Sustainability

YES, WE CARE

Our planet faces massive challenges: environmentally, socially and economically. All of these challenges need to be addressed, and combated, to ensure a prosperous growth for future generations. At Grand Le Mar, we want to do our best and contribute to this development to put the world on a sustainable path. Therefore, we aim to embed sustainable and ethical business practices throughout our entire company; such as in our supply chain, production facilities, our workers, our suppliers’ workers, and our customers. We relate our commitments and actions to the Sustainable Development Goals that were decided by governments worldwide in 2016. It is a first step towards our ambition of integrating them into our brand and future reporting. Read more about them here: https://sdgcompass.org/.

SUSTAINABILITY

When producing Grand Le Mar products, the choice of materials, whether focusing on the main fabric or the thread holding it together, has a big impact on a product’s overall quality. By only choosing the highest quality raw materials, there is less need to blend them with artificial additives such as polyamide, nylon or elastane.

By enhancing the natural features of each fiber, or by using support from other natural fibers (like linen, which becomes more stable and crease-resistant when mixed with silk, wool or cotton), our suppliers create fabrics built to last. We cannot totally exclude the use of man-made fibers, but our design team aims to primarily select natural compositions (mono fibers or natural blends) and only choose man-made fibers when it is unavoidable for durability reasons.

Furthermore, our supply chain for producing Grand Le Mar products is very short, and only a few actors are involved in the process. The supply chain only has three steps; producing fabrics, turning them into apparel products, and them ship these apparels directly to the end-customer. Thus, by avoiding long supply chains, we minimize transportations and thereby our carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, since we do not have any physical stores at Grand Le Mar but only sell our products online through our webshop, we further avoid emissions by not having any massive energy-consuming stores.

In addition, we put an immense focus on developing products that do not contribute to the “wear and tear” consumption that we see in societies today. When designing a collection, we always try to create products that are built to last. We strive to create the opposite of fast-fashion. For example, if you buy a suit from Grand Le Mar, it will made of finest fabrics in the world, it will be handmade, and has all classic designs, which means that the suit will be in your closet for many years.

Lastly Grand Le Mar is a member of TEKO, which is an an organisation who puts sustainability as its most prioritised area. You can ready more at www.teko.se/english.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

When sourcing new potential suppliers, we look at both opportunities and risks at the country level, industry level and supplier level. We conduct risk assessments based on country studies, on-site visits and, if available, former audit reports. The decision whether a supplier is fit to become a new supplier is a mutual understanding between the team members. We have conducted on-site visits at all of our suppliers. Without our dedicated pool of specialized factories & mills our product would not exist, which is not something to take lightly. We value our suppliers, and our relationships with them, more than anything else. We always plan for the long-term and want to grow our business together through the concept of inclusive growth. Performing internal or third-party audits is an intense and in-depth process, and should be handled with care and integrity at all times. We audit suppliers to get a better understanding of their conditions & processes, which we can then improve on together, step by step. Perfect factories do not exist, and we are all about the process. We firmly believe that it is not acceptable for animals to suffer for our products. We will not accept any kind of ill-treatment of animals associated with the manufacturing of our collections. Where farmed animals are used in Grand Le Mar products, suppliers need to implement industry-recognized best practices to ensure animal welfare is safeguarded at all times.

ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY

At Grand Le Mar, we make clear choices to not source from certain countries or regions that are facing issues that severe that we cannot make difference. We do not wish that any worker, neither at Grand Le Mar nor at our suppliers’ factories, to be exploited, scared, or economically punished. Most of the findings are minor and relatively easy to solve; very few findings are rated as critical, and these get our full attention with urgent follow-up. Solving issues and improving working conditions is a shared responsibility between us as a brand and our suppliers.