Is it sustainable?

Week 48 is all about sustainability when Schulz by Crowd Pops Up at YUME

We kicked off the week Tuesday, where we had the opportunity to welcome some lovely ladies for a talk about sustainability – what covers the phrase sustainability, how to raise awareness and encourage collaboration between sustainable brands and how to inspire consumers to be more environmental conscious.


The ladies: @trinesblend @danicachloedk @ostfronten @kodeordeter @klimamusen @millefryd @lovebykim @aramob @normmedia

It is no secret that the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries. The textile industry represents 6 percent of the global greenhouse-gas emissions and 10-20 percent of the pesticide use. Washing, solvents and dyes used in manufacturing are responsible of one-fifth of the total industry water pollution, and fashion accounts for 20-35 percent of the microplastic flows into the ocean (State of Fashion 2020 McKinsey November 2019)

Consumers are increasingly waking up to this reality and the demand for sustainable brands are increasing – but there is still long way to go.

One of the big issues that we discussed - and a factor that McKinsey´s State of fashion also covered as a big issue - is that sustainability is very complex and multifaceted, with no common language, which makes it difficult to simplify and to communicate to the consumers.

It is our experience that the consumers often set = between organic clothes and sustainable clothes - but it needs to be seen in a much wider perspective.

At Schulz by Crowd we work with sustainability in many ways, listed here is some of them:

-          We use organic cotton to minimize pesticides

-          We use clean and natural materials, so that it can be recycled

-          We minimize the use of plastic and polyester, to minimize microplastic (ex. from 2019 our buttons in the silk wear is made from seashells)

-          We use new kinds of materials such as organic milk fiber

-          Our garments are dyed with colors that is within the REACH standard to minimize chemicals

-          We make high quality clothes, that can last

-          We only produce small quantities

-          We treat and respect everyone in our value chain well

Another issues, which everyone at our talk sadly had experienced - and which I think is the consequence of the complexity of sustainability, is that when you talk about sustainability or make a sustainable choice, people are very fast to point fingers at all the less sustainable choices made.

I hope that we can agree upon, that doing something is better than doing nothing and that no one can be 100 percent sustainable.

I believe that if we take small steps together, we can come a long way <3


Marie Schulz