Sustainability change for 100 Point Challenge
Did you know that cotton is the most widespread profitable non-food crop in the world? Providing income for 250 million people worldwide, this crop alone employs almost 7% of all labor in developing countries. Approximately half of all textiles are made of cotton.
However, unfortunately the crop is also environmentally unsustainable, and according to WWF it takes 2,700 litres of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt (enough water to sustain a person for 900 days) and 20,000 to produce a pair of jeans. And water usage is just one of the issues with cotton- add in land clearing, heavy pesticide use, transportation costs, etc, and it becomes clear that we should be looking for more sustainable alternatives.
For anyone who has taken one of our challenges, or if you check out our social accounts, you would be familiar with our cream-coloured totes with black print, made from-yes- cotton. We love these bags and their retro feel, and aim to extend their life by reusing and washing them. However, given what we know about cotton, we knew that we could not in good conscious continue with the same style, and so looked for an alternative.
We are really happy with the result! In the end we went with Recycle Bags, a Dutch company which turns recycled PET (rPET) plastic into foldable shopping bags- 3 plastic bottles = 1 bag. Bags made from rPET have the lowest environmental impact compared to alternatives made from natural materials like paper, cotton or jute. They also look fantastic, and being water-resistant and light makes them perfect for use in the 100 Point Challenge.
So, what are we going to do with our existing, used cotton totes that have the tendency to shrink when washed? Well, very fortunately, we are proud to have Lily Dreyer as a challenge leader in Copenhagen. Lily is also a climate advocate and social entrepreneur. She is a founder of the company WAIR, which is turning textile waste into amazing sneakers, but also regularly holds up-cycling workshops and sewing courses around Copenhagen. She was recently interviewed by StartUp Playground about how up-cycling is the best choice for the environment.
So, via Lily’s connections, we are very happy to be donating all of our old cotton totes, which will be cleverly up-cycled, and then given for free to participating shops around Copenhagen for their customers to use, avoiding the need to provide plastic bags. Hoorah!
We still have a way to go to make the 100 Point Challenge as sustainable as we can, however it is our aim to continue to commit to:
Always recycling all plastic, paper, metal, glass and other waste, such as batteries and printer cartridges (recycling is a national past-time, if you happen to be from the nordics),
Carbon offsetting all future necessary business flights, and, where possible, catching the train instead.
Rethinking the elements of our product that can be replaced with more sustainable alternatives, even where it’s more costly.
Even though we are a small business we feel it is important to do what we can to minimise our carbon footprint, and the new bags is one small step in the right direction.
Anna, Dan and the team 100 Point Challenge