We've been following the long career of Patrick Robinson, from his work at some of biggest names in fashion—Gap, Armani, and Paco Rabanne—to the creation of his own brand, Pashko. Having seen the good, bad and ugly of supply chain, manufacturing, and production, Patrick started Paskho to translate his industry knowledge into progressive action by implementing best-in-class fair trade and sustainability practices.
]]>Vintage queen Jess Tran of Second Life Marketplace and Ghost Vintage knows the power of reuse and renewal. We spoke with her about her passion for vintage and the importance of keeping things circular.
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Journalist & Director Sophia Li brings a refreshingly approachable and inspiring voice to the sustainability movement. She helps us break down what the Circular Economy is, how the fashion industry can do better, and a few ways all can do our part to live life more sustainably.
Sophia Li’s sustainability journey has been years in the making. In conversation with the journalist and director, Thousand Fell co-founder Chloe was able to glean insight into how she walks the walk.
“Everyone is on their own sustainability journey” is the very first thing Sophia explains. She disagrees with the shaming and cancel culture that often lead conversations relating to living sustainably. People come from different backgrounds and cultures, and as long as you are on a journey that’s all that matters.
It’s about small, simple steps. But where is the first step? For Sophia, she asks viewers about to place themselves on a sustainability spectrum. On one end is the ‘Greta Spectrum’, referring to living a Greta Thunberg-esque lifestyle. Activities include avoiding planes and attending protests instead of school. And then on the opposite end is Steve Bannon, who isn’t a believer of climate change. Everyone, according to Sophia, falls in the middle. It’s okay if you’re not a Greta.
Sophia’s journey began at school where as a journalism major she took an internship in trend forecasting. Her work led her to Fashionista and then to Vogue (when they only owned the URL link to vogue.com, and had not even created the website!). Working her way up, she saw the team grow from five to fifty also helped solidify the Vogue Digital Voice.
But she wanted more. Her sustainable roots were sowed in China, where she visited every summer as a child. The pollution there was a wake up call. Blue skies began to be celebrated for how rare they were. She realised it would be our future soon if people didn’t start taking action.
The transition from high fashion at Vogue to sustainability journalism began when she realised that the thirst for sustainability was lacking in the fashion world. It was loosely touched upon, and never given the spotlight. But overnight, it became a buzzword. And it had her thinking- what does sustainability even represent?
Does it mean environmentalism? Green? Organic? Are these interchangeable? She began breaking these down. Terminology became key to the sustainability movement and how she made sense of the space.
According to her, sustainability on a macro level is a lifestyle and each action has a reaction. This exists on an individual level and a business level. In the fashion industry, sustainability is three different things-
What about zero waste and circularity prompts Chloe? Sophia’s view is spiritual. Humans can’t be 100% zero waste. We are alive, and we have a carbon footprint. The intention to be zero waste exists though. Circularity is designing without waste. For her, it's a ‘slinky’. It’s not a perfect circle every time.
The Ellen Macarthur Foundation describes it as a butterfly, adds Chloe. While achieving circularity always requires constant innovation and new inputs, what matters is that we aren’t sending toxins into the environment. Consistent choices are key.
source: The Ellen MacArthur FoundationWhere do things go once you’re done with them? Often, we realise that the end of life process begins in our own communities. Coming from an Asian heritage, Sophia knows well how her culture prioritises low waste and reuse by repurposing food packaging and containers to store different objects or food items. Ice cream bins were reused for toy sets! That thought process was the norm in Sophia’s family, and it clearly had a lasting impact on her.
When Sophia left Vogue, she wanted to redefine what it meant to be a journalist. This attempt at redefinition can be translated to the state of flux we are all in right now. With our fleeting titles and changing perspectives, we are all in the process of redefining ourselves. Now, how Sophia is choosing to redefine herself is her motto to create and promote conscious content. This comes from a heightened awareness about the age of content pollution we are entrenched in. The inundation affects us psychologically.
Meaningful stories come from being intentional about the content that is produced. Sophia does that by pushing the needle forward in her own ways. How do we lean in in ways that are value add? Brands today can push policies and they can push consumers who can push policies. So by working with mission driven brands, Sophia is able to orient herself towards her mission of creating conscious content.
