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Girlfriend Collective

US · girlfriend.com

Girlfriend Report 2019

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December 31, 2019 11:46am

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Everything we did this year, together.

Girlfriend Collective

We work hard to do the right thing — but we couldn’t do anything without you. By choosing Girlfriend and other sustainable brands, you help support global recycling industries, safe work environments, and fair wages for the people who make your clothes. Here’s a breakdown of everything we did this year, together.

The Materials By making our clothes from recycled materials, we divert waste from landfills, help remove fishing nets from the oceans, and eliminate the need to use raw materials like crude oil. Thanks to you, this year we recycled 2,372,921 water bottles and turned them into our Compressive bras, leggings, and shorts. Since launch, we’ve diverted over 10 million from landfills. Through our LITE fabric, we helped remove 22,599 pounds of fishing nets from the oceans. It’s estimated that discarded fishing nets make up 46% of all ocean plastic, and cause needless harm and death to marine life. Our partners Econyl and Healthy Seas work with divers to retrieve these nets and turn them into 100% regenerated yarn.

The Manufacturing Sacrificing the people who make your clothes shouldn’t be industry standard and will never be ours. All of our clothing is made in factories certified by SA8000 or WRAP and guarantee safe and healthy working conditions, fair wages, and no forced or child labor ever. We also make regular visits throughout the year to ensure ethical production and say hello. ;) All of our pieces are dyed using OEKO and Bluesign-certified dyes, and any water used is thoroughly cleaned and cooled before it is released. Every single drop of water used to dye our fabric is sent to a wastewater treatment plant 100 feet away from the machines. Any dye mud resulting from the process is sent to a pavement facility to be recycled into paving stones. You can take a tour of our dyehouse and wastewater treatment plant, recycling facility, and cut and sew factory in our Instagram Highlights if you’re interested in cool things and science. (Ahem, who isn’t?)

The Savings Using recycled materials to make your clothes does more than just divert waste from landfills. Check out how it also helps preserve resources and minimize our footprint. 1,818,950 lbs of CO2 prevented by making our clothes from pre-existing, post-consumer materials 1,997,920 gallons of water prevented by making our tees out of cupro, rather than traditional cotton, and using other recycled waste 78,976 KWH of energy saved through our LITE Leggings, bodysuits, and GF OTG windbreakers and shorts We still haven’t done the math on how much plastic we’ve saved by shipping our gear in reusable pouches versus traditional polybags… but we’re going to guesstimate it’s “a lot.”

Giving Back As a small company with 12 full time employees, it isn’t always easy to give as we grow. But with your support, this year we were able to donate to a few causes that mean a lot to us. - Together, we planted 2,000 trees through One Tree Planted - Donated $6,000 to Amazon Watch - Gave $14,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Donated $1,000 to Ocean Conservancy for World Oceans Day As we go into 2020, we are excited to continue donating a percentage of all LITE sales to Healthy Seas to assist in their efforts to clean our oceans and preserve marine life.

Closing the Loop

By far, the thing we’re most proud of this year is our recycling program, ReGirlfriend. Through this program, we’re able to accept used, worn, and torn Girlfriend Compressive pieces and recycle them into future clothes. First, we made bras and leggings out of recycled water bottles. Now we’re recycling those clothes into new ones. It’s new stuff made from old stuff… made from old stuff.

The Microfiber Filter Did you know all synthetic fabrics shed tiny pieces of plastic called microfibers in the wash? (It’s true. Even your favorite cozy fleece, bikini, vintage dress, and, yep, Girlfriend leggings.) For a long time, we recommended using a washing machine filter for washing synthetics, but then we realized just how inaccessible filters can be. So, we decided to make our own. It’s estimated that 60% of our wardrobes are made from synthetic materials — using a filter helps capture these fibers before they can enter water streams, keeping microfibers out of the oceans and away from the creatures that inhabit them.

Thank You We couldn’t have done anything this year without your support. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for making 2019 our best year yet. If there’s anything you’d like to see from us in 2020, we’d love to hear about it. Email us at sustainability@girlfriend.com and let us know.

Don't make waste. Wear it.

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Girlfriend Collective
1414 NE 42nd St Suite 400
Seattle, Washington 98105

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