What Actually is Sustainable Fashion?
There’s been so much talk about sustainability and sustainable fashion, but we might not be doing a great job as an industry to actually define with this is. This also opens up the doors for many brands and companies to claim that they are being sustainable without making measurable differences to their products and processes, or “greenwashing.” As much as I believe it is so important to hold brands and companies accountable for the messaging they are putting out there, I actually think the fact that most companies are seeing the importance of having a sustainable offering as a really good thing! This means that we (the client, the customer, the user) are demanding sustainable options and inquiring about sustainable practices.
Let’s start by defining what it actually is.
Sustainability is not something you accomplish and then move on, it is a continuous process and mindset.
Firstly, it is important to that we work to understand our environmental impact so we can improve upon it. There is no such thing as being 100% sustainable, only making measurable improvements to our products and processes.
Sustainability is the focus on preserving finite natural resources with responsible and thoughtful practices. How hard could that be? It turns out, opening the door to sustainability is easy, but continuously working towards it is where some brands run out of steam.
della terra admittedly has a huge advantage – we were just born. Although I have the benefit of drawing on my almost 20 years of experience with other companies and learning from processes and production in the past that seem less than optimal; unlike a large company we don’t have last year’s numbers to compete with, or unrealistic financial goals based on mass production of plastic products. Instead, we have built sustainability in from the start and we work at it every single day. We work with B Corporation to submit all details about our office, factories, suppliers and production to ensure we always hold ourselves up to this important standard environmentally, ethically and legally. We are proud to have been awarded coveted B Corp Pending certification.
Now that we know it’s a whole “focus” and “mindset” let’s talk specifics, what can brands actually do to make a difference? Eco-conscious initiatives include using non-toxic materials, being focused on low-energy and water methods of production as well as incorporating biodegradable and recycled components. Check out this list below:
- Recycled materials
- Renewable resources
- No plastic
- Low impact production
- Carbon neutral factories
- Non-toxic materials
- Low energy and low-water methods of production
- Biodegradable components
- No animal products
This is why della terra is constantly working towards sustainability, 🍃 being conscious of every step of our process, every material used in our product and how our products are created and shipped.
Check out our social impact page for some more details. To dive deeper, drop me a message anytime because I absolutely love to geek out over all things sustainable fashion.