Behind The Scene: How We Eco-design Our Products

Hello Yoginis,

The word “eco-responsible” is applied almost everywhere and cooked in all sauces, sometimes not very digestible 🤢

So far nothing unusual, the environment is a subject that spoils the appetite!

In this post, we take the floor to explain to you as simply and clearly as possible how we designed our products, with complete awareness and complete peace of mind.

No more béchamel, béarnaise and vinaigrette…

With us, it will just be salt and pepper.

And if you can't find the answer to your questions, it's down below, in the comments furnace 👇

To everyone who doesn't have time to spend hours reading articles about global warming because their schedule is already boiling hot 🌡️

Children, a job, a husband, a dog, a Vinted account and a house to manage, in this order or another.

We sympathize!

For you, we have summarized the philosophy of our approach in three points:

• We wanted to create a yoga brand finally aligned with the core value of the discipline: non-violence. This translates into a deep respect for our customers, our partners and suppliers, and of course that of People in general and our Planet 🌍

• We design our products in the most respectful way possible for the environment and people, with the options that exist today while keeping an open mind and continuing to look at what we can improve. Because things will continue to move 💪

• All this while taking into account the technical and aesthetic expectations of our customers regarding sports clothing and accessories: quick drying, elasticity, colorful patterns and comfortable cuts 🧘 ‍ ♀ ️

For those who have very little time available, take a look at this infographic which summarizes our ecodesign approach.

And for everyone else, welcome! It's this way :

1. Who do we think we are?

Consuming responsibly means consuming as little as possible, carefully choosing the products that we will invite into our lives to keep them as long as possible.

So as a brand, which consumes raw materials, which produces and ships items, you may wonder what right we have to teach lessons.

Well, in fact, we have no intention of lecturing anyone at all.

Because the world doesn't need a new brand of yoga.

And yet, it is high time to start designing clothes differently!

Our ambition is simple: to design pretty yoga outfits and accessories for women in limited series and made to last, only sold on our website.

Géopélie is the first brand of yoga clothing and accessories made in France from recycled materials.

We really want to be part of these new generation brands that shake things up from top to bottom 💥

By supporting us, you help us turn the tide 💨

The world doesn't need a new brand of yoga. And yet, it is urgent to think about clothes differently. We think we're a new yoga brand that really wants to turn things around!

2. An observation: it’s not all rosy

Unfortunately, global warming is not a bad joke.

As citizens of the world, we think it is entirely reasonable to ask everyone to be aware of the extent of their CO2 emissions and to start making efforts.

Greta against Trump, 1-0.

We will talk to you exclusively about C02 emissions linked to the consumption of textile articles since this is our domain. But be aware that textiles are only responsible for “only 2%” of global greenhouse gas emissions.

So here are the facts:

• 100 billion items of clothing are produced per year on the planet
• The textile industry is the third most water-consuming sector in the world after wheat and rice cultivation.
• Textile production uses 4% of the world's available drinking water. It takes 10,000 liters of water to make a pair of jeans!
• 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases are emitted each year by the textile sector, or 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions
• And a French person buys 9kg of clothes and gives away 3kg each year

The textile carbon footprint of each French person has been calculated and it is 442 kg of CO2eq/year.

To achieve the objectives of the Paris agreement and not exceed a temperature increase of 2°C in 2100, this figure must be divided by 6 (74 kg of CO2eq/pers.year for textiles).

To prevent the planet from warming by more than 2°C in 2100, everyone must reduce their textile carbon footprint by 6, or more!

3. There are solutions!

Don't panic, you won't need mathematical formulas to reduce your textile carbon footprint.

The Cycleco assessment of the carbon footprint of the textile sector in France, published in January 2021, has done the calculations for you.

5 means of action have been identified and ranked in order of importance in their ability to reduce the textile carbon footprint:

• Relocalize production : Manufacturing textile products in countries with a low-carbon electricity mix and closer to the end consumer has the greatest potential to improve the carbon footprint. Starting from a hypothesis of 100% relocation of manufacturing in France, we could reduce the textile carbon footprint of each French person by 221 CO2eq/year.

