Knorre / Alhovik / Shutterstock.com expect their employers to be responsible corporate citizens. Although millennials are leading the way as both consumers and employees, the desire for sustainability tracks across all age groups. Suppliers and distributors of promo products must pay attention or risk falling behind the curve. But there’s good news, particularly when it comes to sustainable branded apparel, as more and more eco-friendly fabrics and garments have become available in recent years. So, “sustainability” is clearly important – but what does this big, buzzy umbrella termmean on a practical level? Key elements of a sustainable business model include: Circularity: What Goes Around Comes Around Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns is No. 12 on the list of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015, with specific targets including “substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.” Irys Kornbluth, CEO of Everywhere Apparel, a supplier of recycled cotton garments (mostly made in Los Angeles), says the promo apparel market is uniquely suited to adopt a circular model of production, usage and recycling. “Companies want to clothe their employees in their branded merchandise and spread the word about their brand, but to do so in a way that’s sustainable and circular,” she says. “This is really a great area to do that in, because there’s a lot of repeated production, a lot of the same goods that are being produced on an ongoing basis.” Everywhere makes all its garments from recycled cotton yarn, and the company offers garment recycling as a service as well. This doesn’t only keep unwanted or discarded garments out of the landfill – by some estimates, the average American throws out 80 pounds of clothing a year – but gives those materials a new life. “If we’re doing a custom run for a distributor or whatnot in the network and they end up having a few pallets leftover or merchandise that didn’t get sent out to the field, we can help them recycle that back into new products,” says Kornbluth. “So it’s minimizing the risk of overproduction and also helping to address those problems if they do come up.” Cleaner Operations: Reduce Energy And Water Usage, Emissions Cleaning up production operations in your supply chain also makes a big difference. The more garment suppliers and distributors expect their business partners to participate in sustainable initiatives, the easier, less expensive and more accessible these processes will become for everyone in the industry. Doug Jackson, president of Minnesota-based supplier Storm Creek, tried dipping his toes into recycled fabrics about a decade ago. At first, it was slow going because he didn’t have enough volume to demand sustainable yarns and fabrics from Storm Creek’s suppliers. But he kept asking, and eventually more options became available. “At that point we decided that we could, as a company, start putting a big force toward trying to do everything recycled,” Jackson says. “Once we realized that we could do that, we started looking at Although millennials are leading the way as both consumers and employees, the desire for sustainability tracks across all age groups. | OCTOBER 2022 | 15 INNOVATE
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