We aim to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% through automated, localized, and on-demand manufacturing.
where we are at today
Based off of this LCA, our jeans use 24% less CO2 to produce than traditional jeans. The dissolvable thread collaboration we launched with Resortecs paired with a 3D weaving project (not yet released) gets rid of cut waste entirely and allows us to dismantle and reuse the denim material. In the future, these innovations will reduce the CO2 impact by 53% according to the LCA. That’s over half the CO2 per jean, which gets us really excited.
Our products are centered around “wear more, keep longer, and buy less” principles. They’re custom-made using the highest quality materials so that they last. If each person doubled the amount of times they wear a garment, GHG emissions (82% carbon) would be 44% lower, which saves 36% of carbon per jean. That’s why quality and longevity of our garments is a high priority. We also offer repairs and alterations to ensure the longest wear.
Traditional retailers that may claim they are sustainable compare product to product. While we believe every detail does make a difference and every effort has value, a lot of the talk feels like marketing. Individual products are not the problem. Incremental material changes are not what the world needs. The world needs us to completely upend the way that we do things, to change the whole process and model, to forget what’s been done before. And that’s why unspun is here.
can’t stop won’t stop: future vision
We’re focused on creating a localized and regenerative system for future production. Using 3D hardware technology, we’ll be able to get rid of all cut-waste. We strive for global change and massive impact to ensure the planet continues to self-regulate and support all life. We collaborate with other brands (see: H&M collaboration) to achieve this. Our technology is versatile, which allows many larger corporations to institutionalize new methods. This collaboration is imperative in making the necessary changes in manufacturing. We’re confident through this technology and partnerships we’ll achieve our 1% goal.
how our process aims to push us well beyond 1% reduction in the global carbon footprint
In total, we humans emit 36 Gigatons (1 Gigaton = a billion tons) of CO2 through our activities each year. The annual carbon emissions from the clothing industry is 3.78 Gigatons [according to Quantis' environmental impact of fashion report.]
If all clothing were made using unspun's current technology, the industry's carbon emissions would be reduced by 20% (this is with the safe assumption that 20% of clothing produced becomes excess inventory, and this is also based on Quantis' environmental impact of fashion report.
If all clothing were made using unspun's future technology, the industry's carbon emissions would be more than halved, see below. Numbers are based on Quantis' environmental impact of fashion report.
Covid-19 has been a rude awakening for many fashion brands, especially those that have millions of dollars worth of inventory in production. Some are cancelling their orders, which puts the factories and garment workers at a huge loss. Others are going through with those orders, and now have thousands of pieces of excess inventory to deal with. Our goal from day one has been to fundamentally change the production process and life cycle of the garments we create. That’s why we aren’t just focusing on the impact of our own brand, but also partnering with others to help get this industry on the right track. At the end of the day, we’re truly all in this together.
immortal jeans
We make jeans that are particular to your shape and your desired style so that you don’t need to buy more. Similarly, our jeans are made with durable and responsible materials that work best with certain styles to ensure a long and comfortable life cycle. We advocate to wash less to maintain the fabric. We try to make a special bond between our jeans and the wearer, by having them choose aspects like the thread color and by putting their name in the jean, so they keep them for longer and wear them often.
packaging
We know that a package's journey doesn’t end once the jeans are delivered, so our packages are made from 100% recycled and unbleached paper. Additionally, label stickers are from 100% recycled resources.
energy use
Direct emissions include our office space and the energy it takes to power it. There’s also direct emissions when we send our jeans to folks, as opposed to them picking up. We have made a commitment to only move fabric orders by boat or low impact options to factories over flying, by buying fewer fabrics in larger quantities with more lead time. Indirectly, we know there are emissions through the supply chain and machinery used in the factories.
analysis and reporting
Here is our latest LCA comparing our current jean vs traditional jeans.
We’re writing short and long term goals for a zero-waste and low impact supply chains. We are setting science based targets to minimize GHG emissions to the lowest possible output in the next year.
chemical + water use
We require all facilities to have the relevant certifications in oeko-tex® or ISO standards, and where organic fibres are being used, to be GOTS certified. We choose fabrics that use dye reduction processes (ex. nova blue, fuel black, mercury blue, and natural pocketing fabric that is undyed). Any new mill must have initiatives and research in house to address less water and toxic chemical usage (ex. candiani's kitotex, evlox's total care campaign).
Our fabrics are carefully sourced from some of the most experienced denim mills in the industry, who know how to balance quality and sustainability into the fibres and all along their production processes. All mills that we work with are required to have in house initiatives and ongoing developments to address their chemical, water and energy management systems as well as all waste streams.
The cotton in our jeans are all Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), GOTS certified organic Cotton or GRS approved recycled Cotton.
We have high contents of post-consumer recycled Cotton and Polyester in some of our fabrics. [Check out Space Blue, Nova Blue, Glacier Wash, Mercury blue and Cosmic black.].
We carry only one fabric with 21% virgin Polyester, which is assessed and approved by Bluesign®.and we will phase out of the use of any virgin polyester within 2021.
We also avoid waste by eliminating some industry standard denim finishing processes. At unspun the RAW denim fabric ranges undergo only a quick rinse wash to soften it before sewing, avoiding any harsh chemicals or processes and the energy that goes along with them.
For our washed look jeans [see Glacier / Nova / Midnight wash] we use a Tonello® machine with the ALL-IN-ONE Metro system, which avoids workers from being exposed to any chemicals during the washing cycle whatsoever, it also cuts water consumption by 95% and chemical use is cut by 80% [by the way, we only use Bluesign®-certified chemicals]. We do not use stonewashing, potassium permanganate, bleaching nor other harmful processes or chemicals. To replace regular sandblasting and spray we use laser technology by Jeanologia.
