Ignasi Eiriz’s message, founder of Ethical Time

It’s been five years since I started Ethical Time. And what a five years it’s been… I decided not to buy clothes from any brand that exploited its workers. I spent eight hours a day researching brands and talking about this to a few people every week. However, when I went out on the street, nothing changed. Even the people most aware had difficulty finding ethical and sustainable brands.

I decided to embark on this adventure and create a platform to raise awareness about the impact of clothing and connect conscious consumers with sustainable brands and shops.

I travelled with my sister to Bangladesh to visit factories, and we started a crowdfunding campaign to finance the platform’s first version. We called it Ethical Time. A name to vindicate that it is time to be responsible and to make people aware of how clothes should always be made: respecting the lives of people, animals and the planet.

Since then, and during these five years, Ethical Time has been a project full of challenges, improvements, and from time to time, the occasional joy (that’s what it means to want to change the status quo). I am very proud to say that we have helped more than 300,000 people and have worked together with more than 200 brands, and 28 people have been part of the project, loving it and making it grow.

Now, the time has come to go one step further. Ethical Time was born to create change on an international level and to drive a circular, slavery-free economy around the world. And that is precisely what it is going to do. Although we are not doing it alone ‑only a few great things are done alone-but we will do it hand in hand with the organisation COSH! (COnscious SHopping made easy). Keeping the essence, the mission and the values with which the project started alive.

At this moment, I can only be happy and thank all the people who have accompanied me and helped me get this far.

To my colleague and sister Natalia, who wanted to take the reins from the beginning to continue building what started as an idea and has been leading the project ever since. To my colleague Anne, who introduced herself three years ago, determined to manage and grow the Ethical Time community. To Pompeu Fabra University; to Guillem from El Bien Social, Gema and Raquel from Slow Fashion Next, and to all the other friends and colleagues; family and friends; entrepreneurs with their own brands; to all the journalists who have given us a voice; to Quim, Monika, and Teresa, my mentors, and all the people who have worked on the team:

Héctor Eiriz, Eduard Martín, Jaume Pujadó, Anna Labarias, Gastón Valle, David Moral, Camila Oriol, Guillem Eiriz, Camilo Rivas, Carolina Pozo, Sara Cadena, Marta Valverde, Angelo Sardi, Joan Olivella, Raquel Banchio, Sonia, Marta Closas, Laura Rovira, Marta Miquel… Thank you.

Finally, thanks to you for being here. Without you, none of this would be possible.