We want to enable our customers to buy a sustainable collection. The production of clothes impacts the environment in many ways. To protect the environment, and the communities living in it, we need to work sustainably with nature. We are not there yet, but we aim to increase our sustainable materials, the sustainable use of chemicals, water and energy and our own operations and logistic step by step. Read below what we do.

We prefer to use sustainable materials in our clothing and aim to rapidly increase our use in the next years.

BETTER COTTON

Cotton is one of the most used materials of the brands. Growing cotton requires a lot of water and
chemicals. Hence, Fashion Group Solutions is a proud Member of Better Cotton. Better Cotton exists
to help cotton communities survive and thrive, while protecting and restoring the environment.
Better Cotton is sourced via a chain of custody model called mass balance. This system is similar to
renewable energy. When you purchase renewable energy, you do not directly receive this energy
yourself. The credits you purchase are proof that a certain amount of renewable energy has been
added to the existing power grid. This energy might not be powering the lights in your house, but
nonetheless, your purchase ensures that greener energy is added to and pulled from the power grid.
This means that Better Cotton is not physically traceable to end products, however, Better Cotton
Farmers benefit from the demand for Better Cotton in equivalent volumes to those our brands
‘source.’ How this system works exactly is explained here.
In recent years, the Better Cotton Initiative licensed over 2.4 million farmers from 23 countries on
five continents. Together, these farmers produced 23% of the world’s cotton. The production of
Better Cotton has tangible economic, social, and ecological benefits. You don’t have to take our word
for it, the farmers and workers are happy to tell you all about it: Read the stories here.
We are committed to sourcing 65% of our total cotton as ‘Better Cotton’ by 2022. In 2021 this was
59% which was 9% higher than the original goal.

CASHMERE AND AGORA FREE
Our fashion brands are listed as Cashmere Free Retailer and Angora Free Retailer at the People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation. The PETA Foundation is a UK-based charity
dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals.

FUR FREE
Our products are not allowed to contain any animal fur. Our brands are listed on the Fur Free
Retailers list. In addition, none of our brands use feathers.

The production of clothes uses a lot of chemicals, energy and water. We are committed to use more sustainable production processes, to ensure a healthy environment. The use of PVC is prohibited for all brands. To ensure this, we test our products to confirm the absence of these chemicals.

RESTRICTED SUBSTANCES LISTS
To ensure that our suppliers use chemicals properly, our brands make use of a Restricted Substances
List (RSL) and a Manufacturing Restricted Substance List (MRSL). These lists show an overview of
restricted chemicals and the maximum quantities of accepted chemicals. All our products and
packaging must meet the requirements for the use of chemicals, as stated in our RSL and MRSL. Our
products are tested during development.

WASHING INSTRUCTIONS
As a consumer you can also contribute to a healthier environment yourself. You can reduce the use
of water and energy for washing and drying your garments. This will benefit both the environment
and your clothing. The care label attached to your clothing provides information on how to clean
your clothes. In addition, we recommend visiting the Clevercare website , where tips are given on
how to save water and energy, while also extending the lifetime of your products. You can wash
more sustainably by following these steps:

• Washing: Don’t wash your clothes too often. By reducing the number of times you wash your
  garments you can actively reduce your carbon footprint.
• Temperature: Lower the washing-temperature, this way energy will be saved.
• Drying: Choose air drying over tumble drying, it saves energy, and your clothes will stay in shape and even last longer too.
• Ironing: Iron your clothes only when necessary. Hang dry clothes as soon as the wash cycle has
  finished to minimize creasing.
• Chemical cleaning: If an item requires professional cleaning, do not remove the care label. This way,
  the professional cleaner can take better care of your garment and choose the right cleaning process.

LOW IMPACT JEANS BY AMERICA TODAY

America Today works on the sustainable use of chemicals, water, and energy in one of their most
important product groups: jeans. The production of denim has various risks. It requires a lot of water, chemicals, and energy, for example in the washing process. The washing process is done to give the
jeans the right “look and feel.” Hazardous waste from these processes can end up in surface water.
America Today has collaborated with their suppliers to wash more of their jeans sustainably. The
result is America Today’s jeans with a "Low Impact” wash. The impact of the jeans is measured with
Environmental Impact Measurement (EIM) software of Jeanologia. EIM measures the impact from
the process in four categories: water consumption, energy consumption, chemicals, and employee
health. Click here for more information.

Many of our (potential) adverse impacts are related to our supply chain, but we also commit to work more sustainably in our own operations; in our daily work in our offices, stores and distribution center.

STORES
We are working on structurally decreasing our energy consumption and CO2 emissions in each of our stores. For example, this is done by applying energy-efficient LED lights and smart meters in our stores. An external party then assesses the energy consumption in our stores. This gives us a clear view of our consumption and helps us further reduce energy consumption.

HEAD OFFICE
At our head office you will find a lot of re-used materials. For example, the doors and rugs are secondhand. This contributes to the unique character at our office. In addition, our office has the label “energy class A” and our energy consumption is monitored by an external party that helps us to reduce our energy use. Our canteen is catered by OSP catering, a caterer who aims to be the best and greenest caterer of the Netherlands. Sustainable entrepreneurship and organic products are high on their agenda. We see and taste this daily, for example in our lunch that includes many regional, seasonal and organic products or when we collect coffee grounds that are re-used to grow mushrooms.