{"id":24814,"title":"The Best Vegan Clothing Brand\u2026 By Accident","description":"We didn\u2019t set out to be a vegan company. It was just the most logical, most efficient system that produced the least waste.\u00a0 Using plants is simply better for the environment and people, and means we can keep materials in use for longer. Vegan by accident, waste-free by nature.","content":"

Let's start this blog post on the subject of cow burps. A very good place to start, because cow burps are the <\/span>biggest contributor<\/u><\/span><\/a> to the world\u2019s methane emissions. Methane is <\/span>a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide<\/u><\/span><\/a>. And that makes cow burps something we need to address urgently when it comes to tackling the climate crisis.<\/span><\/p>

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Reaching a critical level of cow burps actually came about when we humans were trying to make producing meat more efficient. Turns out that in some respects, we did a really bad job of that. Changing the meat industry into a production line - or factory farming - may be financially more fruitful, but it also means more cows and more throughput. That in turn means more rainforests being cleared for cattle ranching. It also means (you guessed it) more cow burps. Cheaper for the producer and the consumer, but ultimately, at a much higher cost for the environment. And, of course, the cows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>


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You don\u2019t have to be vegan to do the maths and realise that this is not a sustainable system.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

A meat eater\u2019s diet needs <\/span>14 times more water and 10 times more energy<\/u><\/span><\/a> to sustain than that of a vegetarian. 80% of the world\u2019s agricultural land is used for grazing or growing crops to feed livestock, rather than humans. We grow the plants to feed the cow, but why don\u2019t we just skip the cow and eat the plants?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

That is a valid question, and one that we can apply to the other big environmental problems we\u2019re facing. Here\u2019s one for starters: clothing.\u00a0<\/span>
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60% of clothing is made from or with plastic. Plastic is made from fossil fuels, and only <\/span>9% of the plastic ever produced has been recycled<\/u><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 That makes knitwear made from plastic, such as polyester or acrylic, a bad thing. A metaphorical cow burp hiding in the wardrobe. It\u2019s why touting a vegan label does not automatically mean that a product is better for the environment. It\u2019s also why we have a lot of admiration for traditional knitwear. We don't mean industrial turbo merino, but nature's textile. A natural product is always better than a plastic one in our book. But using wool means growing the plant to feed and farm the animal. Sounds familiar, right?<\/span><\/p>

Or, you could just skip the sheep.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

That\u2019s what we did. By <\/span>making our knitwear from organic cotton<\/u><\/span><\/a>, we use less water, less energy, and fewer resources. Our organic cotton isn\u2019t coarse like the wool we\u2019d be able to source locally here in the UK; instead, it has long, soft fibres that make a warm, breathable product. It also means we can incorporate all of our knitwear into our <\/span>circular supply chain<\/u><\/span><\/a>, taking returned worn-out products from our customers and making them into <\/span>new, recycled ones<\/u><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

\"MdHZ1VtaqbOCplPT6XSQQM1IN0askJFtlSGY9TBsKuWOIqtT.jpeg\"We didn\u2019t set out to be a vegan company. It was just the most logical, most efficient system that produced the least waste.\u00a0 Using plants is simply better for the environment and people, and means we can keep materials in use for longer. Vegan by accident, waste-free by nature.<\/span><\/p>


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