SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is both a practice and a goal at Bella + Frank.
We hope introducing eco-consciousness to young minds will help raise a generation of environmentally aware consumers.
We believe that if you’re seeking to inspire children there is, perhaps, no better way to do so than with what they interact with everyday: clothes that are practical, well-designed and consciously made.
Learn more:
- Our Materials
- Our Partnerships
- Our Waste
- Care and Aftercare
- Our Goals
We consider our environmental impact along four main considerations:
Low Waste
Bella + Frank are not following the seasonal model and are producing small quantities of clothing throughout the year.
Did you know…
– 15% of fabrics intended as fabric is discarded during production as trims and off cuts.
– Not only do we waste precious natural resources and energy in creating the textiles, but decomposing fabrics release methane, a harmful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
– On average a new piece of clothing was considered old after only 20 washes or after 50 days, the study commissioned by Vanish, the stain removal brand, found.
– More than 300,000 tonnes of used clothing end up in landfills in the UK every year (worth about £140 million), according to WRAP.
– Chemicals and dyes from clothes also contaminate soils and waters. Polyester alone takes up to 200 years to biodegrade.
Read more: Valuing our Clothes: the cost of UK fashion – WRAP
Circularity
Most of our kids clothes are made with recycled polyester (GRS) and recycled wool and fibres.
For us, a circular economy means the potential to avoid the dire realities our unchecked consumption is presenting.
By removing the demand for new fabrics and even turning materials and waste from other industries into viable fashion textiles, we not only reduce our pollution and impact, we reduce the need for waste.
Trash becomes a resource, something valuable to be cycled endlessly back into the loop. Those plastic bottles can become trainers or jeans… Those fishing nets can find a new life as bikinis made from recycled nylon… These are possibilities that are already being actualised and we are hoping to participate and develop these modes and practices, even as a small business.
In a circular economy, the process of recycling is possible at every stage, from design to production.
Recycling, up-cycling and utilising what we have by giving new life to our possessions shows that we are conscious of the environment and our impact upon the world and on each other.
Learn more: Make fashion circular – Ellen Macarthur Foundation
Traceability
We source our fabrics and yarns in Mills located in the UK, Europe and Italy. Our factories are in Portugal and UK.
The fashion industry is one of the most environmentally damaging activities on earth, while also a beautiful and fundamental expression of human art and culture.
We need to be able to map out our clothing supply chain – essentially where and how a garment is made, and the people involved throughout the process.
We are interested in a deeper understanding of the impact of the clothing life-cycle through documentation of a local supply chain from fibre through manufacturing and production.
The project builds on established tools for supply chain transparency to develop a leading approach to sustainable fashion.
Plastic Free
We use polybags and recycled paper for our packaging. We are also part of the New Plastic Economy, aiming to be a plastic-free business by 2025.
Did you know…
– We are now producing nearly 300 million tons of plastic every year, half of which is for single use.
– More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year.
– At the 2017 International Coastal Clean up, volunteers collected 1.6 million plastic bottles, 1.1 million bottle caps and more than 900,000 plastic bags.
– A plastic bottle can take 450 years to completely degrade.
– An abandoned nylon fishing net? Up to 600 years.
– By 2050 there will be more plastic (by weight) than fish in the sea.
Learn more: Rethinking the future of plastics – The New Plastics Economy