Sustainability at Pirkani
At Pirkani, nothing is more important to us than ensuring that we deliver on our promises, follow through on our mission, and bring our vision for the world of fashion to life. We are firm believers in our work, and we embrace sustainability, environmental consciousness, and natural goodness in everything we do.
With that in mind, our unique, 5-step approach to sustainable fashion is how we separate ourselves from other fashion brands out there today. Our primary focus is on supporting fragile ecosystems by tackling climate change head-on through fashion and product development initiatives that keep the world cleaner, safer, and more resilient in the long run. Look down below to learn more about the steps that we've taken to embrace our sustainable fashion model.
Eco-Friendly Materials At The Heart of Every Design
Did you know that nearly 1,000 tons of plastic micro-particles come to the ground with rain each year in some of the most protected and remote areas of nature? Think about that for one minute – nearly 1,000,000 pounds of plastic micro-particles end up in some of our most beloved examples of pristine natural landscapes – places like the Grand Canyon or Joshua Tree National Park. Not only is this frightening, but it is detrimental to the success and resilience of our planet.
At Pirkani, one of our most significant commitments has revolved around eliminating the use of plastics and synthetic materials for all of our fashion garments. Instead, we've emphasized using only eco-friendly materials for our styles. We use 100% organic cotton or recycled natural fibres that are environmentally friendly to ensure that we aren't contributing to the problem of micro-particles and plastics entering into our natural world.
All our organic cotton products are certified in line with the latest Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) version 6.0 which is effective from March 2021. Please feel free to read further information about the ecological and social standards and find a copy of our certificate, by following this link.
Fair Working Conditions At Every Location
Sustaining the world means supporting the people who inhabit it. At Pirkani, all of our workers receive fair pay and are placed only in safe working conditions. Our garments are manufactured in the beautiful countries of Pakistan and Turkey, and we strive to pay each of our workers a stable and liveable monthly salary to support themselves and their family.
Additionally, we offer health insurance, daily meals, paid holidays, and clearly defined terms to ensure that every worker on the Pirkani supply chain has a favourable employment experience. Through these efforts, we hope to break the cycle of poverty that has so significantly damaged the world's people. And not only that, but we believe that we can increase their overall health and well-being by supporting local communities on an employee-by-employee level, which will ultimately aid in our climate change efforts.
The Circular Economy
The fashion industry is one of the largest sources of waste globally; it is estimated that approximately 85% of all fashion items around the globe eventually make their way into a landfill each year. A staggering statistic that needs to be reversed immediately.
To do it, we've embraced the circular economy, which means that we emphasize recycled materials to produce our products. We also promote recycling or exchanging our products when our customers have finished with them and are ready to move on to another style. Additionally, we've made efforts to partner with universities and institutions worldwide to innovate, create, and ideate new low-impact sustainable fabrics and biodegradable materials to prevent the level of waste that we're currently seeing in the fashion industry.
Conscious Consumption
Mass production comes from mass consumption – and that is undoubtedly a dire problem in our society worldwide. We embrace conscious consumption by building awareness around the health and well-being of our planet and the people in it to reduce what we consume so that there is enough for all.
Even small actions can have a significant long-term impact on people and the world at large – for instance, we've taken efforts to increase transparency around the longevity, durability, and quality of our products so that our customers can plan for new styles and new clothing items.
We only work with manufacturers and partners who possess certifications and licenses around organics and fair-trade, including the Global Organic Textile Standard. We believe that these efforts will help usher in a new era of conscious consumption to eliminate waste, pollution and exploitation.
Slow Fashion
Slow fashion is a concept that we live by. As the name suggests, it involves producing fashion items that are designed to last more than one or two seasons – in other words; they offer longevity, durability, and wearability.
The purpose is to help our customers embrace the "less is more" approach, ensuring that they consume less, waste less, and live more. We are committed to producing just two collections each year – a summer and fall collection. From there, we believe that our customers can build a wardrobe to suit their style preferences while meeting their needs all year round.
How we impact Sustainability?
