We have been working in this way since we started over 20 years ago.
Buildings
In the past years, we have made significant investments to make our buildings as environmentally friendly as possible.
At the end of 2022 our London office, which is the home of the design, merchandising, product development, planning, marketing and sustainability teams, moved to a newly renovated energy-efficient building in Fulham, London. As a result, the CO2e footprint of the London office was decreased by 18%.
In the spring of 2023, we installed solar panels on the roof of our warehouse, which resulted in a 25% reduction in purchased electricity and a 19% reduction in CO2e. We are especially pleased to achieve this significant reduction considering the continuous growth of the business.
Packaging
We send all our orders out in sturdy recycled cardboard boxes that are made locally in Nottingham and Warwickshire. We have never imported cardboard. We ask that anything unsuitable or the wrong size is sent back to us in the same box which ensures that the item is protected and the box can be reused. These boxes are made from around 70% recycled material and are themselves 100% recyclable. One of our box suppliers also collects any cardboard waste we produce and recycles it for us.Our tissue paper made from 100% recycled materials, like off-cuts from paper or paper-cup manufacturing. It is made in Germany and printed in England at a facility which is powered by a hydro-electric turbine. The inks used are all water-based and the facility has a de-inking plant so nothing goes into the drain except clean water.
In 2023 we have started using 100% recycled plastic bags in our warehouse for any re-packing needs, and we have requested our suppliers to also make the same change. Although we would like to reduce our plastic usage even more, the packaging we use ensures that our products travel safely and undamaged from our suppliers to our warehouse, and on to customers. We are still looking for a better solution to our plastic clothes-hangers.
Catalogues
Planning, designing and creating our catalogues is a big part of our business and we have great manufacturing partners helping us make sure that we can create catalogues in as environmentally friendly a way as possible.
The paper for our catalogues is manufactured mostly in Finland, but also in Germany and Scotland, from the wood pulp of sustainably-grown trees. It is made by UPM, who have a very strong sustainability agenda. They have zero tolerance for deforestation, rainforests are off-limits and have strict processes in place to ensure that forests always grow more than they are used. It is one of the world's largest users of recovered paper and sources virgin materials only from controlled and traceable wood sources. The wood for our 2023 catalogues came from responsibly-managed forests mostly in Finland, with some from Brazil, Germany, the Baltics and the rest of Europe. Our paper supplier plants 50 million trees a year which is roughly 100 trees planted per minute – and we are glad to support that process.
Waste
We don’t dispose of anything to landfill, and recycle whenever possible. In 2023 we collected for recycling 72.87 tonnes of cardboard, 4.8 tonnes of plastic waste and 2.86 tonnes of mixed recycling.
We never have and will never throw away a single piece of clothing. All returns are opened by hand and the items are carefully checked for damage. If the items are unworn, other than for the purposes of trying on, they are steamed to take out the creases, and re-packed in recyclable bags, ready to be re-sold.
If the items have small faults such as a loose button, these repairs are made by our in-house seamstress. In 2023 we repaired 2,218 pieces of clothing. If the items are damaged beyond repair for re-sale, they are still repaired but will go into our warehouse sale of end-of-line styles and repaired returns. Held intermittently at our site in Leicestershire, these sales are very popular locally, with the proceeds going to charity. If there is a major fault, for example a large hole, the garments are given to charity, either the British Red Cross or Barnardo’s, to be used for fabric recycling.
In addition to our in-house efforts to repair every piece of clothing to be as-new, we also use our unsold stock to do some good. In December 2023 we donated 71 new coats to the ‘Wrap Up London’ charity for the homeless and vulnerable in the “Coat for Coat” campaign. Hospice.
Transportation
Travelling for work, like going to trade shows, visits to suppliers and research trips contributes to our footprint. These real-life interactions are what inspire and fuel our designers and ensure that we truly understand our suppliers. We always travel in economy class which reduces the flight footprint significantly and choose to travel by train whenever possible.
A large part of the transport emissions is created when our products travel from the manufacturing factories to our warehouse in the UK. Sea freight is the most common transportation method for our products. Shipping by sea takes much longer than by air but has around 4 times less environmental impact. Last year we set a goal to reduce the use of air freight and in 2023 we have reduced it from 23% to 20% of all goods transported.
To deliver our products from our warehouse to your doorstep we use FedEx, Royal Mail and DHL postal services. All companies are committed to reducing their environmental footprint and are introducing innovations like electric transport, efficient route planning and renewable energy.
