for the planet

Sustainability plays a really important role in all we do. In recent years, the wasteful nature of the fashion industry has become big news around the world, and a spotlight has been closely focused on the very nature of the industry itself and how harmful it can be on the planet and the people who live on it, from the factory workers to those in 3rd world countries who all too often end up dealing with our discarded clothes.

Kettlewell Colours has always promoted considered buying, and that principle forms the grounding of what we do – to give our customers well-made, key wardrobe staples that can be worn for many seasons. It translates into how we work behind the scenes too, in our carefully planned colours and ranges for each season. We buy in small quantities so that we are not left with large amounts of unsold and unwanted stock, we use colours and fabrics across multiple styles to maximise efficiencies within production and we consider both past and future ranges in our planning. During the development of new styles we work closely with the manufacturer to ensure the quality of the products means they will wash and wear well.

As part of the Refined brands group, working in an ethical and sustainable manner forms a big part of the ethos of the whole group, and will always remain an important part of what we do.

Below are just a few examples of what Kettlewell Colours is doing to improve sustainability within the industry.

Carbon footprint

The size of our carbon footprint matters greatly to us, and we are always looking at ways to reduce it.

We manufacture a large portion of our range in Europe so minimal air freight is required to transport our collections to our warehouse. With our styles manufactured further afield we collaborate with our sister brands to use sea freight where possible and only use air freight if there is no other option.

We also use the Royal Mail as our main distribution provider, as it deploys over 5500 electric vehicles across the UK and has introduced an environmentally friendly ‘feet on the street’ initiative, meaning two thirds of our parcels are delivered on foot. 

Packaging

At Kettlewell, we are always looking at ways to manage our environmental impact. Our turquoise postage bags are made of 80% recycled LDPE and are fully recyclable at many supermarkets and recycling centres (you can also return them to us and we’ll be happy to recycle them for you).

Our garment bags, which are used to ensure the products reach us in pristine condition from the manufacturers as well as reaching you in tip top shape, are made from at least 75% recycled LDPE, and as with our blue bags, are fully recyclable at many supermarkets and recycling centres.

Clever ways to repurpose your bag before recycling:

We'd love to hear your ingenious ideas for repurposing our mailer bags.

Email them to us at [email protected] and we'll share our favourites.

Our catalogues and swing tags on the garments are made of paper, using FSC sources where possible, and are all kerb-side recyclable. Please remember to remove the stickers from the swing tags before recycling.

Boxes containing new stock from the factories are reused in our warehouse and any surplus boxes are either collected by a local carrier company for reuse, or used to send out large customer orders. We have installed compressing machines in our warehouse that crush all our un-reusable cardboard, paper and plastic bags on site and turn them into compacted bales, which are then collected monthly for recycling.

Dyes

Colour is the basis of Kettlewell, and being able to provide the range of colours we do across a number of different fabric bases is an integral behind the scenes process our teams work really hard on.

Different fabrics react to dyes in different ways, so we are constantly collaborating with our manufacturers to ensure the colours across our entire range match.

Where possible we like to use natural based dye stuffs, but with over 300 colours on offer this is not possible, but we ensure that all dyes used meet strict REACH legislation at an absolute minimum to ensure that we are not allowing harmful chemicals to contaminate the waterways, which can damage both the natural ecosystems of land and sea. This also means that we know they are not known to be hazardous to human health either.