People
We are committed to ethical sourcing and fair working conditions which discourages exploitation of farmers or our factory workers. Every individual working in our supply chain enjoys fair treatment, equal opportunity employment, and above minimum national wages. Breaking trends and setting an example for the world to emulate, Pirkani Apparel stands out by having equal representation of women in leadership roles. In addition to the general workforce and leadership at Pirkani, conscious efforts are put into an equal representation of women for outsourced work. Alongside male leadership, female leadership at Pirkani is equally competent, energetic and galvanises the company's effort to make a positive impact. The female leadership, besides set tasks, looks aftermarket penetration strategies, creating awareness for sustainability, innovation and design of products and policies. Thus, the role of women is instrumental at Pirkani, and we proudly contribute to target 5.1 of ending all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere; and target 5.5 of full and effective participation and equal leadership at all levels of decision making at the management level.
Carbon Subsidisation
We partner with suppliers, producers and fulfilers who value sustainability at their core as we do. This ensures that our carbon footprint across the entire supply chain is subsidised to support our aspirations to be a carbon-negative entity by 2024. We take care of production waste by bringing it back into our cycle. All our packaging is recyclable or reusable. We are very proud of our tree-plantation drives, and plant saplings for every piece of apparel that we retail or supply. Pirkani Apparel also plants trees for every piece of clothing produced, initially in the regions where raw materials are sourced, processed, and produced. As the company is technologically driven, data is continually analysed to reduce our carbon footprint. This enables Pirkani Apparel to contribute to target 13.1 of strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters, targeting 13.3 of improving education, awareness-raising on climate change, and impacting reduction and early warning.
Product Development
We are very proud that our entire product range is sustainable, with organic, recycled and low-impact materials including 100% organic cotton, Lyocell, Hemp and Bamboo. It requires us to put in lots of efforts to find suppliers and production partners as majority are used to handling unsustainable materials and fabrics in today’s world where only 1% of cotton produced is organic. A good start for us, and for our consumers that their brand of choice doesn’t do unsustainable.
In the textile industry, synthetic fibres such as polyester or nylon are two materials that are commonly used, and unfortunately, they have a massive carbon footprint. Polyester, for instance, releases two to three times more carbon emission than cotton. A polyester garment contributes a large carbon footprint of 5.5 kg of carbon dioxide per polyester t-shirt. Moreover, methane is also released in the process. The release of the toxic chemical into waterways, directly and indirectly, harms the ecosystem. However, Pirkani Apparel chooses natural fibres which are gentle to the ecosystem in terms of emissions, the release of toxic chemicals and harm to the environment. Organic cotton emits 46% less carbon dioxide than conventional cotton. We also feel very proud that we use 100% recycled polyester in some of our products which is produced from PET bottles that are salvaged from the oceans as part of our humble contributions towards recovery of our beautiful ecosystems and protection of marine life.
Our Contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
There has been a paradigm shift in the last few decades when it comes to our lifestyle. Globally, more and more people are now thinking about sustainability than ever before. People have started to prefer cloth or reusable/ biodegradable bags instead of plastic bags at an individual level. Governments and corporations throughout the world are going towards sustainable and eco-friendly models of energy. The global community has perhaps started to realise that Earth is the only home for us.
While many people have realised that the only option for decent survival lies in sustainability, corporations knowingly exploit already depleting natural resources and affect life underwater, life on Earth, and humans in numerous ways. Traditional textile, in particular, is one such industry that promotes "fast fashion", which forces consumers to buy products despite their actual need. Unconsciously and unknowingly, the consumers harm the world and their surroundings. With cheap tricks of "sale" and "low cost", consumers are trapped into buying what they don't always need. However, with the allure of low cost, farmers and factory workers pay the price, which is often a heavy one, costing their health and the well-being of their loved ones.
As people's passion for supporting the planet Earth drives Pirkani Apparel – everyone involved in our supply chain is conscious about such practices and makes an extra effort to make a positive impact by being sustainable in their approach.
For more information on our specific contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals please read.
For further information on our certifications and standards, please visit.