One of Europe’s leading fashion retailers C&A launched Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Certified™ T-shirts that have achieved GOLD level.
With its new collection, C&A envisions a new future where clothes that we wear do not end up in the landfill, creating waste and polluting the environment. Instead, they are recycled or “become nutrition” for the soil at the end of their use. This new future includes a cycle of use, reuse and rebirth of clothing.
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At the international media presentation of the company’s 2017 Autumn/Winter Collection in Antwerp, Belgium, Global Sustainability Officer of C&A Jeffrey Hogue said, “As an industry, we have an opportunity to move away from the current ‘take, make, waste model’ to a circular model. In practice, this means designing, developing and producing products with their next use in mind; extracting the maximum value from garments while in use, then recovering and regenerating products and materials at the end of use to give them another useful life.“
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C&A’s Cradle to Cradle Certified™ GOLD garments collection includes women’s T-shirts that will be available in C&A stores across 19 European markets in June 2017. C&A will also launch two additional styles, one women’s and one men’s style in Brazil and Mexico in September.
All T-shirts are made of 100% organic cotton. As the results of independent testing by Organic Waste Systems showed, these T-shirts can be even composted at home when no longer used. This compost can be then used for agricultural and horticultural purposes.
“The Cradle to Cradle Certified™ collection is an important milestone for us – and the industry – as it demonstrates unequivocally that creating circular fashion is already possible. We've proved this is possible - and we want others to follow. That's why we are making the design blueprint available to any manufacturer that wants to use it. This breakthrough is too important to keep to ourselves. The industry will need much more collaboration on circular economy approaches like C2C certification, including more brands agreeing to develop products for their next use”, said Jeffrey Hogue.
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As an independent third-party verified certification program, C2C certified™ evaluates products for material health, material reutilization, renewable energy use, water stewardship, and social fairness. Product certification is awarded at five levels (BASIC, BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM). Each higher level imposes a more rigorous set of requirements.
By the way, C&A has become the first fashion retailer worldwide to launch C2C Certified™ T-shirts that have achieved GOLD level.
These are the main benefits of C2C Certified™ products:
- C2C Certified™ products are created by using renewable energy, offsetting carbon emissions, and cleaning the water used in production. This helps to preserve environment, the health of ecosystems and communities where products are manufactured.
- C2C Certified™ products are manufactured in a socially-responsible manner.
- C2C Certified™ products take nature as an inspiration, where the waste of one system becomes food for another. These products are made using safe, healthy materials and can be reused, recycled or composted. Customers are also able to donate used clothing to various organizations throughout Europe to support people in need.
Check out C&A’s online shop here.
By Natalie Myhalnytska