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Sustainability
Sustainability is often considered in relation to raw materials, but at Pachacuti we believe that sustainability has to be integrated into the entire supply chain. We are the first organisation in the world to be certified against the World Fair Trade Organisation's Sustainable Fair Trade Management System which brings sustainability issues into every area of our policy and processes.
Pachacuti has signed up to DEFRA's Sustainable Clothing Roadmap, a UK government inititative designed to improve environmental performance and traceability across the supply chain.
- Pachacuti focuses on the following key areas:
- Sustainable Raw Materials
- Sustainable Product Life Cycle
- Sustainable Livelihoods
- Sustainable Relationships
Sustainable Raw Materials
We work to minimising CO2 emissions through ensuring local supply chains. Pachacuti maps the supply of all raw materials and components involved in our supply chain with the aim of ensuring that they are as local, ethical and sustainable as possible. Over 90% of our raw materials are sourced within country, the rest come from neighbouring South American countries, thus contributing to the local economy as well as reducing CO2 emissions. As far as possible, we verify the sustainability and ethical policy of all suppliers of our raw materials.
Panama Hat Fibre:
- community-owned plantation
- cultivated sustainably and organically
- programme to encourage bio-diversity within the 5600 hectare protected area
- fast growing - plant grows to full height every 30 days and can therefore be cropped once a month.
- nothing is wasted - any fibres not used for panama hats are used to put on the roof of houses in the coastal region.
Alpaca
The maximum environmental impact of a garment is generally caused by the consumer due to the impact of washing and drying. For the majority of garments, this causes far more environmental impact than either production or disposal.
Pachacuti takes this into consideration when selecting the fibres which we use for our garments. For instance, we believe alpaca is one of the environmentally friendly fibres available as it:
- resists signs of wear and tear
- repels stains and odours so rarely needs cleaning
- naturally antimicrobial
- naturally hypoallergenic
- doesn't bobble or pill
- no loss of shape
- naturally water repellent and heat retentive
- Pachacuti’s garments come with a small spindle with spare yarn
- 50% of accessories range uses natural dyes
Biodiversity and Buttons:
100% of our Ecuadorian clothing has tagua nut buttons. Tagua nut is also known as "vegetable ivory", because of its similarity to the very unsustainable elephant ivory.
Tagua nut buttons are an important means of rainforest conservation as the nuts can be sustainably harvested and areas with tagua trees are not deforested. This helps to support a viable local economy without contributing to deforestation as Tagua nut trees will produce for a century or more.
Sustainable Product life cycle
Pachacuti promotes the idea of slow fashion through a product’s design, production and consumption. We produce garments and accessories of high quality, sustainable, long-lasting, encompassing cultural values. These are the antithesis of the disposable fast fashion which has dominated the mass-market.
Pachacuti makes a life cycle assessment of new products at the design stage. High environmental impact occurs during the consumer phase of a garment’s life cycle, with only low impact occurring during production and disposal. Approximately 2/3 of our clothing and accessories are made from alpaca which has a low impact during consumer use as it repels stains and odours and rarely needs washing. Moreover, as alpaca stays looking like new for years (estimated 10 year life cycle) it reduces the frequency of purchase of replacement garments. All of our products are 100% biodegradable or recyclable.
Sustainable Livelihoods
Most of our producers are members of co-operatives or associations, but carry out their work at home. This provides a sustainable livelihood as it is a supplementary form of income to their agricultural work, filling time between seedtime and harvest. This allows them to stay within their rural communities, rather than moving to cities for low paid work
Sustainable Relationships
Pachacuti works with our producers on a long-term basis. In fact, we have worked for more than 10 years with over 50% of our producer groups and several of them have been with us since 1992. Every year we develop an action plan with our producer groups which allows them to direct how Fair Trade will benefit them, giving them a key role in deciding our capacity building strategy for the year. Together we identify and and prioritise actions which will improve our Fair Trade business relationship from training courses and improvements in health and safety through to paying for their Christmas party!