Sustainability Report Q3
The Sustainability Report
The Sustainability Report
Big companies report their profits in quarterly earnings reports. We all should be accountable for more than that. That’s why sustainability is at the core of everything we do.
In our Q2 report earlier this year, we expanded our People portion to include our efforts and focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and now in our Q3 report we want to update you again on the progress we’ve made.
Here’s a look at where we are in our four main areas:
People
There are a lot of awesome people behind our clothes. They work in our offices, factories, and stores. They are our partners and vendors. They’re all over the place, really. And we are responsible to ensure safe, healthy, and equitable working conditions for every single one of them.
People
There are a lot of awesome people behind our clothes. They work in our offices, factories, and stores. They are our partners and vendors. They’re all over the place, really. And we are responsible to ensure safe, healthy, and equitable working conditions for every single one of them.
DEI at Ref today
In the last three months we’ve done a lot of listening and learning, but also laid the groundwork for what we want to accomplish in the near future. We realize there’s still a lot of work to be done to ensure Ref is both a great place to work and a brand that reflects and respects the rich diversity of this world.
What we’ve done so far
• A special committee of independent directors of our Board of Directors retained Morgan Lewis, a global law firm with extensive experience conducting independent internal investigations concerning discrimination and workplace culture, to lead an independent investigation into the allegations of race discrimination raised on social media and related workplace culture issues, which is now complete. Morgan Lewis concluded in their findings that the Reformation workplace culture is not “racist.” The investigation did find that as the Company has grown over the last ten years, there has not been a strong enough recognition of the importance of People, namely the employees at Reformation, and that has had negative impacts on the workplace culture. Read a summary of the investigation findings here.
• Hired Monique McCloud as our Chief People Officer to lead our path forward, with a greater focus on people strategy, processes, culture and employee development.
• Updated our company values to better reflect our priorities and commitments to People, Planet and Progress.
• On the advice of our internal DEI expert and recently hired Chief People Officer, rather than a single DEI Advisory Board, we’re creating and expanding internal committees made up of everyone from executives to entry-level employees to ensure DEI objectives are fully integrated into Reformation’s day-to-day operations. We have also joined the Black in Fashion Council, who we will partner with as an external Advisory Board to help hold us accountable as we strive to advance Black and other underrepresented individuals in the fashion industry.
• Held expert-led inclusive culture workshops for employees, including all managers and focused sessions for leadership, that critically examine inequity, elevate self-awareness, introduce practical inclusion, and integrate overtly anti-racist behaviors into our daily practices.
• Launched the “All Voices” platform, an anonymous employee communication platform, to provide additional, convenient outlets for communication and feedback.
• Updated our benefits package for hourly Ref employees, increased holiday and vacation time for hourly team members, and provided volunteer time off for all employees.
• Continued our commitment to living wage. As of July 1, 2020, 100% of Ref employees are earning a living wage.
• Conducted more than 40 listening sessions to hear directly from retail, corporate, distribution center and factory employees.
• Deployed a confidential employee engagement survey to begin gathering and sharing deeper demographic information on our company make-up, including but not limited to ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
• Evolved our marketing, imagery, and voice to ensure we are more representative of a broader Reformation community. We’re working with more diverse creators, models, and partners.
• Initiated an internal speaker series to bring new perspectives to our team on topics like implicit bias and climate justice, including Professor Mahzarin Banaji and Mikaela Loach.
What we’re working on
Under the guidance of our new Chief People Officer, we are laying the foundation for best-in-class people processes, creating an environment of growth and development, and creating a culture of respect, accountability and inclusion by:
• Re-organizing and expanding our existing advisory structures to address initiatives focused on specific demographic concerns such as gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation to help employees build community, expand networks, amplify historically underrepresented voices, and ensure everyone feels included, valued, and heard.
• Designing and implementing a communication strategy that fosters feedback, transparency, diversity, equity, inclusion, and a culture of two-way information sharing.
