Rifò has a very close connection to their supply chain, which is located within a radius of 30km next to their headquarters. It’s an absolute benefit and offers a business strength to fulfil a high standard of social and environmental requirements. The performance in the production facilities will be monitored frequently by own staff from Rifò based on the regulation of an own Code of Conduct. Besides this Rifò is working together with the institute Bureau Veritas for external audits in their supply chain to guarantee the compliance with European working conditions.
With their training program for “cenciaioli” (the artisans of textile recycling) and spinners, they contribute to a social impact by training people to learn a craft through a paid internship and being integrated into the society.
The mission from Rifò is to reuse resources for their products and to avoid producing any new raw materials. That’s why they’re creating recycled and recyclable products. Rifò selects their materials based on strong criterias, prioritising natural options like cotton that consist of a minimum of 50% recycled fibres. Also recycled cashmere and recycled wool belong to their main material choice and save, as per their information, about 80% of natural resources compared to virgin materials. Most of the yarns are certified by “Global Recycle Standard” or “Organic Content Standard” according to their needs and for chemical requirements they’re following REACH conditions. As recycled cashmere and recycled wool yarns don´t need any dyeing as they´re obtained from post-consumer textile waste which is sorted by colour before, Rifò decided to use natural dyes (mineral and organic) for recycled cotton and silk. Rifò can show the transparency of a full supply chain and fosters as well a close business relationship to yarn and fabric suppliers.
Another resource which will be used by Rifò are deadstock fabrics, which are leftover materials from other suppliers.
In their actual sustainability report you can also find interesting information about the Life Cycle of each material.
For all kinds of transportation they don’t use any plastic bags but prefer carton boxes as well a newly developed recycled and reusable felt bag.
Rifò also began to start their transition to renewable energy through a local partner called ESTRA and in future they also plan to engage their partners along the supply chain into the transition as well.
Rifò is a circular fashion brand as they’re producing garments made out of recycled and recyclable materials. As they’re focused on knitwear items, there is almost no waste available and fewer trims will be used. Besides, this microplastic doesn’t appear in the material composition, which is a positive effect for the environment as it won’t be discharged into water. With the project “Re-Think your Jeans” Rifò developed as well an innovative alternative to produce yarn for their collection, and it’s really interesting to see how jeans turns into a sweater!
With their left-over yarn Rifò has created a Zero-Waste collection, which products help to minimise resource wastage. As Rifò doesn´t use any synthetic fibres, all their garments can be easily recycled again.
Rifò motivates customers to repair their clothing and provide a repair service (Love-Lasts-Service), which includes a 3‑years warranty.
In Italy they’re also offering a take-back service: they collect worn clothes (wool, cashmere sweaters or jeans) and transform them into a new resource. Hope they can offer this service soon in other countries!
Rifò is working with a “0km” supply chain! The producers of the supply chain from Rifò are primarily centred in Prato’s textile district, max.distance to Rifó office 45km, which offers the opportunity to visit them several times a month. Due to this comfortable situation they’re able to minimize for transportation their carbon footprint, foster fair job opportunities, guarantee product quality and keep a standard of essential social requirements in their production process.
In order to reduce the environmental impact of returned products Rifó introduced a size-finder-tool to support the end-consumer by choosing the right size and enhancing the shopping experience.
Rifò is going to arrange the distribution to their clients via DHL Go Green in future.
Rifò is using mostly recycled wool, cashmere and silk material which is certified under “Global Recycle Standard” and just a very small percentage of virgin wool material which is certified with “Responsible Wool Standard”. Due to the wool certification standard it’s clear that unfriendly mulesing procedure (cutting away skin at the hindquarters to avoid fly infections) is forbidden.
For Rifò it’s important to make a long-lasting product without any specific trends so that it’s never out of fashion. They don’t participate in the seasonal sales and keep the same price all the year but offer a presale system with discount for consumers who are waiting for the product which will be produced on demand. This is an absolutely helpful method to avoid any overproduction. Rifò encourages slow fashion with two seasonal collections and timeless designs.
In their yearly sustainability report Rifò is communicating their activities and efforts to their clients. According to some specific Sustainable Development Goals Rifò has set targets which will be reviewed and updated year by year. In 2023 Rifó measured their climate impact and calculated the total carbon footprint which covers Scope 1,2 and 3.
Since September 2023 Rifó is able to integrate traceability information and transparent data regarding the environmental impact of their 100 best-selling products into their respective product sheets on their website through their partnership with BCome (spanish service provider for sustainability management). This is already an important step in regard of upcoming Digital Product Passport requirement.
You can even get more transparency by joining their textile tour where you’ll get informative insights into the supply chain and can have a look behind the scenes.
Don’t miss to book a tour during your next holiday in Italy!
Zaključak
Rifò wants to have an important impact on a better future that’s why they decided to use resources which already exist and support this idea by producing circular fashion. As sustainability is in general an ongoing process, Rifò takes as well the challenge to improve their performance day by day and work on the goal to offer more sustainable activities which makes the world go round!
Discover below where you can discover this inspirational brand!
