Berghaus, a leading outdoor clothing and equipment manufacturer, has pledged to remove a controversial chemical treatment from its clothing by 2020 as part of a continuing move to reduce its manufacturing environmental and social impact. The company announced a range of measures to improve sustainability, including removal of perfluorinated compounds from the durable water repellent treatment applied to its jackets and trousers.
40% of its range will be part of the Made Kind collection by autumn-winter this year, the company added. To qualify, at least one of Berghaus’s four criteria have to be met: use of Colourkind fabrics, using a process dramatically reducing the amount of dye; content of more than 50% recycled fabric or insulation; more than 90% bluesign fabrics; or 100% RDS-certified down. It said the latest Made Kind products include new autumn-winter synthetic insulation that uses recycled plastic bottles in a number of styles.
Also Read – H&M unveils sustainability goals: Here are the Key Points
Berghaus mentioned that it is improving its understanding of the environmental effect of the fabrics and other components that go into its products, recognizing the importance of working with factories that are managing energy, water, waste and chemicals in a responsible and efficient way. “As a bluesign system partner Berghaus is working systematically to increase coverage of factories which are bluesign certified and have therefore been shown to be managing their impacts responsibly. At present, more than 70% of the brand’s fabric suppliers are bluesign system partners,” averred a company spokesperson.
The brand said, as members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Berghaus is leading its parent company Pentland Brands roll out of the Higg Index to improve transparency and provide better understanding of the environmental impacts in the supply chain. “To provide more transparency of the supply chain, for the first time the complete list of Pentland direct factories, including those used to make Berghaus products, is now publicly available in the form of an interactive map. This can be accessed in the ethical trading section of the Berghaus website.