• Strengthening hiring process by focusing on key skills, capabilities and values-based behaviors, expanding our talent pool to identify diverse candidate pools, reducing opportunities for bias and improving the candidate experience.
• Expanding the People team to support core functions.
• Actively recruiting a VP of Retail and a People Partner of Retail to better connect our expansive retail field to our corporate team and streamline operations, facilities, and HR communications.
• Developing internal talent through effective performance feedback, training, career and development conversations, specific development opportunities, and a succession-planning process to support internal growth.
We’re committed to doing this work and dedicating the time, attention, and resources. We’re equally dedicated to tracking our progress and sharing it openly.
100% of Ref employees earn a living wage
100% of Ref employees earn a living wage
A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to attain a basic standard of living. Living wages provide the means for people to purchase goods and services like food, energy, education, housing, transportation, health care, and are key to ending cycles of poverty that have lasted for generations.
Our goal this year was to have all of our teams meet or exceed the living wage. As of July 2020 we accomplished that goal and are committed to keeping it that way.
→ Meet the team
We work with incredible partners that share our values of accountability, transparency, and sustainability and make a real impact in the industry. We know we’re not perfect, but we’ll always do our best to be transparent and keep pushing for better.
We require all our direct cut, sew & finish manufacturing partners to adhere to our Code of Conduct (basically our requirements for ethical operations) to ensure fair labor conditions and fundamental labor rights like prohibiting child labor, forced labor, protecting the health and safety, and meeting or exceeding legal minimum requirements in the locales where they work.
Our suppliers participate in independent, third-party social assessments to ensure fair, safe and healthy working conditions and continuous improvement.
COVID-19 Update
In line with our commitment to collaborative supplier relationships and worker well-being in our supply chain, we are working closely with our suppliers to find the best way through the global COVID-19 pandemic.
We took full responsibility–and paid in full for all complete and in-progress finished goods orders. While we extended our payment terms temporarily for a limited amount of agents and in limited cases, we are back to our original terms with all garment manufacturing partners. Our current terms are consistent with industry practice, and we have not asked for any discounts on payments.
Here is where we’ve made our stuff so far this year:
54% Los Angeles
34% China
10% Turkey
1% Morocco
<1% Mexico
Product
How and where we make our product matters. We focus on things like traceability, fiber standards, and clean chemistry to ensure we lessen the environmental and social impacts of our stuff.
Product
How and where we make our product matters. We focus on things like traceability, fiber standards, and clean chemistry to ensure we lessen the environmental and social impacts of our stuff.
Traceability is about knowing exactly where our stuff comes from. We want to be able to answer “who made our clothes” at every level of the supply chain.
Our goal for 2020 was to reach 100% traceability into our Tier 1 & 2 suppliers—we’re excited to announce that we have exceeded our goal and are so close to having 100% traceability into our Tier 3 suppliers.
Tier 1
Finished goods assemblers & subcontractors
Tier 2
Dyers & printers; finishers, weavers, knitters
Tier 3
Fibers, spinners, recycled material collector/processor
Tier 4
Raw material (Farm, Forest, Ranch)
Supply chains are fragmented and complex so our next focus will be to dig into Tier 4 and go deeper at the fiber, forest, and farm level. For example, we will know exactly from which forest the wood pulp for our viscose is harvested and from which cotton farms our ginners and yarn spinners source. This is important so we can take accountability for responsible practices all the way through our supply chain.
Up to 2/3 of our sustainability impact happens at the raw materials stage—before the clothes have actually been made.
Up to 2/3 of our sustainability impact happens at the raw materials stage—before the clothes have actually been made.
