Sustainability reportQ1 - January - March 2019
Big companies report their profits in quarterly earnings reports. We think companies should be accountable for more than just profits. Our Sustainability at Reformation framework sets our goals and priorities for the next five years. We want to give you an update on how we are progressing towards those goals.
Big companies report their profits in quarterly earnings reports. We think companies should be accountable for more than just profits. Our Sustainability at Reformation framework sets our goals and priorities for the next five years. We want to give you an update on how we are progressing towards those goals.
Electric power accounts for about 25% of all CO2 emissions in the US. We’re partnering with Arcadia Power to work with your electricity provider to deliver your same energy while supporting clean energy projects.
4.5m
Estimated annual wind
power in kWh
Equivalent to:Taking 680 cars off the road for a year
You can now purchase Climate Credits—aka carbon offsets—on our site. Your Climate Credit purchase goes directly to support Gold Standard verified carbon offset projects through NativeEnergy that help counteract your personal carbon footprint for everyday life, a flight, or even a wedding.
Equivalent to:Taking over 150 cars off the road for a year
Our first project is the Honduras Coffee Growers Clean Water Project. Basically by providing clean water filters to rural families, they don’t harvest wood (aka cut down trees) and burn fires to boil drinking water. So beyond the climate impacts, this project is addressing health issues and poor indoor air quality too.
We now partner with Osomtex to upcycle our fabric scraps from our Factory in Los Angeles. Osomtex recycles the fibers into new yarns and fabrics. That reduces the need for virgin materials and diverts millions of pounds of textile waste from landfills through a mechanical process that uses no water, no dyes and no chemicals. We’re really into it.
There is actually enough clothing and textiles in existence today to meet our global annual demand. In 2019, our goal is to reuse or recycle at least 100,000 garments through things like Ref Vintage sourcing, thredUP and Rent the Runway partnerships, and RefRecycling. We are on track to hit more than 2x that amount.
RefScale tracks our product environmental footprint in terms of water, carbon dioxide, and waste. The whole equation follows the lifecycle of clothes—everything from growing textile fibers and making fabric, dyeing, moving materials, manufacturing, packaging, shipping, garment care, and even recycling clothes when you’re done with them. We offset our footprint 100%, but always push for better materials, factories, and operations to keep our footprint as low as possible.
Here’s our impact from last quarter:
Here is what percentage we saved
this quarter compared to most clothes
bought in the US:
We’re investing in our programs to ensure our supply chain partners meet our social and environmental standards, and we want to make this information transparent so you know more about who makes Ref clothes. You’ll get an update on our wins so far, but also why sometimes it is so damn hard in our next Sustainability Report.