Eco Brands We 💚
Your guide to sustainable brands
Looking for your next favourite sustainable brand? In this guide, we list some amazing ethical and eco-friendly brands that we particularly like at Beeco.
People Tree
People Tree’s story started back in 1991 and the UK brand has been a strong representative of sustainable and fair trade fashion ever since. It is also the first fashion company to be awarded the World Fair Trade Organisation product label.
They commit to produce eco-friendly clothes and organic cotton pyjamas and leggings, not only by using sustainable fabrics (such as organic cotton, Tencel and responsible wool), but also by following environmental and health best practices all along the process. In that way, they adhere to certifications such as GOTS, they use low impact dyes, free from harmful chemicals, and they avoid plastic and toxic substances as much as they can.
Their dedication to fair trade means they are going further than offering clothes made from eco-friendly materials. Indeed, they put a great amount of efforts into improving the life of the workers involved in the manufacturing of their clothes, in terms of wages, gender equality and working conditions.
Their partnership with Assisi Garments says it all. Nestled in the mountainous, tropical forests of South India where the few remaining Bengal tigers are still on the prowl, Assisi Garments skillfully weaves, prints and sews sustainable clothes for People Tree.
This partnership is, before anything else, a friendship. Together they achieved the world’s first Soil Association Global Organic Textile Standards mark. Their organic cotton clothes are certified at the highest level.
But People Tree go one step further than just buying organic products from hard working communities. They actually send Assisi Garments a 50% advance before they’ve even laid eyes on the product, unlike the big brand clothing companies (we know who you are) who only release funds 90 days after unloading the clothes in the UK.
Without this advance (used to pay the cotton farmers, workers, suppliers and deliverers) they’d need a loan from the local bank. The extortionate interest rate attached would see the cost of their yoga pants rise higher than the urdhva hastasana pose.
Costs are kept low for you, cotton farmers are paid fairly for their organic cotton, Assisi don’t need to take extortionate loans and their seamstresses are paid regular, reliable wages. It’s a win, win, win, win, win
Find some products from People Tree
Thought – a Thoughtful World
Thought’s adventure started in Australia back in 1995, when 2 friends launched a simple capsule collection of natural and cool clothing . In 2002, they brought the brand to London and jumping forward to today, you can find their clothes in over 1000 shops all over the world.
That success doesn’t stop them to keep things simple though. With a team of 30 people in London, Thought remains a small business, working together as a family to create sustainable and timeless fashionable pieces.
In terms of fabrics, they focus on using exclusively eco-friendly fabrics that are free from harmful pesticides and chemical. Not only are these fabrics environmentally friendly, but they are also stronger and softer.
Amongst these, you can find naturally grown bamboo, cotton wool and hemp but also more innovative fabrics such as Tencel, modal and recycled plastic.
Also, because having eco-friendly clothes doesn’t mean anything if not produced ethically, they consider every impact their business has, from the sourcing of raw materials to the delivery of the final product. Following that purpose, they work only with ethical suppliers (including the same factories when they started the adventure), they make their clothes in the same country and they use slow shipping.
Their mantra is “Wear Me, Love Me, Mend Me, Pass Me On”. They support and promote slow fashion by producing durable timeless clothes and by encouraging their clients to take good care of their clothes in order to make them “live longer”.
Want to be part of their thoughtful world? Start with following their advice:
- commit to wearing clothing more than once before washing
- repair (rather than replace) clothes when needed
- give unwanted clothes to friends, family or charity
Organicbasics – Sustainable, Better Made Basics
Organicbasics is relatively new in the world of sustainable fashion. But they are already rubbing shoulders with the top brands. Behind this project are 4 danish friends based in Copenhagen and since 2015 they are working on designing better made, sustainable basics.
“Buy, wear, wash, throw away”. Sounds familiar with underwear right? Even with expensive brands… It’s this unsustainable lifecycle and its related waste of time and money that motivated the four friends to change the trend.
Always in the lookout for more sustainability opportunities, they take green steps wherever they can, from the fabrics to the delivery, going through the whole supply chain. They even use LED lights in their European factories.
Now, as their name suggests, they focus on the basics. They started the adventure with men underwear but rapidly expanded their collection with socks and t-shirts, for both men and women. But what they do, they do it well.
Most of their products are made of GOTS certified organic cotton, sourced locally (from ethical factories) in Turkey and they focus on offering a timeless design. With durable fabrics, no seasonal collections and basic colours, they make sure your basics will last longer and won’t go out of fashion.
But they even go further in their search of sustainability. They noticed around ⅔ of the environmental impact of a piece of clothing comes from washing and drying it.
With that in mind they created an innovative fabric called SilverTech. That blend of cotton and pure silver results in a heat-regulating, antibacterial and odorless fabric.
