Glossary
1.5 Degree Pathway
A course of actions motivated by the quest to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Agreed on in the 2016 Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The 1.5-degree pathway is defining the pace that is needed in order to decarbonize our planet.
ACT Commitment
ACT (Action, Collaboration, Transformation) is an agreement between 20 global brands and The Global Union IndustriALL working to transform the garment, textile and footwear industry and achieve living wages for workers through collective bargaining.
Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)
The Better Cotton Initiative is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization that promotes better standards in cotton farming. Licensed BCI farmers must meet core BCI requirements like minimizing the harmful effects of pesticides, protecting soil health, biodiversity, water security and committing to decent work principles.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity describes the enormous variety of life on Earth and refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals and fungi.
Carbon Pricing
Carbon pricing is a mechanism that increases awareness and impacts behavior. By translating emissions into cost and increasing the price of high emitting raw materials, it increases the pace of our transition away from fossil fuels.
Circular Business Models
Business models aimed at minimizing waste and making efficient and continual use of resources, encouraging regenerative inputs, reuse and recycling. Circular products are made to last, from safe, recycled and sustainably sourced input that can recirculate multiple times.
Closing the Loop
A closed loop system is one where products and their components are made, used and cared for to circulate for as long as possible, maximizing usage and minimizing environmental impacts.
Footprint
The term is most used in our industry as short for ecological or environmental footprint and refers to the effect human actions have on the environment, for example the number of natural resources we use and the amount of harmful gases that we produce.
Hazardous chemicals
Hazardous chemicals are not just those that have been regulated or restricted, but any chemical with intrinsically hazardous properties.
HIGG Index
Developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the Higg Index is a suite of tools that enables brands, retailers, and facilities of all sizes to accurately measure and score a company or product's sustainability performance.
Life-Cycle assessment (LCA)
A methodology to assess the environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product’s life, from raw material extraction through to materials processing, distribution and use, to the recycling or final disposal of the materials composing it.
Living Wage
A fair living wage is an income earned during normal working hours that meets the basic needs of workers and their families, with some leftover for extra expenses or savings.
Net-zero
Net-zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. It implies cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible. We cannot currently decrease our emissions 100% to achieve absolute zero. Instead, we need to take action to balance out any residual emissions to reach net-zero.
Organic Agriculture
A production system that does not use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides and seeks to sustain the health of soils, ecosystems and people.
Post-Consumer waste
Post-consumer waste is a waste type produced by the end consumer, like for example used garments.
Pre-Consumer waste
Material discarded before it was ready for consumer use, like textile scraps.
Recycled materials
An important part of approaching a circular supply chain is to increase the share of recycled materials. The source of the materials can be pre-consumer, waste from a manufacturing process, or post-consumer, from products that have been in use by a consumer.
Remade
When we talk about remade clothes, we refer to styles that are created from unsold garments, textiles from older collections and second-hand garments.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is energy that is generated from natural processes that are continuously replenished, including sunlight, wind, geothermal heat, wind, water and tides.
Responsible materials
What we call the materials that are made from recycled or sustainably sourced resources. They all have less environmental impact than conventional materials.
Supply chain
Our supply chain is complex and can contain several different levels or ‘tiers’, depending on the material. The two we talk about most in this report are tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers, with whom we have the closest relationships and the most influence.
Sustainably Sourced
For us, ’sustainably sourced’ materials are materials that have significantly lower environmental footprint than the comparable raw material, optimizes the use of natural resources and protects welfare of animals.
Tier 1 Suppliers
When we talk about tier 1 suppliers, we mean manufacturing suppliers and subcontracted factories, who make our products by cutting, sewing and processing.
Tier 2 Suppliers
When we talk about tier 2 suppliers, we mean suppliers one step back in the supply chain, often the supplier that provides the fabrics and yarns for our products, including spinning and fabric dyeing and printing facilities.
Third-Party Certifications
When we decide on a material’s responsibility status, we base our definitions on assessments of the material’s full lifecycle and rely on third-party certifications or other robust schemes. Certifications include:
Organic Content Standard (OCS)
Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)
Recycled Claim Standard (RCS)
Global Recycled Standard (GRS)
Responsible Wool Standard (RWS)
Transparency
To share clear, accurate, relevant information in an honest way, to create accountability and encourage others to do the same. Collect and disclose responsibility information relating to our supply chain, products and business practices to increase visibility and enable informed choices.
Upcycling
When we refer to upcycling, we refer to processes in which “old” products are modified and given a higher value as they are turned into a new product.