Our factory workers get fair pay and decent working conditions

The SUstainable Mission Statement

The SUstainable mission is to trade fairly at both ends of the supply chain so that:

• All our SUstainable-manufactured clothes contain Fairtrade certified cotton meaning that the cotton farmers are receiving a fair price for their crop and a little extra for them to invest in improving their communities;

• All of the polyester in our core range Fairtrade garments is recycled from human resource waste, so our garments help to protect the planet too;

• All of our factory workers enjoy decent rates of pay and working conditions;

• All the UK corporate entities and other organisations that buy SUstainable-labelled Fairtrade certified cotton garments are guaranteed a high-quality garment.

We only use Fairtrade cotton and recycled polyester in the clothes that we make

The SUstainable Story So Far…

The SUstainable “Ethical Business Partnership” Vision

When Andy and Mike embarked on this ethical clothing journey, their vision was to establish a unique ethical manufacturing and supply chain, using exclusively Fairtrade cotton, that would benefit everyone buying into it – producers, manufacturers and customers alike.

Fairness, quality and affordability soon became their mantra: from small-scale farmers producing the Fairtrade cotton in India; through the mill and factory employees turning the Fairtrade cotton into finished garments; all the way to the UK businesses, Universities and other institutions respectively buying and wearing the ethical clothing.

Where Our Clothes Come From

India – the spiritual home of our business

We started working with Mauritius factories – spinners, knitters, dyers, embroiderers and manufacturers – in 2010.

Our Fairtrade cotton has always come from India, where 280,000 (non-Fairtrade) vulnerable cotton farmers have committed suicide over the past 20 years out of desperation caused by drastically fluctuating global cotton prices.

Nowadays we work mainly with ethical factories in India. Our principal factory in India partners very closely with 3200 marginalised tribal cotton farmers in the Telangana region of India. Apart from guaranteed consumption of all their cotton produce, we work to ensure child education, assured healthcare and better infrastructure towards developing a sustainable community by 2020. We are assured of full traceability all the way through to farm level, and we can thereby receive clear and measurable impact metrics from our factory chain.

We not only follow low impact production methods with substantial use of renewable energy but also provide sustainable packaging solutions. All the labels are made with post-consumer recycled polyester and we convert production waste (both fabric and garments) into paper boards for hangtags and packaging materials.