This month sees the launch of our new womenswear denim collection for Spring/Summer 2020. The jeans have all the style and quality our customers have come to expect from George, but, as garment technician, it’s what’s happening behind the scenes that excites me the most.
For the past two years the team at George, together with our supply base, have been working hard to improve the sustainability of the denim we use through a range of different initiatives. Denim typically uses huge amounts of water and chemicals in its production so it has a relatively high impact on the environment compared to other types of fabric. In fact, one pair of jeans uses up the same amount of water during production as one person’s daily water consumption for 10 years (based on eight glasses of water a day).
It’s an issue facing the whole industry but at George we’re determined to do the right thing and make sustainability one of our key priorities. We’ve made a commitment that by 2025 all of our cotton with be responsibly sourced and all our polyester will have a minimum of 30% recycled content. We’ll continue to work with our supply base to deliver denim in a way that has the least impact on the environment.
Better Cotton Initiative
All our ladies’ denim is now responsibly sourced via the Better Cotton initiative.
By taking the approach of responsibly sourcing all our cotton through The Better cotton initiative, this helps towards training (BCI) Farmers to really understand water resource management and related challenges in their local areas. They also learn how to collaborate with others to use water responsibly and conserve water quality.
The good news is that great strides are being made to reduce cotton’s water footprint. Not only does The Better Cotton Initiative support farmers in reducing their water usage, they also train farmers to maximise land use, improve soil health, optimise chemical usage, decrease energy use and greenhouse gases and promote working conditions that are better for the workers and the farmers too.
Environmental Impact Measurement
This year more than half of our women’s denim (60%) is EIM Green standard – that is, it uses the lowest amount of water, energy and chemicals in its production process and has the least impact on workers’ health.
By using the Environmental Impact Measurement (EIM) industry standard to measure key factors like these we can work on improving sustainability through alternative production processes which raises standards for everyone.
MADE IN GREEN
A significant part of our womenswear denim collection this Spring – 34% – is made through a scheme called MADE IN GREEN.
All the denim used in MADE IN GREEN garments is fully traceable, via the product code and QR code on the garment label. This year 50% of our women’s denim will be sourced through this scheme which is run by OEKO-TEX, a worldwide association of independent institutes for product safety and sustainable production in the textile industry.
Every MADE IN GREEN garment has a QR code on the swing tag attached. When you scan this with a smartphone you can see on a map exactly where it’s been manufactured and which of our supply chain partners have helped to create it, from the mill that produced the fabric, to the factory that sewed it together and the facility that washed the denim garment.
The label guarantees that the item has been manufactured using sustainable processes under environmentally-friendly and socially-responsible working conditions – which is great news for your wardrobe and the planet!