Sophia’s ability to channel her thoughts on matters relating to sustainability coincides with the way she leads her personal life too. Shifting behaviors to become more sustainable can often be thought of as sacrificial. But psychologically, living sustainably isn’t a sacrifice for her. It’s an asset. It helps her be in touch with herself and allows her to check in with her personal values.
Being in tune with nature, yourself and the planety you want to live in leads the way to valuing a life that is focussed on well-being. And according to Sophia, wellbeing of the planet directly translates to the wellbeing of humanity.
The link between mental health and sustainable action is often termed as ‘eco-grief’. 70-80% of kids in high school struggle with it. What is going to happen to the planet in the future? These fears echo in younger generations.
We only have to look towards Casper, the mattress company, and how they are disrupting ‘sleep’. It’s a polluted and convoluted category, much like sustainability. To achieve healthy sleep, we are inundated with directions to turn phones off before sleeping, to drink turmeric lattes for optimal health, to not eat a few hours before bed etc. The laundry list goes on and ultimately ends up having its opposite effect.
This anecdote plays into a larger conversation about the prevalence of consumers to get overwhelmed with constant directions to lead a certain type of lifestyle. Within sustainability, that’s across food, transportation and shopping. There needs to be progress made to streamline this conversation, and Thousand Fell hopes to lead this charge.
It circles back to content pollution. What if we switched perspectives? Instead of placing pressure on consumers, can we place it on brands instead? Brands end up playing ‘hot potato’ with consumers by marking down clothing. Consumers end up buying fast fashion items at discounted rates, and donating them at the end of their very short life cycles. This is how the cycle perpetuates, wherein the responsibility is passed from one to the other. There is an immense need for a call to action to all brands to take equal responsibility.
Some ways in which fashion companies pass down this baton is through their reliance on donation and markdown models. By creating excess inventory that big retailers don’t need, especially given the pandemic, there are now genuine fears of it being burnt instead. Wouldn’t it be better to design consciously from the outset? Donations in the shoe industry is another problem seldom addressed. Being intimate items, over 85% go straight to landfill. They rarely get to a second user.
The problem with landfills in the US is that because they are compacted tightly, biodegradable items like banana peels cannot break down. Trash excavators have become in charge of going through them and pulling out items for decomposition. In NYC, we have been able to save 100 million pounds of food scraps from landfills that went into composts. Landfills also emit methane gas, which is contributing to global warming! Everything is interconnected.
How did Sophia become a public facing advocate? “Through immense transparency”, comments Sophia. She never represented herself as a perfect environmental individual who is living her life according to tight standards. She is not a Greta, nor a Steve Bannon. And much like everyone else, she lies in the middle of the sustainability spectrum. This approach to sharing her life in an honest way enabled her to find a voice authentic to the values she believes in. And as she delved deeper into this journey and overcame the initial (and hardest) transition, she realised it had become a natural part of her lifestyle.
For Sophia, her personal lifestyle was spearheaded by changes that came extremely slowly. She tries not to use single-use plastic and avoids takeout. Supporting small businesses can be done by bringing reusable containers. She rides her bike everywhere- even to fashion week (with heels on). She tries to stick to a plant based diet. She is growing her own scallions (s/o TikTok trends!). Local composting and community gardens are accessible in cities like New York if you can’t grow them at home. Breanne Delgado, co-founder of the Women’s March (@bybreanne) is amazing to follow for inspiration! And finally, there are always local options. Common Ground Compost in Brooklyn, NY is one of many.
For Chloe, her California childhood was characterised by growing her own plants, or eating grass-fed meat. She faced difficulties while traveling internationally, but that only strengthened her belief in sticking to her commitment to lead a low waste lifestyle, even if that was only 80% of the time.
So how can others begin to lean into these practices? If you have sustainability oriented friends, talk to them, Sophia advises. Learn from them and have them humanise sustainability for you. It’s her secret gateway sustainability hack. Beyond personal resources, educational ones like Slow Factory offers courses like ‘Sustainable Literacy’ that give a really good background. It’s accessible, personable and champions social education. Another great project is Lonely Whale. Her general overview is to learn what is interesting to you- whether that is ocean, food or fashion activism. Anna Sacks of The Trashwalker on Instagram, for example, helps followers learn more about the ins and outs of which corporations to support. And if you are that sustainable friend yourself, begin talking about active changes you are making to your lifestyle. We need to make sustainability exciting and approachable!
