Sourcing more sustainable raw materials is one of the most significant ways that we as a company can make a positive impact globally. We are building a foundation in this area by prioritizing issues and opportunities, and taking steps to understand where our biggest impacts and opportunities live. We are also taking steps to trace where and how key materials are sourced to improve visibility deeper into our supply chain. Key partners like the Sustainable Apparel Coalition or the American Apparel and Footwear Association help us keep up on industry developments around raw material opportunities such as animal welfare in down and wool sourcing.
We’re committed to upholding strong animal welfare practices. As of Fall 2016, we are certified to the Responsible Down Standard (RDS). As of Spring 2017, 100% of our down product is certified to the RDS. This ensures our down doesn’t come from live-plucked or force-fed geese and all the down supplied is a bi-product of the food industry that would have otherwise gone to waste.
Aligning our fabric choices with company values is important to us. The increasing use of fabrics such as rayon, viscose, lyocell, and modal has made us question the sources of these forest based fibres. With the support of Canopy, a not-for-profit environmental organization, we developed a plan to help maintain the health of critical forest areas through our fabric choices.
We signed the Responsible Sourcing Network’s Cotton Pledge to end forced child and adult labour in the harvesting of cotton in Uzbekistan. Our partners who supply cotton must verify that they’re not using cotton sourced from Uzbekistan and provide us with documentation to prove their cotton’s country of origin.
We require all suppliers to comply with domestic animal welfare and market regulations governed by local and federal agricultural departments and animal welfare agencies. We continually evolve our traceability requirements of animal-based materials and are transitioning to 100% non-mulesed wool.