Girlfriend Collective wants customers to love its products and wear them with pride. Designing for an...

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Girlfriend Collective wants customers to love its products and wear them with pride. Designing for an audience that cares about where clothes come from, as well as how they look and fit, the founders of Girlfriend Collective made transparency a top priority. Its website freely shares the details of the production process so consumers can learn about its high standards and how it operates. Every part of the process, including sourcing materials, designing products, choosing facilities, and selecting partners, was carefully and painstakingly done with ethics and sustainability in mind. Recycled Polyester Girlfriend Collective's innovative leggings are made from 25 RPET recycled plastic water bottles combined with 21 percent spandex. The company sources its post-consumer water bottles from Taiwan, a country known as Garbage Island" until its government initiated a sweeping program that put the small country on the forefront of global recycling. In communities throughout the country, people come together every night to sort their waste into containers for recyclables, food waste, and garbage. When they finish, neighbors linger to socialize until the collection trucks come, building rela- tionships and community ties. In rural areas, various programs and volunteer groups set up micro-recycling centers where people can drop off recyclables and learn more about environmental steward- ship. Whereas the United States only recycles about 35 percent of its waste, Taiwan now recycles 55 percent. Recycled Fabric Once bottles are collected, they are sorted into various grades and sent to processing centers. Girlfriend Collective uses only #1 plastic, known as Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), to make its polyester yarn and fabric. Plastics containing BPA, which some believe pose a health threat, are never used. The #1 bottles are cleaned and shredded at a Taiwanese pro- cessing center that is family owned and operated and has a long- standing history of doing things right. The facility is also certified by the Taiwanese government. Thus, in addition to having permis- sion to process and resell plastic, security measures are in place, and plastic intake and output are carefully tracked. Certification means a lot in a world where lax standards often let unscrupulous recyclers purchase brand new plastic bottles, lie about their sourc- ing, and sell them to unwitting companies that want to use recy- clables in their products. This is much cheaper than the process (continued) required to clean and process post-consumer bottles. It is also completely at odds with sustainability goals. At the bottle processing facility used by Girlfriend Collective, bales of bottles collected from across Taiwan are weighed, logged, steam washed to remove caps and labels, and then separated by color. Clear bottles are used to make fibers for leggings, and col- ored bottles are sent away for other uses. Next, bottles are shred into tiny chips, washed again, bagged, and sent to the fiber-making facility. By weighing and logging each bag, the factory verifies that the output equals the input of plastic bottles used to create it. Thus, buyers like Girlfriend Collective know with certainty that the chips came from the same post-consumer bottles originally taken in. Making Fabric Bags of raw PET chips travel from the recycling facility to the spin- ning mill where they are washed again, dried, and sent to storage silos. Next, the chips are heated and extruded. The process yields long, spaghetti-like strands that will be cut into tiny pellets. Pellets go through one more round of heating and extrusion, eventually yielding superfine thread. The thread is spun into yarn and onto large bobbins for packaging and shipment. Once the yarn arrives at Girlfriend Col- lective's highly unique knitting factory, it will be turned into a material that is softer and more stable than traditional fabrics. The innovative knitting technique, however, is a very slow and precise process that in 24 hours only yields enough fabric to make about 100 pairs of leggings. From knitting, the fabric goes to the dye house. For many com- panies, this is an environmentally harmful process that dumps red or blue wastewater from chemicals and dyes into streams and riv- ers on their way to community water tables, harming both people and crops. In contrast, Girlfriend Collective's facility treats all waste- water at a plant located 100 feet from the dyeing process. Certified safe dyes and any remaining fibers are removed from the water, and the water is tested for safety, approved by Taiwan's environmental agency, and only then released into a stream. Finally, while many companies send dye mud to landfills, Girlfriend Collective's facility sends it to a factory that turns it into pavers for community sidewalks. Recycled Nylon Always looking for new ideas, Girlfriend Collective has fashioned its newest line of LITE leggings from recycled fishing nets and other nylon waste that would typically be dumped in oceans or landfills. Instead, the nylon discards make their way to a recycling facility to be given a new life. This helps to cut down on the 14 billion pounds of waste dumped into oceans every year, 10 percent of which is old fishing gear. It also means fewer brand-new raw materials, like crude oil, are needed in the nylon production process. Cutting and Sewing Fourteen people are needed to cut and sew every pair of leggings, making these steps the most labor-intensive part of the clothing manufacturing process. Girlfriend Collective takes pride in caring for workers, as well as caring for the environment. It partners with an SA8000 Danish, family-owned sewing facility in Vietnam with a history of treating employees well and paying them fairly. Some employee perks include a pay rate 25 percent above minimum wage, company-led exercise breaks, free catered meals, free bi- annual health checks, and health insurance. The SA8000 certifica- tion specifically ensures no forced labor or child labor are used and requires safe working conditions and the right to unionize. All of the by-laws and employee regulations guaranteed by SA8000 are even included on Girlfriend Collective's website. Conclusion From start to finish, Girlfriend Collective raises the bar on what sustain- ability really means and sets best practices for the garment industry. Questions 1. What operations strategies are important at Girlfriend Collective? 2. In what ways do these strategies put Girlfriend Collective at a competitive advantage or disadvantage? 3. What short- and long-term impacts do Girlfriend Collective's business practices have on the garment industry? On recy- clers? On communities? On profits? 