Womenswear brand Baukjen launches sustainability index

Sustainable and socially conscious womenswear brand Baukjen is launching a Sustainability Index, sharing environmental and social impact scores for each product in its collections to help customers make better-informed purchasing choices.

The B Corp certified company wants to offer its customers a higher level of transparency to help them better understand the brand’s supply chain, such as how material choices and manufacturing contribute to the overall impact of each Baukjen garment.

The Baukjen Sustainability Index uses seven different measurements to determine each products overall score, using Higg tools created by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. The index metric is calculated based on five environmental factors, which counts as 70 percent of the overall score, while the final two are social, and represents 30 percent.

Each product receives a rating from bad to excellent regarding its impact on global warming, water use, resource depletion, eutrophication, use of chemicals, traceability and people’s wellbeing. The higher the score, maximum 100 percent, “the more sustainable a product is for the planet and its people,” explains Baukjen.

For instance, the brand’s ‘Jody’ recycled wool jumper in the autumn/winter 2021 collection has an excellent impact of 91 percent, while the ‘Paloma’ top, crafted with eco-friendly Lenzing Ecovero received an excellent impact score of 83 percent.

Baukjen targets transparency in its supply chain with an environmental and social impact index for consumers

The Baukjen Sustainability Index was initially created as an in-house tool to compare fibres and how it manufactures its clothes to help the brand highlight areas of improvement to become more sustainable. However, Baukjen is hoping that sharing the environmental and social impact of each garment with its customers will not only help them shop sustainably but also educate them that sustainability is much more than carbon emissions.

“In nature all things are interconnected, and it is important to measure impact in other ways that consider depletion of resources, pollution and destruction of ecosystems,” adds Baukjen in a statement.

The index is the latest sustainability initiative from womenswear and maternity wear brands Baukjen and Isabella Oliver, collectively known as the House of Baukjen. In recent years, the fashion group has launched an in-house rental scheme that allows customers to rent styles for two weeks and producing a collection that is comprised of 90 percent responsible fibres and increasing. It also has a Pre-Loved programme, aimed at encouraging former customers to donate their pre-owned clothes to either be repurposed, re-loved or recycled, in a bid to make fashion circular.

Earlier this year, House of Baukjen was also recognised by B Corp as an ‘Impact Business Model’ and was named as the “highest scoring” fashion B Corp in the UK and the second highest in Europe, with a rating of “outstanding”.

Baukjen and Isabella Oliver team up with Oxfam on Second Hand September campaign

Alongside the Baukjen Sustainability Index launch, Baukjen and Isabella Oliver are teaming up with charity Oxfam for Second Hand September as part of its Pre-Loved take back scheme. Customers can donate items they no longer wear to either Baukjen or Isabella Oliver to be re-loved, repurposed or recycled. 50 percent of the net proceeds from sales of both brands will be donated to Oxfam to support its vital work to beat poverty worldwide.

The goal of the Baukjen x Oxfam partnership is to decrease the levels of production and radically reduce maternity and non-maternity fashion waste going to landfill each year. For every clothing donation received, the slow fashion brand will also plant a tree from Eden Reforestation Projects on behalf of their customers.

Baukjen De Swaan Arons, founder and creative director of House of Baukjen, said in a statement: “Our Pre-Loved scheme helps to extend the lifespan of our garments with the aim to lower the impact on the environment and improve the rate of reuse and recycling. By shopping our Pre-Loved collections you will not only be helping to protect our planet, but you will be helping many communities too, as the proceeds will aid Oxfam’s meaningful projects.

“As champions of slow fashion, we stand for circularity and are proud to have launched Pre-Loved and rental initiatives, helping to provide practical steps towards a circular fashion business model.”