Level Collective Simple Mountain Organic Navy Crew Sweatshirt

STRONG POINTS

- 100% Organic cotton
- Factory powered by renewable energy 
- Factory committed to social and ecological standards (GOTS certified, FWF audit)

Suppliers

Organic cotton: GOTS certified supplier in India

T-shirt cut and sewn in Tamul Nadu, India.
(Fair Wear Foundation, GOTS)

Screenprinted in Sheffield by a small scale screen-printer. 

Factory visits

Idioma work with a sourcing partner that help emerging brands to source ethically and sustainably. The factory where this t-shirt is cut and sewn is located in Tamul Nadu, India and is visited regularly by the partner. All overtime work at the factory is voluntary and audits report that 60% of workers do not carry out overtime. Read the FWF report here.

Level Collective designer Mark Musgrave has a close working relationship with the artisan screen-printer he works with. 

Environmental impact and materials

The use of organic cotton (Global Organic Textile Standard-certified) protects the environment and also farmers who may suffer ill health when coming into contact with the intensive fertilisers and pesticides used in conventional cotton production.

Factory where the t-shirt is cut and sewn is powered entirely by renewable energy (most of which comes from 30 massive wind turbines).

This t-shirt was screen printed water based inks. Most commercial screen printers use plastisol inks which contain PVC and phthalates that can be  harmful to the environment.  

AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT

GOTS living wage policy currently only requires that national legal standards are met. Level Collective's supplier is working on projects that explore calculating a living wage and it would be good to see this work continue.  

100% Organic Cotton

Good

Social

  - Sewn in an Indian factory accredited to high ethical standards (Fair Wear Foundation) and with a genuine commitment to the social welfare of its workforce. For example they stipulate that overtime work can only be done on a voluntary basis and will not amount to more than 12 hours per week.

 - This T-shirt is hand finished and printed in Sheffield using eco water based inks.

Environmental

-Level collective screen print with high quality water based inks. This is unusual in the garment industry where most commercial screen printers use plastisol inks which contain PVC and phthalates that are harmful to the environment.

Areas for Development

Social

Harmful pesticides used in conventional cotton farming can cause sickness amongst cotton farmers as controls are often not in place to ensure safe use. Level Collective are keen to find an alternative to conventional cotton but see making a quality product that is built to last as key to their sustainability strategy and so will only transfer when they find a suitable supplier who can meet their standards.

100% cotton

Good

Social 
- Sewn in an Indian factory accredited to high ethical standards (Fair Wear Foundation) and with a genuine commitment to the social welfare of its workforce. For example they stipulate that overtime work can only be done on a voluntary basis and will not amount to more than 12 hours per week.

- This T-shirt is hand finished and printed in Sheffield using eco water based inks.

Environmental

- Organic cotton, planted and harvested by hand, in a region where cotton farming in predominantly rain fed. The factory where this sweater was cut and sewn is powered entirely by renewable energy (most of the energy comes from 30 massive wind turbines). The sweater was transported without the use of air freight. 

Areas for development

Social

-The cotton is Global Organic Textile Standard certified and whilst this is a very high level certification it does not currently measure working conditions of cotton pickers. However the fact that the farms are inspected for environmental purposes gives the pickers some measure of security.