Product sustainability begins with design. The decisions made here are not just about the look of a garment but also the use of sustainable and innovative materials, raw ingredients and finishing processes. The main motivations behind choosing sustainable materials and processes are ecological concerns, animal welfare, social justice issues and the need to conserve resources.
Producing textiles consumes substantial amounts of energy, water and chemicals and has a major impact on the environment – and not just during the manufacturing process. The farming and production of the materials we use are particularly resource-intensive and can have a negative impact on both people and the environment. That is why we set great store by the raw materials that are used to create our products. We are using more and more materials produced in compliance with the following standards that ensure product sustainability in different ways.
As a globally recognised standard for textiles made from organically produced natural fibres (especially organic cotton), the Global Organic Textile Standard is one of the most important and well-known textile labels.
The whole supply chain has to be certified for GOTS certification to be awarded. This creates transparency and credibility across the board.
Products certified to the Organic Content Standard (OCS) contain organically grown material that has been verified at each stage of the supply chain, from source to final product.
The CmiA standard promotes sustainable cotton cultivation in Africa. Through targeted training, the yields of small farmers can be increased, thus enabling them to help themselves. At the same time, CmiA promotes resource-saving cultivation methods and hence contributes to environmental protection.
In contrast to GOTS and OCS, we integrate CmiA cotton according to the principle of mass balancing, which means that with the purchase of an item labelled with CmiA, the initiative is supported, but the CmiA cotton does not have to be physically present in the end product.
The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) verifies the percentage of recycled material and tracks it from the recycler to the final product.
The Responsible Down Standard (RDS) certifies down and feathers against animal welfare requirements and tracks it from farm to final product.
The Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) describes and certifies animal welfare and land management practices in wool production and tracks the certified material from farm to final product.
The GCS has as its primary objective to improve the animal welfare of cashmere goats in Inner Mongolia. To ensure good goat husbandry in Kashmir production, the standard requires compliance with the five freedoms of the Farm Animal Welfare Council. The aim is to ensure that the animals are free from hunger, thirst, suffering, pain, injury and disease.
In addition, the GCS serves to improve the working conditions of the farmers and to protect the environment.
In 2021, we joined the Fur-Free Retailer programme to publicly communicate that we completely eliminate the use of real fur in our products. By participating in the programme, we commit to animal welfare and demonstrate that our company is 100% fur-free and that we do not use any animal fur in our products.
On the Fur-Free-Retailer platform, consumers can find information about companies that commit to not using real fur.
Organic cotton farming is more environmentally friendly and uses less water and fewer chemicals than conventional cultivation. Converting to organic cultivation takes three years. The cotton produced during this transitional phase is not yet true organic cotton and is therefore referred to as “cotton in conversion”.
Buying this cotton in conversion is the only way to incentivise farmers to accept lower yields coupled with higher costs in the short term. By using cotton in conversion, we support this vital change along the route to increased levels of organic cultivation.
In addition to materials from independently certified sustainability labels, we are also using an increasing amount of sustainable branded fibres to supplement or replace conventionally produced fibres, such as virgin polyester or viscose. These come from more sustainable origins and use more sustainable raw material extraction and environmentally friendly processing methods than similar materials made by other manufacturers.
Some textiles are impregnated to make them repel water and dirt. In conventional production, perfluorinated and polyfluorinated hydrocarbons (PFCs) are used to achieve this effect. These chemical compounds take a very long time to degrade and are suspected of being carcinogenic, amongst other issues. For this reason, some manufacturers have developed alternative impregnation agents that have water-repellent and dirt-repellent properties but are not based on PFC compounds. Our items are impregnated with two of these alternative agents:
Teflon Eco Elite™ consists of 60% renewable raw materials and is fluorine-free, unlike conventional finishes.
The BIONIC-FINISH® ECO finishing technique uses patented dendrimer technology to protect textiles from water and dirt.
