2 minute read
A better FUTURE
Do you want to return to normal or are you ready to build something better?
The way we have been behaving as manufacturers leaves much to be desired. Until now the global economic system and rampant consumerism have failed to halt their devastating impact on natural and social capital – despite ample warning.
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Complex and inefficient supply chains place excessive strains on some resources while starving others. In hindsight, our pre-Covid-19 habits seem so out of balance. Stories abound of us realising and finding healing in this lockdown period, resetting our priorities and relationships.
We in the fashion supply chain have known for too long that our entire system is not sustainable. If not the industry we work in, then the way we consume, has made us all complicit in creating a world where there is growing inequality; regional, social, financial. We buy too much for a low price, but at huge cost to someone else, and nature. The environment cannot stomach our insatiable wants.
BUILDING SOMETHING BETTER AND RIGHT-SIZING FOR A BETTER LEGACY
At Equator – the Belt Factory TM – since 2017 we have been on a journey to create something better – to right-size our role in the entire fashion supply chain. Not to just talk about it, but to build it.
The end goal is circular economy and carbon neutrality of the product we make and deliver into your hands. That ideal is a long way off. Undeterred, we started our journey in 2017 and today we are more emboldened than ever. We are focusing on three elements – the raw materials we use; the facility where we manufacture; and the packaging and logistics footprint.
We are working feverishly at all three, developing and sourcing better and more sustainably created raw materials, and improving our packaging and distribution choices. But it is our manufacturing facility in New Germany where we have, after three years, achieved the leading gain. Here we are on track to being awarded a 4-star rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa.
Our biggest learning in engaging with the Green Building Council of South Africa in collaboration with our consultants Ecolution Consulting, was that a green building certification looks at measures that affect working conditions such as indoor environmental quality, as well as operational resource consumption; energy, water and waste management.
Waste management and minimisation of waste provided one of our most significant opportunities for improvement. The certification process has proven to be a broad, in-depth and real measure of the manufacturing process and facility. We are excited for the future, and that is why we at Equator – the Belt Factory TM , call ourselves A Place of Craft and a Place of Science.
Equator is approved to manufacture for Levi’s® and other leading USA brands – an accreditation not easily achieved due to their demanding standards.