One of Sophia’s favorite quotes about sustainability is- “Every time you purchase something, you cast a vote for the world you want to live in”. A plastic bottle purchase has strong repercussions in pushing a narrative forward that is okay with having them live forever in the world. A reusable bottle, on the other hand, showcases a stance against this.
Consumerism is everywhere, and we are too desensitized to it. This pandemic has made us all introspect. Trips to grocery stores take longer. So we are buying less. And there is hope that this intentional consumerism has lasting effects.
When it comes to fashion, the last thing Sophia wanted to do was purchase more clothing while being an editor at Vogue. So she stopped buying them altogether. Now, she buys clothes that are only sustainably made. When she is travelling, she supports small businesses and independent designers. An app she uses often is Wardrobe (@wear.wardrobe) which allows her to rent from closets. She is also a big believer in reselling the clothes she cannot personally rent herself.
For Sophia, there is an urgent need to address textile wastes in landfills in developing countries like Ghana where most of our donated clothes end up. So being conscious about selecting outlets for donations is something to consider. She likes Housing Works that helps to provide and create jobs in local communities in New York. When it comes to donating shoes, Chloe recommends Soles4Souls who donate shoes to entrepreneurs in other countries. They in turn help setup second hand markets in their local economies.
In cases of intimate products like underwear, Sophia also tries to champion other circular brands like Knickey that allow customers to send in underwear for textile recycling. “Find brands that you like that have a fair price for what they are offering, and support them at full price!”, adds Chloe. That is how we will be able to take steps towards resetting the markdown attitude that is weighing on the fashion industry today.
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To kick off Circularity Week—podcaster, entreprenuer, and our friend, Liv Perez of Friend of a Friend interviewed Sandra Capponi of Good on You on The Future of Sustainable Fashion.
]]>We sat down with sustainable fashion leaders that are shifting paradigms and implementing a closed loop life cycle - from supply chain to recycling and repurposing. Here are a few key take aways on what other brands are doing, from design to supply chain to creating new products. We talk to Gonzalo Pertile of Madewell, Maggie Marilyn of Maggie Marilyn, Natasha Franck of EON about reducing textile waste at small, medium, and large supply chains - moderated by Sarah Spellman of Vogue. By gaining multiple perspectives in deadstock, innovation, and sourcing, we challenge the traditional linear economy model. Here are a few of our standout moments and key takeaways. The panel transcription has been edited and summarized for clarity.
How do you define a circular economy?
Natasha: A circular economy is a system of use and reuse - it is a business model that enables businesses to design into a circular system.
Gonzalo: Parting ways with a traditional linear model of use and discard and making sure that you are able to keep the materials in use as much as possible. Once you reach end of life of product, look for ways to reuse and recycle old materials into a new material. Design is the first mile of the product, if you're incorporating ways from the beginning that a model can be designed out - so once you get to the end you can reuse it again.
Maggie: Circularity is designing to a system that's restorative. For our new line, we had to go back to school and ask ourselves: how do we design a product keeping in mind a full life cycle of a garment?
Natasha, could you walk us through what EON does?
Natasha: Eon is an end-to-end product digitization platform. Essentially, for a business, we identify every item. When we treat products as assets, we identify it. Brands have always categorized products for supply chain, but once that product is sold, they remove the identifier from the product because there's no way to track its and there's no end of life system. What EON does is we work with the brand to ID that product and embed that identity of the product such that it can be ID'ed beyond that point of sale. we view circular economy as the largest global logistics challenge. we know we all play a part in ensuring that - and EON believes it starts at identity.
Stuart and Chloe, in the recycling process for Thousand Fell, how much of the shoe do you estimate that you lose in turning one into another?
Stuart: About 80% of the shoe gets recycled into a new shoe. The other 20% are things like the foot board that's made from palm tree leaf and coconut husk that gets composted. The most important part of the design process is that we started with our recycling team - the recycling partners on the R&D team selected every material starting two years ago.
Chloe: The way that a circular economy is ever going to work on a large scale is if both the consumers and the business benefit by something being returned and so we have to change the mindset of a consumer with a product saying, for example my sweatshirt is Nike, "I own this" to "I co-own this with Nike". I'm owning the product as long as I want, but when I'm ready to turn it back Nike wants the value of this material back because they designed into it, they sourced it, they can make something new with it and maybe make something new with it with the costs of goods sold.
