CHALLENGES
Challenges are the drivers of innovation and at Eco2Wear we realise that in full potential. When the company was rebranded, our team identified 2 main issues that require attention. These are “Sourcing Sustainable Materials' ' and “Reducing Water Usage'. Let us dive deeper and elaborate upon those.
Sourcing Sustainable Materials & Maintaining Product Quality and Affordability
Sourcing sustainable materials is an utmost priority for Eco2Wear, as it also possesses the biggest challenge (Bhandari et al., 2022) (Payne, 2022). Our company has set a standard and precedent that we are only prioritising a specific type of manufacturing, such as “Slow Manufacturing”. Therefore, switching the supplier of the material would threaten the success of the company, as customers are used to a specific fabric quality.
To ensure that this challenge is addressed, Eco2Wear has secured a long-term partnership with Clothing Manufacturers UK. The supplier is an established business that is located in the heart of the UK and that pioneered sustainable fashion in London. The company has a wide range of services and offers various materials from cotton to sustainable leather. However, the final decision to choose this supplier was made due to the company’s all round approach to sustainability from utilising recycled paper and controlling working conditions, to rolling donations and extensive use of scraps for further production. The main products supplied by Clothing Manufacturers UK are sheets of sustainable cotton. The main difference of this material from ordinary cotton is the management of water for it (Radhakrishnan, 2017). As it is mentioned on the company’s website, Clothing Manufacturers UK only chooses farmers that use drip irrigation or rainwater harvesting methods. These practices allow for the cotton to adhere to Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and Fairtrade standards (Clothing Manufacturers UK, 2024).
Reducing Water Usage and Pollution in the Manufacturing Process
The second addressable challenge is no less important than the first. In fact it has partially been mentioned and it is water management. To put things into perspective, a total of 10% of the industrial water usage is devoted to textile related sectors, which extends from raw material sourcing to end-to-end manufacturing. Just one t-shirt requires 2700 litres of water to make, and in 2015 a total of 79 billion cubic metres of water was utilised in the fashion sector (Dzhengiz et al., 2023)(Lyu et al., 2021).
Therefore for Eco2Wear, minimising water usage not only presents sustainability challenges but also cost challenges. The company constantly seeks to find a perfect equilibrium state between minimising water usage, as well as decreasing costs. The complication behind it derives from the fact that innovating the production cyclen is more cost inefficient than simply adhering to the traditional manufacturing methods.
To address this challenge the company constantly upgrades and invests and upgrades in sewing methods, such as pattern cutting, and extensive use of digital technologies in design (Page, 2013). Therefore, while water usage is decreased to the minimum, the costs rise, but they are counterbalanced by more cost efficient manufacturing practices. In addition, our strategic choice of suppliers contributes towards minimising water consumption.
Other Challenges
However, these challenges are not the only ones and others can be seen in the Materiality Matrix. Other challenges include identifying quality suppliers, managing fair labour conditions, ensuring supply chain transparency and energy efficiency. All of these challenges are addressed with the utmost care (Rebecca, 2022).