Between the Sheets: our vision of sustainability

Here we go with Past 4 in my ongoing series on sustainable fashion and the connections between fashion and the environment.  For those of you just joining the conversation catch up on Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. When I’m not working on BTS with Layla I have a day job working as an environmental lawyer. This ongoing series of posts focuses on sustainability in fashion and why supporting fair wages and made in the USA fashion is so important.  These topics are near and dear to Layla and I and bring together my BTS and environmental lawyer worlds. Join in the conversation in the comments or make suggestions for future posts on sustainable manufacturing and fashion. Hope you enjoy!

Josh

Part 4: Between the Sheets: our vision of sustainability

It was announced recently that a group of major apparel companies, not for profits, and academic institutions have come together to form the Sustainable Apparel Coalition.  The goal of the coalition is to develop “a comprehensive database of the environmental impact of every manufacturer, component and process in apparel production, with the aim of using that information to eventually give every garment a sustainability score.” This sustainability score would give consumers a new way to evaluate the sustainability of their purchases and support companies who develop more sustainable garments.

Seeing the apparel industry as a whole grapple with the sustainability challenges posed by a large multi-faceted global supply chain and the trade-offs and sacrifices that have been made in the name of profit highlights the decisions that all companies must make to develop apparel for market.  These are the issues that I discussed in Part 1 of this series on the environmental cost of fast fashion and in Part 3 on the economic and labor issues that plague the apparel industry.

As a small nimble apparel business Between the Sheets has set out to make decisions that support the three pillars of sustainability: society, environment, and the economy. While we don’t have a “sustainability score” for our loungewear and lingerie lines we have given a tremendous amount of thought to the decisions that we’ve made to launch the line and our business.  We also have made a commitment to be transparent with our customers and give the reasoning and tradeoffs (if any) of the decisions we make every day.

Starting any business involves making hundreds, maybe thousands of decisions that all come together to shape a company’s vision, path, and direction.  To launch an apparel line involves even more  decisions as there are countless pieces of the puzzle that all must come together from the fabrics and trims that are used to the way that pieces are manufactured, to how product is sold, stored, and shipped. Each one of these decisions must be carefully considered as the future success and sustainability of the business depends on a cohesive and well thought out plan as well as making the right decisions along the way.

In making the thousands of decisions that all came together to launch Between the Sheets Layla and I didn’t set out explicitly with the goal of creating an “eco-friendly” brand or to market ourselves as green.  But from the outset we both had a passion for creating a business that would make beautiful and high quality loungewear and lingerie the right way, in the US where workers are protected by minimum wage laws and harsh sweatshop working conditions are illegal, and to make choices that do our part to protect the environment.  Along the way Layla chose many fabrics with inherently eco-friendly properties and decided to work with suppliers who are based in the US as much as possible.  This was done as part of a conscious effort to support our local economy, but had the added benefit of reducing lead times and saving shipping fees.

Layla and I both come from entrepreneurial families who have worked hard to build small businesses in the US.  We bring this passion to our model of local sustainably focused business. Manufacturing was once the largest economic engine in this country.  With so many industries moved overseas and the skills that once drove these industries disappearing it is more important than ever to support and rebuild local manufacturing businesses in a sustainable way.

In many ways we have passed through a technological revolution and find ourselves moving into an ecological one, in which the ethical and ecological ways in which we have grown are now being questioned.  So the answers for a sustainable tomorrow will not be found overseas, but right here, in our backyard, through sustainable manufacturing that supports the economy, our society, and the environment.

For all the details of what makes Between the Sheet sustainable including all the details on the fabrics that we use, how we manufacture our line, how we store and ship orders, and our efforts to support the local economy check out the sustainability statement posted on our website.