Gonzalo, for a company like Madewell with so much name recognition, what does circularity look like with a company that didn't start as a circular company?
Gonzalo: What we're looking at in particular are ways that we can keep denim out of landfills and help our customers to use their denim as long as possible. So we offer repair services in store. That's how we see the circular economy making sure you're able to make the best use out of one product and extend the life cycle of product. But then we also know that customers fall out of love with product - so we give consumers an adoption to return old denim to us so that it doesn't end up in a landfill. It's call [](link to this landing page)Blue Jeans Go Green. Through this program we've been able to recycle 1 million pairs of jeans.
Maggie, how do you approach pricing somewhere as a sustainable line but also as an accessible diffusion line?
Maggie: We learned a lot from predominately beginning as a wholesale business and not much revenue came from DTC prior to our new line - there are challenges in the wholesale system of partners that are 'clipping the ticket', making it more expensive to the end consumer. I started receiving emails from customers about how much they love Maggie Marilyn and wanted to buy into our shared values but it wasn't something they could afford. That was a lightbulb for me - that I had created a brand with sustainable values but not a brand that everyone could afford. Why should sustainability be a luxury? I knew I wanted to create a line of affordable essentials. Our Somewhere line is a DTC offering so we managed to get that price point by simplifying each product and cutting out the middleman of traditional retail model and going straight to the consumer.
What are you planning next for MM?
We're doing a new release this September - but what I wanted to focus on is slowing down the cycle of producing new and putting out new product which was one of my frustrations with our main line. It doesn't allow for fabric innovation and product innovation. For our Somewhere line we've decided we're only going to do one launch a year so we have a whole year of R&D.
What are some of the roadblocks that brands face in transitioning to a circular business model and what are some of the limitations of circularity?
Gonzalo: From a large brand perspective, there are some technologies that aren't ready for implementation at a larger scale. Although there are solutions, they aren't market ready. What we do at Madewell is we follow very closely innovations but we know that our brand wouldn't be ready to implement technologies at a large scale. We try to adopt things that easy to incorporate in our collections - there are little steps that help in moving towards a circular future.
Natasha: The customer is a stakeholder in the value chain. We talk about supply chain transparency and its about tracking that product through design, development, logistics, to point of sale. Now, the custodian of the product is the consumer. We have to ask how do we engage the customer and ensure that they have the right information so that they can make sure the product gets to the right place? How do we make them care?
Chloe and Stuart: The main issues we ran into as a small company was scale and price. When we started our sourcing journey for materials, we probably tested 40 different versions and our eighth iteration of leather. We landed on that option because it could allow us to affordable create the product.
From large to small businesses and everything in between, circularity isn't just about recycling. Anything that diverts a product from a landfill is a step in the right direction towards the circular economy. That's anything from repair to keep products in use longer, resale and being able to keep value within the product as long as possible, as well as recycling. To view how Thousand Fell is committed to social responsibility.
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With the products we want just a click away, we often forget how much waste is created in the warehousing, shipping, and returns process of shopping online. Luckily, Ben Jones of Ohi & Andrew Pease of Happy Returns are creating future-thinking solutions for modern problems.
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You've created a sustainable product, now what? We spoke with sustainable branding & communications leaders Carrie Ellen Phillips of BPCM & Stacy Flynn of Evrnu about how to communicate with press, your customer, and how to live up to your mission.
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We caught up with Thousand Fell sneaker designers Joshua Karl Johnson and Terry Depietro to discuss the merging of art and science that is circular product design.
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Are you a material nerd? So are we. We were thrilled to chat with with Susan Schofer of Modern Meadow, Veronica Chou of Everybody & Everyone, and Rodrigo Caula of Nuova about the future of material innovation.
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For Circularity Week 2020, we sat down with environmentalists and industry game changers united under a common goal: bringing awareness and education towards a circular economy. See our conversation with Tom Szaky, Founder and CEO of Terracycle, on recycling and waste innovation below.
Tom Szaky is a true recycling and waste innovation legend. He is the Founder and CEO of Terracycle, a social enterprise offering a range of national, easy-to-use recycling platforms. Terracycle has helped over 202 million people in 21 countries to collect and recycle enough waste to raise over 44 million dollars for charities around the world.
