At SoE, sustainability is balancing People, Planet and Product. Our aim is to create fashion that is functional, fashionable, and affordable while prioritizing the well-being of People and the Planet and maintaining a sustainable business model ourselves. We recognize that every decision we make involves trade-offs and there is no easy and straightforward path to sustainability. However, we practise the following within each of the individual pillars

Planet

Source materials responsibly, taking into consideration factors such as supplier due diligence, certifications, and locations

• Organic cotton instead of conventional cotton
• GOTS/OEKO-TEX Certified facilities across the supply chain
• Viscose sourced from certified sustainable forests
• Zero fabric blends
• Trims & Accessories - GRS certified recycled polyester for elastics, OEKO-TEX certified corozo buttons etc.
• Biodegradable and reusable product packaging

Reduce waste in our production by

Keeping production inhouse and eliminating stock pile-up

Upcycling scrap

• Offset our remaining carbon footprint through certified carbon offsetting projects

People

• Continue to keep our production in-house or partner with a fair trade manufacturer (more importantly ones open to lower MoQs) in future. We pay fair wages (cut and sew accounts for ~25% of our product prices) that are well above industry standards
• Invest in our local communities through our partnership with RangDe on initiatives that align with our values

Product

• Create fashion that is comparable in design and aesthetics to fast fashion, but is also clean, ethical, and affordable. We make it easy for our customers to choose sustainable options without having to compromise
• Provide complete traceability on our materials, suppliers (although at times we are limited by the mutilayeredness of the textile supply chain and our partners' need to maintain their trade secrets)

Have we achieved it all? By no means! We understand that our path to become a truly sustainable brand is a continuous journey that we have just begun and we are determined to stop at nothing to get there!

While reducing consumption is one way to reduce our environmental impact, it may not be a practical solution for everyone. Instead, we advocate for a shift towards sustainable fashion that considers the environmental and social impacts of production. This means driving away fast fashion out of fashion and opting for brands that prioritise ethical and sustainable practices.

We recognize that the fashion industry has a significant impact on the environment, and one way we measure this impact is through carbon footprint. This includes the carbon emissions generated across various stages of the product's lifecycle, from sourcing raw materials to manufacturing to transportation to end-of-life disposal. To calculate our carbon footprint, we use a third-party free tool that takes into account the materials we use, product weight, manufacturing locations, and transportation methods. While the tool provides a good estimate of our carbon footprint (about 80%-85% accurate), we round up to account for any gaps in the calculation. Alternatively, we could conduct a life cycle analysis for a more accurate estimate of our impact, but this would be prohibitively expensive for a young brand like ours and we are better off spending that on offsets and other impact initiatives.

Carbon offsetting refers to investing in environmental projects in order to balance out carbon footprint. At SoE, in partnership with Greenspark, we invest in global UN certified projects such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and reforestation to offset our carbon footprint.

We choose projects that are

• Verified under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
• Designed to reduce future emissions
• Located locally or in developing countries
• Designed to provide social benefits and employment opportunities for local communities attached to the initiatives, such as plastic waste collection, clean energy cooking stoves etc.

Definitely not, carbon offsetting is one of the tools available to reduce carbon emissions. It should be seen as a complementary measure rather than a solution in itself. The controversy around carbon offsetting is if a business uses offsetting as a way to avoid changing their environmentally unfriendly ways i.e. polluting in one place and offsetting in another. Our approach to offsetting is to reduce carbon emissions as much as we can and offset the rest (after all, the less we emit, the less it will cost us to go carbon neutral).

While there are many definitions of what Earth Positive is, simply put it means giving back to the earth more than we take, such that there is a net positive impact on the environment. In addition to offsetting our carbon footprint, we invest in tree planting, plastic waste rescue from the oceans and also invest in local communities, making our contribution earth positive.

While we would love to use only locally grown materials, the reality is that different climates and growing conditions can affect the quality and availability of certain fibres, whether it is Lyocel or Viscose from responsibly managed forests in Canada or Sweden, Hemp from China or Linen from Europe. While the raw material has origins from outside India, weaving, dyeing and manufacturing still happen locally. Though we would love to limit our sourcing to only locally grown materials, we also need to meet the demands of today's consumers. Importantly, we are better off sourcing sustainable materials from outside than using materials made using non-sustainable materials such as conventional cotton or synthetics. When it comes to sustainability, we live in a very connected world!

We partner with RangDe by investing in sustainable livelihoods and aim to create a positive impact that lasts beyond the initial investment, ultimately contributing to a more equitable and sustainable future. With every purchase, we allocate a portion of the proceeds to social investment and keep the investment in circulation.

We choose projects that align with our values such as organic farming, weaving and artisanal communities, rural entrepreneurship etc.

No, we do not earn interest from our social investments and neither do we withdraw the repayment proceeds. Nominal interest is charged to establish a sense of responsibility and accountability for those receiving the investment. The initial investments along with the interest is reinvested in other causes creating a self-sustaining cycle of impact and reaching more beneficiaries over time.

There is no additional cost for the carbon offset or tree planting initiatives or social investments we undertake. It comes straight from our profits (er from our margins)!