4. How might sustainability measures for people and production processes impact productivity? How can companies balance a desire for ethics with productivity concerns? Girlfriend Collective wants customers to love its products and wear them with pride. Designing for an audience that cares about where clothes come from, as well as how they look and fit, the founders of Girlfriend Collective made transparency a top priority. Its website freely shares the details of the production process so consumers can learn about its high standards and how it operates. Every part of the process, including sourcing materials, designing products, choosing facilities, and selecting partners, was carefully and painstakingly done with ethics and sustainability in mind. Recycled Polyester Girlfriend Collective's innovative leggings are made from 25 RPET recycled plastic water bottles combined with 21 percent spandex. The company sources its post-consumer water bottles from Taiwan, a country known as Garbage Island" until its government initiated a sweeping program that put the small country on the forefront of global recycling. In communities throughout the country, people come together every night to sort their waste into containers for recyclables, food waste, and garbage. When they finish, neighbors linger to socialize until the collection trucks come, building rela- tionships and community ties. In rural areas, various programs and volunteer groups set up micro-recycling centers where people can drop off recyclables and learn more about environmental steward- ship. Whereas the United States only recycles about 35 percent of its waste, Taiwan now recycles 55 percent. Recycled Fabric Once bottles are collected, they are sorted into various grades and sent to processing centers. Girlfriend Collective uses only #1 plastic, known as Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), to make its polyester yarn and fabric. Plastics containing BPA, which some believe pose a health threat, are never used. The #1 bottles are cleaned and shredded at a Taiwanese pro- cessing center that is family owned and operated and has a long- standing history of doing things right. The facility is also certified by the Taiwanese government. Thus, in addition to having permis- sion to process and resell plastic, security measures are in place, and plastic intake and output are carefully tracked. Certification means a lot in a world where lax standards often let unscrupulous recyclers purchase brand new plastic bottles, lie about their sourc- ing, and sell them to unwitting companies that want to use recy- clables in their products. This is much cheaper than the process (continued) required to clean and process post-consumer bottles. It is also completely at odds with sustainability goals. At the bottle processing facility used by Girlfriend Collective, bales of bottles collected from across Taiwan are weighed, logged, steam washed to remove caps and labels, and then separated by color. Clear bottles are used to make fibers for leggings, and col- ored bottles are sent away for other uses. Next, bottles are shred into tiny chips, washed again, bagged, and sent to the fiber-making facility. By weighing and logging each bag, the factory verifies that the output equals the input of plastic bottles used to create it. Thus, buyers like Girlfriend Collective know with certainty that the chips came from the same post-consumer bottles originally taken in. Making Fabric Bags of raw PET chips travel from the recycling facility to the spin- ning mill where they are washed again, dried, and sent to storage silos. Next, the chips are heated and extruded. The process yields long, spaghetti-like strands that will be cut into tiny pellets. Pellets go through one more round of heating and extrusion, eventually yielding superfine thread. The thread is spun into yarn and onto large bobbins for packaging and shipment. Once the yarn arrives at Girlfriend Col- lective's highly unique knitting factory, it will be turned into a material that is softer and more stable than traditional fabrics. The innovative knitting technique, however, is a very slow and precise process that in 24 hours only yields enough fabric to make about 100 pairs of leggings. From knitting, the fabric goes to the dye house. For many com- panies, this is an environmentally harmful process that dumps red or blue wastewater from chemicals and dyes into streams and riv- ers on their way to community water tables, harming both people and crops. In contrast, Girlfriend Collective's facility treats all waste- water at a plant located 100 feet from the dyeing process. Certified safe dyes and any remaining fibers are removed from the water, and the water is tested for safety, approved by Taiwan's environmental agency, and only then released into a stream. Finally, while many companies send dye mud to landfills, Girlfriend Collective's facility sends it to a factory that turns it into pavers for community sidewalks. Recycled Nylon Always looking for new ideas, Girlfriend Collective has fashioned its newest line of LITE leggings from recycled fishing nets and other nylon waste that would typically be dumped in oceans or landfills. Instead, the nylon discards make their way to a recycling facility to be given a new life. This helps to cut down on the 14 billion pounds of waste dumped into oceans every year, 10 percent of which is old fishing gear. It also means fewer brand-new raw materials, like crude oil, are needed in the nylon production process. Cutting and Sewing Fourteen people are needed to cut and sew every pair of leggings, making these steps the most labor-intensive part of the clothing manufacturing process. Girlfriend Collective takes pride in caring for workers, as well as caring for the environment. It partners with an SA8000 Danish, family-owned sewing facility in Vietnam with a history of treating employees well and paying them fairly. Some employee perks include a pay rate 25 percent above minimum wage, company-led exercise breaks, free catered meals, free bi- annual health checks, and health insurance. The SA8000 certifica- tion specifically ensures no forced labor or child labor are used and requires safe working conditions and the right to unionize. All of the by-laws and employee regulations guaranteed by SA8000 are even included on Girlfriend Collective's website. Conclusion From start to finish, Girlfriend Collective raises the bar on what sustain- ability really means and sets best practices for the garment industry. Questions 1. What operations strategies are important at Girlfriend Collective? 2. In what ways do these strategies put Girlfriend Collective at a competitive advantage or disadvantage? 3. What short- and long-term impacts do Girlfriend Collective's business practices have on the garment industry? On recy- clers? On communities? On profits? 4. How might sustainability measures for people and production processes impact productivity? How can companies balance a desire for ethics with productivity concerns?