The launch of its Global Design Standards, a methodology designed to lessen the negative environmental and social effects of Wrangler and Lee clothing, has been announced by US-based Kontoor Brands, Inc., a worldwide lifestyle apparel company with a portfolio highlighted by consumer brands Wrangler and Lee.
Kontoor strives to address the largest value chain elements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, chemical use, and worker well-being by concentrating on designing goods with preferred ingredients, low-impact fabric, and low-impact finishing.
The Global Design Standards from Kontoor make it easier to produce goods with fewer negative effects on the environment and society. The procurement and sourcing teams ensure collaboration with supply chain partners to carry out the standards established by Kontoor, the company said in a press release.
Kontoor’s design and product development teams carefully choose the materials and processes being used to build garments using the Global Design Standards as a guide, the company said.
The material must be supported by evidence proving its environmental and/or social impact in order to be included on Kontoor’s Recommended Materials List. Presently, 70 per cent of the fabric materials used in a product must be derived from Kontoor’s Preferred Materials List in order for it to comply with the company’s Global Design Standards for preferred materials.
Focusing on freshwater use in the production of fabric, the fabric must originate from a denim mill that has attained at least a 90 per cent reduction in freshwater use from a baseline in 2018-2019 for a product to meet the Low Impact Fabric criterion. With Kontoor’s Indigood Program, the savings must be independently confirmed by a third party.
The Environmental Impact Measure (EIM) instrument from Jeanologia evaluates the use of water, energy, chemicals, and worker health to determine a finishing process score. The EIM tool’s ‘low impact’ scores meet the requirements for the low-impact finishing standard.
“At Kontoor, we produce millions of products each year globally. With that kind of scale, the choices we make about what goes into our products have the potential to guide the industry toward meaningful change,” said Jeff Frye, VP, sustainability, innovation, product development, and procurement, Kontoor Brands.
“Our Global Design Standards allow us to tackle the product stages that have impact on people and our planet. While we initially aim to have each of our products meet one of the three standards, we are actively striving to reach new levels of innovation and sustainability that will continually improve the sustainable performance of our products,” he added.
“We are committed to developing responsible products, and that begins with approaching design through a purposeful lens and a commitment to using innovative processes and materials,” said Vivian Rivetti, VP, global design, Wrangler.
Products that adhere to the Global Design Standards will be marked with a WeCare Wrangler badge, first appearing on the brand’s website. Products must currently adhere to one of Kontoor’s three Global Design Standards in order to receive the badge. Later this year, a similar programme will be introduced for the Lee brand as part of the For A World That Works worldwide sustainability platform.