Fiber selection also affects how you’re going to wash the garment and potentially recycle it one day—both important factors to consider when it comes to the environmental impact. That’s why we have our own Ref fiber standards. We tried to make these standards as holistic as possible, taking into consideration water input, energy input, land use, eco-toxicity, greenhouse gas emissions, human toxicity, availability and price. We also looked at garment care implications, like microfiber shedding.¹
Good news: 95% of our fabrics meet A/B ratings²
We are a proud member of the CanopyStyle Initiative to help drive positive change for our forest products and ensure that all our forest-based products come from sustainably managed forests.
Our Better viscose in our B category is sourced from producers that are on the path to meeting (or in some cases have already met) requirements to only source from forests that are conserved, protected, and restored. We recently signed the Changing Markets roadmap to ensure that all the viscose fiber manufacturers in our supply chain move to a closed-loop manufacturing system by 2023-2025. This means the system should recycle the majority of chemicals used during production, lessening any potential negative impacts on human health and the environment. Check out our Sustainable Forest Commitment to learn more.
→ Learn more about Ref fiber standards
55% of our dyers and printers have a clean chemical certification for our materials
55% of our dyers and printers have a clean chemical certification for our materials
We’re passionate about working with our partner printers, dye houses and tanneries to ensure responsible use of chemicals, water and energy so that products are safe for workers, you and the environment.
Our goal for 2020 was to have 75% of our fabrics be certified clean by third party certifications like Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and Bluesign³. We were unable to meet the minimum yardage requirements to work with one of our primary certified dye houses in 2020. But we are really proud of one of our core partner facilities, who is almost done getting Bluesign certified. So we should be able to reach our goal in 2021, and won’t stop pushing for better.
¹ We published our methodology and sources so you can really dig in and understand what we include in our standards.
² Fiber performance is based on the majority fiber content in the fiber composition. Calculated for total fabric yardage used in Q3 2020.
³ Certifications included in this total are Oeko-Tex Standard 100, Bluesign, Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Global Recycled Standard (GRS). Calculated for total fabric yardage that was used in Q3 2020 excluding deadstock materials.
Planet
We keep our true costs, including environmental impact in mind when we make design and business decisions. Our environmental footprint is calculated in terms of gallons of water, pounds of CO2e, and pounds of waste.
Planet
We keep our true costs, including environmental impact in mind when we make design and business decisions. Our environmental footprint is calculated in terms of gallons of water, pounds of CO2e, and pounds of waste.
As a brand we believe that climate change is one of the biggest issues facing our planet. And we know that the first step to reducing our impact on the environment is understanding our footprint. That’s why in 2014 we launched RefScale.
Making clothes uses water, energy, chemicals, and other resources. RefScale helps us track our environmental footprint by adding the pounds of carbon dioxide emitted, gallons of water used, and pounds of waste generated. Then we calculate how much Reformation saves compared to conventional clothes bought in the US.
RefScale follows the lifecycle of clothes—everything from growing textile fibers and making fabric, dyeing, transporting materials, manufacturing, packaging, shipping, garment care, and even recycling clothes when you’re done with them.
→ Learn more about RefScale
INPUTS
Water
Energy
Raw Materials
Fabric manufacturing
↓
Fabric dyeing
↓
Material transit
↓
Product manufacturing
↓
Commercial garment
↓
Packaging
↓
Shipment
↓
Customer garment
↓
Garment end-of-life
OUTPUTS
CO2 emissions
Waste
Water
At Reformation we believe knowledge is power, so we think about all the costs in creating fashion—not just the price tag. We share RefScale information on every product page of our website so you can see the total cost of fashion and make empowered choices.
From day one, we’ve committed to oversharing our RefScale methodology and assumptions publicly, but we also want to make sure it stays current and includes the best available data. So we decided to work with a third-party consulting group to review our methodology. We also updated several of our data sources to align with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI), an industry tool for life-cycle assessments, methodology, and procedures.
We also worked with another third-party consulting group, to verify that the tool worked the way it was designed to. That way we can continue to feel confident in our calculations and ensure that RefScale operates as a simplified life cycle assessment tool.
2020 YTD total footprint
So now what?
