This week is Fashion Revolution week, so we wanted to share the changes we've made to be more sustainable this year. As part of our company values, we are committed to making constant efforts to decrease our economic impact and to promote transparency, not only in our business but in that of other fashion retailers too.

LITTLE CHANGES, BIG IMPACT

CHANGE # 1: PAPER. Folding, where folding was done before.

To lessen our paper waste, we updated to recycled packaging to ensure even less paper was used to ship out your favourite orders. These versatile sacks made from recycled paper allow us to pack more without using more. Drawing innovation from natural patterns found in the earth, we designed the packaging to inspire you to protect #OurPlanetOurPlayground and remember to recycle your packaging again.

CHANGE #2: REUSABLE. Bags that are promised a long, healthy life.

Although we are working towards phasing out all plastic, we still need it at the moment to keep you’re your brand new garments protected and safe in shipments. We now only allow our factories to use reusable garment bags. That means no extra waste is created by one-time-use bags in the production to purchase process. Very soon we hope to eliminate this plastic use altogether.

 

CHANGE # 3: TAPE. Re-thinking how it's sticking.

When orders are packed, tape is essential, but can often be overlooked. Hundreds of metres of tape are used to secure boxes and parcels. As tape is a big part of protecting garment orders from harm, we knew we should look to bettering this part of our practice. This year, we upgraded to a tape made from recycled paper.

The tape uses a natural latex rubber adhesive from trees that don’t typically need pesticides to grow. It’s the all natural tape you’ve been longing for. Not to mention, it’s 100% biodegradable. As the manufacturer's say, ‘Sticking things together no longer has to be a sticking point, environmentally speaking.’

Paper can be recycled up to 7 times, so make sure you recycle your tape and packaging once again after your items arrive.

CHANGE #4: SHIPPING. Keeping it crowded.

This year, we re-negotiated with our factories and made sure they better understand the terms for our shipments.  They must send the garments in boxes that are not half full, but completely full. And they must do all in their capacity to best reduce the amount of boxes, transportation costs, and emissions as much as possible.

CHANGE #5: FIXINGS. From plastic to twine.

Have you ever considered how the tag to your beautiful new garment was attached? No? Well we do for you. We’d been previously attaching our swing tickets with plastic. A swing ticket is the helpful card full of great information about the origins of your organic and recycled garments that comes attached to your new clothing. Every garment has them, and most of them are using tons of plastic to attach and re-attach tags to garments.


We’ve updated all of our 2018 garments to a natural jute twine to save another 'single-use' plastic from going into landfills and the ocean.

CHANGE #6: RECYCLING. Once trash, now treasure.

In our most recent season, we’ve upped the ante on recycling and now have new garments with a higher concentration of recycled fibres than ever before. Some of our garments are made of fully recycled fibres (minus a little elastane mix for your ease of movement), like the GEO TITAN and SOLSTICE, but this year we offer the ECLIPSE and two types of the LUNA bra with a higher recycled content than ever.

CHANGE #7: BOUTIQUE STYLE. Numbers with intention.

If you’re a long-term follower of 3RD ROCK, you may have noticed that we have limited stock. Our boutique-style items are also usually exclusive to our seasons. In the past year, we’ve upped our efforts to run the numbers and use the best strategy to create even less garment waste. We aren’t fans of mass-producing. We hope that your 3RD ROCK kit is loved and worn to death. We try to keep our stock appropriate to what people may purchase and offer sample sales to make sure every clothing item we make is loved and used and not just thrown away.

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WHAT’S COMING NEXT?

We realise there are gaps we can fill in our business to help make all of our practices even more sustainable. At the moment, we are focusing our efforts on working towards phasing out as much plastic use as possible and to eventually strive to be 100% recycled on top of our organic cotton fabrics. We have been 100% organic since the start, but there’s still room to grow in reusing product that already exists.

Want to join us being GREEN? Play our 'How Green Are You?' QUIZ to WIN an Earth Collection organic tee.