What Sustainability Is To Us
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WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY MEAN?
The pursuit of global environmental sustainability, which means the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In addition to natural resources, we also need social and economic resources. Sustainability is not just environmentalism. The term sustainability is broadly used to indicate strategies, choices, initiatives and actions aimed at the preservation of a particular resource.
However, it actually refers to four distinct areas: human, social, economic and environmental – known as the four pillars of sustainability.
Sustainability is a word with many different definitions. And it’s become a “buzz” word used frequently nowadays by many companies in their marketing campaigns.
BUT WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY MEAN FOR US AT IRON HEART?
For us, it’s about everyone who can do something actually doing something - large or small, it doesn’t matter. What matters is to do something.Over the last few years we have explored different ways in which we can update our products and processes to have a positive effect on sustainability.
We released several products made from a 14.7oz eco selvedge denim. This eco denim was created by mixing 40% regular cotton with 60% recycled cotton from denim offcuts (pieces of denim left on the cutting-room floor from previous jeans production). The result was very popular with our customers, as we’d managed to produce characterful denim for both jeans and shirts, all the while reducing the impact of their production on the environment by re-using valuable resources that would otherwise have been wasted.
This success has given us great confidence to produce similar fabrics in the future.
In addition to this recycling exercise, we also looked for areas in our service provision where we could apply greener logic. Our customer service experts are the team responsible for handling all inbound and outbound logistics. They worked with our creative team on producing a sustainable and bio-degradable packaging solution, which would not compromise on quality. We use organic ink for the graphic used on our mailer bags, which themselves are made from 100% recycled paper. The outer packaging, needed to make the parcel waterproof during transit, is bio-degradable green mailbags made from recycled materials. Contained within this packaging, along with your lovely Iron Heart goods, are our care guidelines which are printed on responsibly sourced FSC paper.
The quality and durability of our garments can help sustainability. Our products are not throw-away, fast fashion that ends up as land-fill after a year. Our garments are worn and loved by their owners for many years and are also often re-sold or gifted to new owners. They are repaired when needed to extend their lifetime - reducing textile waste and the water and energy usage required for making new products.
We wanted to take this a stage further, so we are delighted to share with you, Project RE:LOVE - our way of keeping well worn and well-loved Iron Heart clothing in the product life cycle for longer.
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Our products are not throw-away, fast fashion that ends up as land-fill after a year.
The fact that none of my clothes end up in a landfill is perhaps the main reason that I wear IH. Durability matters, and I hate the mentality of buying shitty goods that don't last and just get replaced quickly. Beyond filling up trash heaps, I despise the mentality of out with the old, in with the new. About 4 or 5 years ago, I converted from buying a variety of Japanese denim-focused brands (initially was just interested in the style more than anything) to exclusively IH, and I have yet to have a single item fail on me. I guess one of my pairs of jeans is getting a bit… hmm... "unprofessional" after ~1000 wears, but it lives on and will still get hundreds of additional wears, just no longer in that daily wear category. You guys have probably noticed that my purchases are way down from where they were a few years ago. It has nothing to do with the quality of what's coming out. I still like the vast majority of IH releases and would wear nearly all of them happily. But, I'm in the awesome position of being very content with my wardrobe full of IH and feeling like I never really need to replace anything anymore. Now my only concern is to make sure that I never get fat and have to size up on everything.
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Well said cander49. And that’s awesome you are able to slow down buying, enjoy what you have, and see the clothes age beautifully. It can be hard to find that self control but something I strive for.
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@Mister_Brue I've moved your question here as I don't think it's related to IH in general and the sustainability beliefs/standards that they have implemented. I do think that it's a valid topic, but I just don't know where it would fit better at this point.
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@Mister_Brue Thank you for your response and I’ve moved it back to its original location. Still not confident that this is the correct location, but we will see how the discussion progresses.
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We use man made components where it makes sense; polycotton stitching rather than cotton as it is stronger and less prone to failure, manmade linings where it makes sense for wearability, addition of some manmade components in woolen garments because it helps with longevity, helps keep the item retain a better shape etc.....