When we first launched RefScale there were little to no tools that measured the impact of fashion. Our mission for RefScale is to empower our team and our customers to make better choices when designing and buying clothes. We hope to use it to measure and further reduce our environmental footprint and push sustainability forward. As we grow, RefScale will continue to grow and evolve with us by aligning with industry tools to ensure it is on the leading edge of sustainability.
We know this can’t happen over night, so in the meantime we also do other things - like investing in programs that replace the resources we’ve spent. This is where offsets come in.
CO2 projects
We’ve been 100% carbon-neutral since 2015, but now we’re working with Climate Neutral, a non-profit organization, to make it official. Through their rigorous certification program, Climate Neutral verifies a company like us has achieved net-zero carbon emissions. It’s basically like getting a fancy seal of approval. We’re not certified yet but we’re committed to being a 100% Carbon Neutral certified company in 2021.
Sky Wind Project
This project is a 96 MegaWatt wind project located in a rural area of Maharashtra, India. Along with providing clean energy, this project has taken on several community development initiatives like infrastructure development to help improve the lives of the people located in the project area.
China Cookstove Project
This project works to prove low-income rural households in China’s Sichuan province with reliable biogas digesters and efficient biogas stoves. These digesters help create clean and affordable biogas out of animal waste that can be used in cooking and heating instead of lighting coal and firewood.
Montana Sustainable Grazing
When cattle graze, they tend to stress the soil which makes it hard for plants to grow. This project is working to change the way cattle are managed to give the land the time it needs to rest and recover. This helps ensure healthy soil which acts as a huge carbon sink.
Honduras Clean Water
This project aims to bring clean drinking water to everyone. Certain regions of the world still don’t have access to clean drinking water and are forced to burn unsustainably harvested wood to purify water. This process is time consuming, creates indoor air pollution, and emits greenhouse gases. To help combat this problem, Native Energy installs their Hydraid water filters which helps local people live healthier lives and prevents deforestation.
Water projects
Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT)
This project compensates the CRIT for their effort in conserving their Colorado River water allocation. Their efforts directly bring up the water levels in Lake Mead and help provide long-term water security for Arizona, California, and Nevada.
Progress
In order to push sustainability forward, we challenge our efforts and take risks to solve hard problems. We are committed to investing in the future, leading the way for a more sustainable fashion system, and will share our progress openly.
Progress
In order to push sustainability forward, we challenge our efforts and take risks to solve hard problems. We are committed to investing in the future, leading the way for a more sustainable fashion system, and will share our progress openly.
There is actually enough clothing and textiles in existence today to meet our annual demand globally. We upped our goal to reuse or recycle 200,000 garments a year. We met our goal last quarter and it looks like we’re on track to double it by end of year.
357,296
Garments reused or recycled¹
357,296
Garments reused or recycled¹
Equivalent to taking 610 cars off the road, 42 olympic sized pools of water, 12 garbage trucks of waste²
So far in 2020, we’ve donated over 56,000 masks to homeless shelters, hospitals, and essential workers since COVID-19 accelerated to a pandemic in March.
We believe climate change is one of the biggest issues facing the planet. And there is an undeniable connection between climate change and wildfires, which impact people, wildlife, and the economy. So for every mask purchased on our site in October, we’re donating a mask to Center for Farmworker Families to help with the double burden of COVID-19 and the wildfires. We are also partnering with the Los Angeles Mission shelters to get masks to the homeless communities of LA, as they are disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
→ Donate masks
¹ This includes RefVintage, Rent-the-Runway, and thredUP.
² CO2 equivalency comes from the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, water equivalency is based on the total volume of an olympic sized pool, and waste equivalency is based on the average amount of waste a garbage truck can hold.
The fashion industry has a major impact on the global economy and the environment. That’s why we have aligned our sustainability framework with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to make sure we’re tackling the most important issues like climate change and economic inequality.
→ Learn more