Sustainability
Sustainable fashion is at the core of our DNA.
Let us talk you through how we make a difference in the second most polluting industry worldwide.
About the fashion industry
Let’s not sugarcoat it: our industry is bad for the planet. Mass production of low quality garments not only leads to terrible working conditions, it also contributes to an ever-growing pile of waste and sky-high CO2-pollution numbers.
At Sunday, we like to take a different path. Sustainability has been at the very core of our company’s DNA since its inception back in 2015.
The way we tackle sustainability challenges has evolved massively over the years. Today, we’re proud to say we have a made-to-measure approach in terms of sustainability and we’re able to match the exact needs and expectations all our clients have in terms of production with respect for People & Planet.
A made to measure approach
Since ‘made-to-measure’ is at the heart of our strategy, we thought it would only make sense to also apply this vision to one of the most important aspects of our business: sustainability.
However, in contrast to our approach in business-solutions, in terms of sustainability, we don’t quite start with a blank page. That’s because we have high standards, and we don’t compromise on them.
To us, ‘made-to-measure’ sustainability means we listen to the needs of our customers and develop a strategy that will answer those needs perfectly. In practice, this means that we like to be challenged by our customers. We will take those challenges to our R&D team and develop real made-to-measure solutions. For example, for Too Good To Go, we developed socks made out of recycled fish-nets and designed a packaging-solution using zero plastics. That’s just one of the many examples of how we made company fashion with a positive impact on our planet.
Our EU-first philosophy
In 2019, we opened our own production-unit in the capital of the textile industry in Europe: Łódź, Poland. This allowed us to manage the entire manufacturing process and supply chain from A-to-Z. In 2020, 96% of the garments we produced were produced fully within the European Union. This has a number of advantages, the most important of which are:
- We can guarantee working conditions that match the European standards.
- We can carefully select suppliers we work with and hold them to the same standards.
- We contribute to the economic development of the European Union.
- We have shorter transport-chains, and thus lower CO2-emissions.
However, even though producing in the E.U. has a number of advantages, it isn’t always the best possible solution. In some specific cases we get requests from customers we can’t complete within our EU-based supply-chain. In those cases we sometimes need to source raw materials, semi-finished product or even finished products from countries like Turkey, North-Macedonia or China.
It’s a general misconception though to think that products made outside the E.U. can’t meet the same sustainability standards as those produced inside the Union. During the years, we have developed a rich database of trusted suppliers we’re confident to work with.
In those rare cases where a non-EU-production is necessary, we will always inform our customers about the process and the choices we’re making. Full transparency in combination with education of both our suppliers and our customers is our favorite way to move forward.
Eliminating waste by making clothes people want to wear
Company fashion finds its roots in old-school merchandise. We don’t need to tell you about the classic assumptions people make when hearing the word “merchandise”: low-quality garments, T-shirts that feel like they’re made out of paper, logos that are printed way too large and wash out after two times. These kinds of garments are very often worn once, then thrown out or stored in the bottom of the closet until you’re mowing the lawn or the room needs to be painted. Hence: waste.
At Sunday, we aim to change that. When companies invest in fashion for their stakeholders to wear, we want to create garments that those stakeholders will want to wear, even when they go out for a BBQ with friends.
In our vision, ten years from now, 80% of the clothing in your closet will be items you have purchased or received from companies and brands you identify with, instead of items you have bought in (non-sustainable) fashion retail.
Next to making items that will actually get worn, we have designed and developed our platform (Sunday Wardrobe™) to make sure no clothing items go to waste. By stocking all garments in our central warehouse, and making them easily accessible to different people and departments, we make sure no-one orders more items than they need, and if they do, it’s super easy to store leftover items back into the Sunday Wardrobe™.
Durable materials
We work exclusively with certified materials, this ranges from organic cotton to recycled polyester. Because of our extensive experience in the fashion industry, we know exactly which materials & suppliers to choose. We also develop new technologies with our partners to make merchandise even more eco-friendly! For example: we already worked with synthetic yarn made out of fishing nets.
We are planting a forest
Hand-in-hand with GoForest, we’re taking the leap forward in terms of becoming CO2-neutral. As we’re rapidly growing and working with an increasing number of large companies, we’re shipping more and more packages each month. We know transportation is one of the biggest contributors to CO2-pollution.
In an attempt to reach our sustainability goals, we partnered up with GoForest and we now plant a tree for every 50 shipments our customers make through the Sunday Wardrobe™.
Animal welfare
A personal project of our production manager is the partnership with an animal shelter in Łódź (www.schronisko-lodz.pl/). As a textile company, we have a lot of spare materials that can’t be used for clothing anymore. We make pillows for dogs with these materials that we donate to the animal shelter. That way the animals can stay there comfortably.