• Reduce unsold goods : By stopping overproducing and destroying unsold goods, the potential for improving the textile carbon footprint is 111 CO2eq/year.

• Eco-design products : Previous work carried out by Cycleco with textile companies showed that the potential for reducing carbon emissions during eco-design processes was on average 55 kgCO2eq (considering only the change in materials , sustainability, optimization of supply chains) based on current production chains.

• Reuse and recycle: The reduction in emissions linked to the implementation of a recycling and reuse approach for products at the end of their life is of the order of 12 kg of CO2eq per kg of textile item.

The implementation of all of these actions would make it possible to reduce the carbon footprint of textiles per capita to 43 kgCO2eq/year, thus going well beyond the objectives of the Paris Agreement, and further facilitating a carbon neutrality of the sector.

To reduce your textile carbon footprint as a consumer, you must favor, in this order: 1) products manufactured in France or in Europe, 2) the pre-order model which avoids unsold items, 3) eco-designed products, 4) recyclable products.

4. Our products are made in France with European threads

As it is the manufacturing location that has the greatest impact on improving the carbon footprint, we naturally started there! To discover the geography of our manufacturing locations, click here!

Having it made in France helps reduce the environmental impact of a garment, but not only that! Other positive social, economic and cultural aspects come into play.

It was important for us to select soft and comfortable materials for practicing yoga and that is why we chose recycled polyester and cotton as well as eco-responsible elastane.

Polyester and recycled polyester are often criticized for the microfibers they shed when clothes are washed. Please note that any clothing, whatever its composition, releases microfibers and that those found in the Ocean are mainly of cellulosic origin.

Faced with the closure of spinning mills in France, we took the second best option: recycled yarns from Europe.

The recycled yarns that are used in the composition of our products are manufactured in Spain, Italy and Germany.

The yarns are then knitted and dyed in Lyon to become jersey knit.

Then it's off to the manufacturing workshop in Rouen.

To affix the word made in France, you must meet certain specific criteria which we let you discover here.

Our manufacturing process guarantees a lower carbon footprint than traditional logistics chains including Asia. Everything is done in France apart from the manufacturing of the yarn.

5. The pre-order model to avoid overproduction and unsold items

The consequences of clothing waste are there.

4 million tonnes of textile waste are thrown away each year in Europe.

Only 20% is recycled, the rest goes to landfill or is incinerated.

To avoid overproduction and unsold items, we opted for the pre-order system.

A virtuous model to produce only what we can sell.

In this regard, we are very grateful to you for agreeing to wait a little to receive your orders. So thank you very much 🙏

To avoid waste and throwing away or selling off products, we opted for pre-ordering. We only make what we can sell. In this regard, thank you very much for your patience!

6. Help you choose and maintain your outfits

We know that feeling of disappointment when we order a product online and absolutely NOTHING goes wrong: the cut, the color, the size, etc.

In short, direct return to the sender.

At Géopélie, we are not here to make you compulsive fashionista Yoginis.

For each item offered, we give you as much information as possible so that you can decide for yourself whether it is a product that makes sense and will please you for years to come.

And we also explain to you how to take care of your Yogini paraphernalia, so that you keep it as long as possible.

Choosing carefully the products you are going to order and maintaining them is the first step in reasoned consumption and in e-commerce, this allows you to avoid numerous returns. Frustrating for you, headache for us.

And lots of CO2 emissions that we would have done without.

If in doubt, do not hesitate to contact customer service who will be happy to provide you with information.

We give you as much information as possible about our products and their ideal maintenance to make reasoned purchases that you like, and that last over time.

7. Eco-design, a global approach to the product life cycle

To put it simply, the eco-design of a product consists of thinking about its environmental impact from the beginning to the end of its life.

Everything is taken into consideration: the extraction of raw materials, water and energy consumption and pollution linked to production, distribution, use by consumers and the end of life of the product.

For our part, we preferred to surround ourselves with specialists to advise us. Life cycle studies are not our cup of tea, so we let the pros do it!

This is what we put in place:

• The exclusive use of recycled or ecological yarns

For our leggings and bralettes, we use Newlife recycled polyester yarn made from plastic bottle waste collected in Turin, Italy.