"The root cause of waste? Using something once," Szaky says. If we want to a circular economy, we have to involve all aspects of the supply chain in a conversation about recycling - especially end of life solutions for used products. Szaky gives both businesses and consumers advice on how to waste less and impact change.
Waste management is different from one side of a state to another - which is what makes regulating recycling in particular so difficult. For example, what can be recycled in one facility can't be recycled in another, and as a consumer, you don't necessarily know where your recycling is going once you put it out for collection.
While something can be recycled, if not separated accordingly into its recyclable parts (such as a textile that is a blend of both polymers and natural textiles), there's a lot of effort involved on the recycling management system to separate things into their parts - and so often, these things are what crowd landfills.
As consumers, we need solutions to eliminate as much packaging as possible. Items such as soap bars and produce contain little to no packaging. If packaging cannot be avoided, aim to buy packaging that can be repurposed or reused - or easily
The most powerful actor, the one who thinks they have the least power, is the consumer. By buying products that Consumers are voting for the future they want by what they buy - so let's buy things we want to see more of.
Taking the extra step to learn about how waste is managed in your neighborhood or community is an easy step towards being a conscious consumer. Consider looking into compost drop-off programs, recycling guidelines in your area, and for more grey areas - Szaky's Terracycle is a great place for information and education. We've compiled great recycling resources at the end of this article!
Szaky identifies three textile categories: natural, pure polymers, and hybrids. From an end of life POV, Szaky recommends using pure natural textiles (wools, cottons, silks) that can be broken down and reused. Pure Polymers, created with plastic, can be recycled as well once broken down. The problem is when using hybrid textiles, that is - a mixture of pure polymers and natural textiles - breaking down the item becomes more difficult.
"The biggest thing we're missing is excitement or apathy - we have to make people care. The same way that the plastic straw movement is connected to sea turtles" says Szaky. When people engage, and react towards recycling, that's when we can pivot to better education surrounding recycling.
At Thousand Fell, we have a community of brands and industry shakers that are committed to creating a circular economy. For Circularity Week 2020, we got to chat with many founders about the steps they're taking to create change - from small, medium, and large business alike. As a starting point, we talk to Maggie Marilyn of Maggie Marilyn, Gonzalo Pertile of Madewell, and Natasha Frank of EON, on what they're doing to shift their businesses towards sustainable practices.
The challenge in recycling education is that it is fragmented. What can be recycled in one country is different from what can be recycled in another. Even from one side of a state to another, recycling is determined by the waste management system. A safe rule of thumb is that if you can't avoid packaging, buy easily recyclable types 1 and 2 plastic, clear glass, uncoated paper, and aluminum. Almost all recyclers will recycle these materials. Staying within this purchasing pattern simplifies and feeds the waste management system what it wants.
At Thousand Fell, we're consumers as much as we are producers. What is Thousand Fell doing to create a circular economy? Our shoes are made with end of life in mind. Once you've worn them out, return them to us and we'll break them down For more on our commitment to recycling and how we're building, visit our education page here. We're curious to see what you're doing to immerse yourself into conscious consumerism. Got any tips? Let us know in the comments!
Recycle Right by Waste Management : On how to organize your recycling, how to get started recycling, and what is and isn't recyclable.
The EPA's Guide to Composting At Home : Making compost keeps these materials out of landfills where they take up space and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. This guide is perfect for those looking to get into composting.
Grow NYC: What's in Your Waste?: Interested in what really collects in trash bags on the sidewalks of NYC? This helpful guide walks you through what's being thrown out.
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The first time we met Henry Lihn & Barnett Zitron was when they asked to feature Thousand Fell on their podcast, Better World. We had such a great conversation - and were so inspired by their personal sustainability journeys - that we decided to turn the tables and ask them a few questions.
Better World x Thousand Fell podcast available to listen here.
]]>The onset of COVID-19 was jarring for everyone. We wanted to use our available resources to give back and to better understand how we could support our community during this time. To help navigate the crisis, we turned to friends running small businesses we admire—Caroline Beckman of Nouri, Hiro Shinn of Koa, Rooshy Roy of Avaarani, and Veronica Chou of Everybody & Everyone to discuss the best path forward.
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