Here at Craghoppers, we’re taking all the steps to make our business as honest, courteous and respectful as possible, in every decision we make. Which is why we’re mindfully making all of our clothing. But what is Mindfully Made? We’ll talk you through the key aspects of Mindfully Made, from responsible sourcing to social impact programmes.
What Is Mindfully Made?
So what is Mindfully Made? Essentially, it’s our commitment to making positive, sustainable progress every year. Any decisions that we make with our customers, colleagues and factory workers needs to align with our values as a business and our mission to reduce our impact on climate change.
What Is Responsible Sourcing?
First up is responsible sourcing. But what is this exactly? Responsible sourcing is a method of sourcing using the most ethical, sustainable and socially conscious practices. To help us with this, we are proud and active members of the Ethical Trade Initiative and have been for many years. Since May 2012, we have remained at ‘Achiever’ level and have inspected 122 factories in 9 countries based on the standards of the International Labour Organisation.
In addition to this, we understand the importance of traceability within a supply chain. Head to our responsible sourcing page to find out more about our major material and component supply chains map.
What Is Sustainable Clothing?
Sustainable clothing is something we have been making significant progress with over the past year. But what is sustainable clothing? Essentially, sustainable clothing means that every aspect of a garment’s production is considered – from design to delivery to ensure it’s made in the most sustainable way, with the least impact on the environment. Our garments are made from carefully sourced materials with recycled content used wherever possible. We work closely with our factories to help reduce water and energy usage in the production process and carefully manage our use of chemicals, with plant based treatments being introduced for 2021.
Here are a list of the initiatives and partnerships that we are a part of to help us achieve our sustainable product goals:
• Global Recycled Standard
• Product Recycling (through Newlife)
• Better Cotton Initiative
• Bluesign System Partners
• Higg Index
• Microfibre Consortium
As well as this, we no longer use down in our jackets, and we offer a free product repair service through Timpson/Johnsons and a Guarantee for life. Also, if you’re looking for eco-conscious clothing yourself, as of A/W 2020, 70% of our clothing products are made from recycled materials. For an example of this, check out our fleece collection made from recycled plastic bottles.
What Are Our Social Impact Programmes?
Here at Craghoppers, we understand the impact on our workers. So to give something back, we run two different social impact programmes:
• RHEP Programme – This programme empowers and educates female workers in Bangladesh on matters like health, hygiene, nutrition, finance and family planning.
• Savar Primary School – For over eleven years, we have been funding the Savar Primary School in Dhaka, Bangladesh where our garment factory is located, providing life changing education and a nutritious meal to over 250 children.
How Do We Consider The Environment?
As well as manufacturing eco-conscious clothing, reducing our environmental impact is also a primary aim of ours. With definite targets in each department, we ensure that transportation, road miles, efficiency, renewable energy and water usage are all being measured and targeted. Notably, we have reduced our road miles by 400,000 every year, by switching to more local docks. For more information on how we make our packaging, working environments and operations more eco-friendly, head to our environment page.
Our Conservation Efforts
We may provide clothing to keep you comfortable and protected on your expeditions and safari adventures, but we want to protect the wildlife too. That’s why we’ve been working with these six great conservation programmes:
• Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund
• EOCA
• Galapagos Conservation Trust
• Saving The Survivors
• Rhino Fund Uganda
• Act For Wildlife Chester Zoo
And that concludes our guide to Mindfully Made. If you’re looking for more details on any of the points above, check out our Mindfully Made information online.