Tuesday 5 September 2023
Welcome to the green pulse!
Hello sustainable fashionistas!
Welcome to the new look newsletter, renamed the green pulse! I’ve taken on board your comments and suggestions and decided to diversity the newsletter to include all things sustainable fashion beyond the best green deals out there.
I will continue to track the market and special offers will still be included of course, but look forward to a permanent sustainable fashion news section, upcoming events and exciting interviews with sustainable fashion and home brands.
And if you want more, please let me know, I love to hear from you!
So, what’s up this week?
Well first of all, I’m chuffed to bits to bring you my long awaited interview with Sam Mabley, the founder of sustainable, ethical AND affordable fashion brand Yes Friends. Find out how they do it, why they do it and be impressed at just how cool they are. Check out the latest news and events, including the upcoming Sustainable Fashion Week which will be UK-wide this year, and news of how to get K-Pop fans to save the planet, getting paid in France to mend your clothes, sustainability at John Lewis and much more.
And as always, enjoy this weeks’ discount codes helping you to enjoy sustainable fashion just that bit more afforadably (bye bye fast fashion), and our quote of the week, which is showing my age slightly (it’s Pride and Prejudice from 1995 in case you were wondering!).
Enjoy and have a great fortnight 😊
End of season sales & codes
CRANN: Take 40% off all of their eco-friendly sunglasses made from recycled materials with code LastSummerSale. And get a lifetime guarantee too!
Inov-8: Based in the beautiful Lakes, outdoor shoe, apparel & equipment brand Inov-8 care for their gorgeous environment. This weekend, take 40% off 2 of their triathlon shoes with code WEEKENDDEAL01
Veo: Manchester based B Corp Veo source the best independent sustainable brands so you don’t have to. Their end of season sale is now on with up to 75% off!
WUKA Swim: Another certified B Corp, WUKA create period proof sustainable underwear & swimwear. Take 30% off swimwear with code SPLASH30 until 9 Sep.
Made Trade: for gorgeous clothes, furniture & homewares shipped sustainably from the States. 10% off everything with code HELLOFALL until 6 September.
Quote of the week
“The clothes we wear say something about who we are. Let’s make sure they’re saying the right thing.”
Colin Firth (who will always be Mr Darcy to me)
Upcoming events
Sustainable Fashion Week
Get your diary out! From 25 September until 8 October SFW is back and this time even bigger and better. The Bristol based event is branching out this year with 2 day hubs in Manchester, Plymouth, Cardiff, Frome and Brighton in the UK and is even doing hubs in the US, India and Papua New Guinea!
This year’s theme is the Rewear Revolution, celebrating everything second-hand, reworked, reworn and handed down. They will be carrying out workshops including everything from embroidery, sewing and upcycling to charity shopping, clothes swopping and zero waste pattern cutting. Get your tickets now!
Interviews with cool founders
Affordable, ethical & green: Yes Friends Clothing Interview
Can clothing be ethically made, eco-friendly AND affordable? Yes! We talk to trailblazers Yes Friends‘ founder, Sam Mabley to find out how!
What news? Sustainable fashion in the press
Kpop4planet: “It’s Chic to Care”
Kpop4planet is an activist group rallying the power of young Asian K-pop fans globally on important environmental issues. They’ve just launched their new campaign: ‘Unboxed: High Fashion, High Carbon’ to target the luxury fashion labels LVMH (Celine and Dior), Chanel and Kering (Saint Laurent) who have made girl group Blackpink their ambassadors.
It’s great to see campaigns like this getting behind sustainable fashion and calling out fashion labels in front of a large engaged audience of young consumers. You can sign their petition and read more here.
France is going to pay you to get your clothes mended!
The first European country to introduce Extended Producer Responsibility to fashion brands (meaning they are responsible for the end of life of products, which could be in the form of paying for recycling etc.), the country has proven yet again that it’s ahead when it comes to sustainable fashion!
From October, the government is going to give a ‘repair bonus’ of between €6 and €25 to people who fix their clothes rather than binning them. Genius. Let’s hope more governments follow suit soon!
UN releases reports to help the fashion industry reduce its footprint
The UN Climate Change’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action has produced two new reports in conjunction with The Textile Exchange.
These review the greenhouse gas effects of two key groups of raw materials: animal fibres and man-made cellulosics (think viscose, lyocell etc.). Key signatories including Lenzing, Canopy, VF Corporation, Reformation, Primark and Schneider Group inputted into the reports.
John Lewis becomes the first British retailer to have net zero objectives validated by SBTI
The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) has validated John Lewis’ greenhouse gas cutting and circular fashion initiatives. Their proposals include increasing the amount of recycled fibres in their content and they are funding the University of Leeds’ Polyester Infinity project looking into the reuse and re-dyeing of polyester fibres. They are also increasing their deforestation commitments for both food and clothes, and introducing a buyback or take-back solution for all product categories by the end of 2025.
The group is also being more selective about which brands they work with and now stock sustainable fashion brands Thought, Baukjen and Girlfriend Collective among others. Waitrose is also getting in on the act and has asked its key suppliers to commit publically to net zero and to supply them with climate date so that they can see where they can make further reductions.
Forever chemicals found in drinking water in the US (not just our clothes!)
OK so this isn’t strictly related to sustainable fashion but it’s definitely related to home. Up to 26 million residents in the States have found out that there are forever chemicals in their drinking water. These nasty chemicals lead to everything from cancer to developmental deficiencies in children, among other things.
So why mention it here? Well, it’s something I feel really strongly about after recently discovering about forever chemicals in our clothes and beauty products (see our article about the chemicals in our clothes), and I think it needs to be highlighted to as many people as possible.
This is not on. Big companies and governments cannot keep getting away with this. If you’ve not seen the film Dark Waters about one lawyer’s struggle against mega corporation DuPont, I strongly recommend it!
That’s all for now…
I hope you enjoyed our new format newsletter. I’d love to hear from you with any comments about what you think. And sharing is caring, please share with any friends that you think might enjoy!
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All the best
Julie