How sustainable is Suitsupply?
This screening has been done by Fairify on July 25th 2020
Suitsupply is a Dutch menswear brand that mainly produces suits. It’s known for its unconventional store locations and quality suits.
Sustainable in its core
The brand has sustainability in mind in every aspect of its operations. It calculated its entire carbon footprint, including supply chain emissions, and even calculated CO2-emissions per suit, shirt or pair of shoes, respectively 61, 6 and 13 kgs. Suitsupply doesn’t have an absolute reduction target yet, but is already going full steam ahead in terms of reducing its footprint. In 2019, the company managed to reduce transportation emissions in its supply chain by 40% and increase renewable usage in its stores by 23%. On top of that, it has adopted a target for 100% renewable energy by 2022, and aims to further reduce its transportation footprint to 50% compared to base year 2018. Suitsupply offsets what it can’t reduce, and will most likely achieve carbon neutrality for its own operations in 2020.
Transparent about materials
The company also provides a complete overview of the materials it uses, in which it puts forth percentages, explanations of why it uses some materials and where these materials originate. This is the first point of improvement for Suitsupply: its leather and merino wool don’t have the right certifications. It does have these for down and feather. The company uses mohair, which is not so great, but at least it’s certified by a third-party organization, sourced from Europe and regularly checked by outside parties.
Respecting the workers in its supply chain
The company is doing great on packaging, chemicals and transparency on almost everything. In terms of labor rights it’s doing great as well, since Suitsupply is a member of the Fair Wear Foundation that fully monitors and reports on its supply chain and has awarded Suitsupply with the Leader status. Labor rights are being respected and actively improved as well.
