miners who are synonymous for using traditional mining practices which eliminates the use of mercury. These mining practices have been instrumental in protecting the region's biodiversity which is among the most unique in the world.

UNIQLO


The Fast Retailing Jeans Innovation Center was established in 2016 as a hub for jeans research and development to transform the value of jeans offered by each of the Fast Retailing brands. The near-elimination of water from its wash process is one such example of the Center's ongoing work to perfect denim.

The process of making jeans requires enormous quantities of water. The Jeans Innovation Center developed an original washing method that incorporates new technologies into high performance washing machines which, in principle, do not consume water. The core technology is a combination of nano-bubbles and waterless ozone cleaning. Each cleaning method is best suited for a specific application, so that by combining them, our center was able to bring water usage very close to zero.

Following two years of research and development, the facility succeeded in reducing water use in the jeans washing process by as much as 99 per cent and more than 90 per cent on average. Masaaki Matsubara, Chief Operating Officer, confirmed that from 2020, all jeans by Fast Retailing brands will be produced using the new process, a production scale that will ensure sustainable denim is easy for every Fast Retailing customer to access, at prices that are within the normal range for each brand.


ASICS

Sport and exercise fans wanting to keep their activity levels high, but their environmental impact low need look no further than a new collection of environmentally sustainable footwear and apparel launched by ASICS on Earth day. The new pack cross-category collection has been created using a circular manufacturing approach that saw around 5 tons of textile waste, the equivalent of 25,000 t-shirts, recycled into new shoes.

The socklining of the shoes are developed using a resource-saving technology called solution dyeing that reduces CO2 emissions by around 45 per cent and cuts water use by around 33 per cent compared to conventional dyeing processes.


HUSH PUPPIES

The brand under the Bata India umbrella has launched an exclusive range of eco-friendly sneakers, The Good Shoe, on this World Environment Day. This range of sneakers has been created from recycled plastic bottles and utilises Bloom algae technology, replacing petroleum-based materials.

FOREST ESSENTIALS


The brand sources its ingredients from local farmers who use environmentally sound farming practices and also have an organic farm in their factory at Lodsi, where they grow high quality plants and herbs. In September 2020, in order to make more sustainable choices and take on their responsibilities as a brand, they revamped their entire packaging and now use only recyclable PET and glass in their new packaging. Even their stock deliveries across stores in India, have seen elimination of the shrink-wrapping film. At the store level, they are moving towards providing more sustainable choices to the customers by introducing canvas cloth carry bags, which are recyclable and reusable. They have also set up a collection facility in each of their stores across the country, where you can drop off your Forest Essentials empties (jars and bottles of both earlier and new packaging).

ARATA

This World Environment Day, Arata has partnered with Grow--Trees-- a social enterprise that provides a unique Greet with Trees service, to increase the green cover in the Sundarbans, West Bengal. The initiative involves planting mangrove trees to restore the lush, natural habitat and wildlife of the region. Arata has curated a range of combos for the customers to shop from, in order to contribute to this campaign. With every purchase of the Grow-Trees Combo on the Arata website, the brand plants a mangrove tree in the Sundarbans on the behalf of customers. Through this small initiative, the brand would like to show gratitude towards our mother nature and contribute to restore the lush, natural habitat and wildlife of the region.


ORIFLAME:

Oriflame has achieved 76 per cent absolute reduction in GHG emissions since 2010. It uses 100 per cent renewable electricity at all Oriflame-operated sites since 2018. All waste generated across its manufacturing sites in India is sent for recycling and 100 per cent of its plastic packaging is recycled and co-processed through its waste management partner. In 2020, this has saved over 8 million litres of water and 2.5 million kWh of energy.

It has planted 6 million trees and protected them in reforestation projects. In 2020, 99 per cent of its paper, board packaging and catalogues came from credible certified sources or recycled materials.

Oriflame uses 100 per cent natural-origin exfoliants like almond shells, fruit seeds and olive stones in their scrub products that do not pollute the oceans. It also chooses to use bio-degradable formulations in its Love Nature rinse-off products and masks to further the cause. Since 2015, the brand has achieved 7 per cent reduction in water usage per produced unit at manufacturing sites. - IANS