Originally, polyester is a plastic material made from petroleum derivatives following a polluting and energy-intensive manufacturing process.

Recycled polyester has a lower environmental impact: the bottles are sorted by color and type of plastic, then they are mechanically crushed into chips. The shavings are melted and transformed into threads ready to be woven. Transforming plastic bottles into recycled yarn does not require the use of chemicals.

Newlife yarns are Oekotex and GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified, thus ensuring their non-toxicity and full traceability. They reduce energy consumption by 60% and water by 94% compared to the production of virgin polyester yarn.

To ensure the comfort of our clothes, our fabrics also contain elastane, but not just any elastane. This is a yarn called ROICA™ Eco-Smart designed by the Japanese company Asahi Kasei and manufactured by its subsidiary in Germany to be closer to consumers.

Roica Eco-Smart is the first and so far only sustainable eco-stretch elastane yarn in the world to be GRS (Global Recycling Standard by Textile Exchange) and Oekotex certified. Its manufacturing includes polymer science allowing waste to be reused.

For our t-shirts we use a blend of Recover recycled polyester and cotton yarns made in Spain in Banyeres de Mariola by the company Hilaturas Ferre. Recover yarns are made from textile waste and plastic bottles and are GRS (Global Recycling Standard by Textile Exchange) and Oekotex certified.

In 2019, Recover recycled more than 2.7 million kg of textile waste and 8.7 million plastic bottles. The recycled yarn manufacturing process uses no water, no dyes, no chemicals, no pesticides or fertilizers and emits almost no C02.

• Materials and seams that resist time

Even recycled, the yarns we have selected for knitting our sports knits are of excellent quality.

Added to this is the choice to make solid seams which will give our products robustness and longevity.

•  Short circuits

Our manufacturing chain is short and our products do not travel around the world.

Compared to the 65,000km that a pair of jeans travels on average from the cotton field to the point of sale, our products are clearly homebodies.

For our bras and leggings:

Manufacture of yarns in Turin, Italy: starting point

Knitting and dyeing in Lyon: 311 km

Confectionery in Rouen: 694 km

Total km traveled before distribution: 1005 km

For our t-shirts:

Manufacture of yarns in Banyeres de Mariola in Spain: starting point

Knitting and dyeing in Lyon: 1094 km

Confectionery in Rouen: 694 km

Total km traveled before distribution: 1788 km

Géopélie yoga and fitness clothing was the subject of a life cycle analysis study by the expertise firm Décéo , the results of which are detailed in this post.

Eco-design is a multi-stage approach (the life of the product from cradle to grave) and multi-criteria (environmental impacts and water and energy consumption) which allows products to be created in a more thoughtful manner. We surrounded ourselves with specialists to make sure we were going in the right direction. Our products are made from recycled and sustainable yarns, following short manufacturing circuits.

8. The products we design are also fully recyclable

Our products are recyclable but not in the sense of a return to pure fiber.

For use identical to their first use, the fabrics must be “mono-material”, that is to say 100% cotton, 100% polyester, etc.

It is difficult for us to consider products without elastane or polyester, which are flexible, resistant materials and very suitable for sports clothing.

The fabrics we use are blends of several types of fibers: cotton + polyester or polyester + elastane.

There are processes to separate cotton fibers from polyester fibers like Trash to Cash but these are still too expensive and little used.

On the other hand, our clothes are recyclable in the broader sense and can be transformed into insulation, industrial rags, geotextiles, padding, etc.

Please note: all brands that sell textile products in France are required to pay a tax to the Refashion / Eco TLC institute, the eco-organization of the Textile, Clothing, Household Linen and Footwear Sector which organizes the collection. . And we are no exception!

We hope that you will use Géopélie products for many years, that you will resell them on your Vinted account to give them a second life if you no longer like them and that at the end of their life, you will deposit them in a point collection point so that they can be recycled. To find out where to drop off your used textiles among more than 46,000 collection points, go to the Re f ashion Citoyen website.

The story of Géopélie has only just begun, we will complete this article as our journey progresses and will soon add more information on our choices in terms of packaging and logistics.

 

To discover

Our eco-responsible yoga outfits made in France from recycled materials are perfectly suited to all types of yoga!

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