Underwear For Humanity

Foundation Member | Tracking Since November 2022

Underwear For Humanity Sustainability Actions

B Corp Certified

B Corp Certification confirmed that our community and the environment are stakeholders in our impact-driven business model and our commitment to balancing social and planetary good in everything we do against the highest standards of transparency and accountability. We are now part of a global network of businesses shifting our global economy from a system that profits few to one that benefits all.

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Evidence

Ethical Manufacturing

The garment workers that make our products are paid 60% above the living wage, by a BSCI certified factory that uses solar to help power their manufacturing. We also do regular factory visits and assessments of systems to ensure good working conditions.

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Underwear Recycling

Each year, Australia sees 204 million imported underwear items, will all eventually destined for landfill at the end of life. Underwear for Humanity has pioneered recycling in Australia to address this waste. We work with Social Engine to sort all collected underwear. Wearable bras are given to our charity partner, Support the Girls, while the rest, including unwearable bras, are repurposed into insulation. This initiative not only reduces waste but also supports the community by redistributing useful items and converting unusable ones into valuable materials.

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Indigenous Collaboration

We're deeply concerned about the unfair treatment and displacement of Indigenous people from their land. At Underwear for Humanity, we believe it's our duty to give back, so we contribute 50 cents from every sale to support Indigenous programs on the lands where we live and work. Our recent initiative included sponsoring a youth Culture Camp with $9,000 from our collection, run by Country as Teacher, a Bundjalung organisation that helps young people celebrate and connect.

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Plastic Free Packaging

At Underwear for Humanity, our commitment to sustainability extends to our packaging. We've minimized packaging size to conserve natural resources, using recycled kraft board and vegetable-based inks, eliminating the need for fossil fuel-derived inks and completely avoiding plastic. Our products are transferred into recycled kraft pick boxes and shipped in small, compostable mailers, ensuring that every aspect of our delivery process upholds our environmental values.

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One-for-one Underwear Donation

We believe that access to clean, new underwear is a fundamental human right, essential for maintaining dignity. Sadly, underwear poverty exists in Australia, and we are committed to addressing this through our one-for-one program—donating a pair of underwear for every item sold. We are incredibly proud of the impact our one-for-one campaign has made. And it became even more powerful on day when we discovered surplus elastic destined for landfill at one of our factories. Now, we utilise deadstock materials like leftover elastic and fabric from other orders to produce the underwear we donate, each pair unique. Our relationship with the factory producing our donation underwear spans over a decade, built on mutual trust and a commitment to sustainability. They consistently use BCI and organic cotton and non-toxic Oeko-Tex certified dyes to ensure the fabrics are safe. We donate to Aboriginal Health Centres, women's shelters, and homelessness charities.

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Work Training Program

Our warehousing and order fulfillment operations are managed through a work-training partnership with Social Engine, which supports and trains Afghan refugees in essential work skills and aids their entry into the workforce. This collaboration not only provides job training in warehousing, order fulfillment, customer service, and recycling processes but also embodies our commitment to social regeneration. We believe that every financial transaction in our supply chain presents a powerful opportunity to create equitable opportunities and positively impact society.

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Poly Bags used in packing garments

In the fashion industry, garments are transported in plastic poly bags inside boxes, the boxes are then palette wrapped in warehouses with reams of cling film. This plastic is invisible to the consumer because it disappears before a product ever reaches the shelf. Poly bags are important in transporting garments to avoid damage and water exposure. But as we know single use plastic items are polluting our land, waterways and even the air we breathe. There is an urgent need to reduce this invisible shipping plastic. We couldn't find a solution, so we developed our own reusable system. We are proud to have developed our own reusable shipping bags, to be used over and over again. They eliminate any single use plastic from our shipping and align to our vision of being a low waste brand. They are made from Recycled Polyester, which is recycled post-consumer plastic bottles. They feature a sturdy zip and reinforced seams to ensure they will last for many years and will be repaired when damaged. They are shipped inside recycled card boxes; these are then reused in Australia, once damaged they are then recycled.

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Manufacturing Waste: Off-cuts

Our seamfree bras are created from a tube, meaning only the arm and neckline are cut and the body is fully fashioned on the machine, this reduces material waste significantly vs cut and sew techniques. All of our off-cuts are sent to be recycled into insulation and carpet underlay. In the future, there will be a higher demand for recycled fibres and we will have the infrastructure to turn off-cuts into new fabrics – this is called up-cycling. Up-cycling is currently in its infancy for textiles, but we can expect it to grow in big ways in the future.

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Chemicals in production

The fashion industry currently uses over 8,000 chemicals in the processing and manufacturing of materials. Many of these chemicals are not even identified, let alone researched for safety. Of the ones that have been investigated, over 2,000 pose a significant threat to human health and are categorised as ‘substances of concern’. Due to decentralised supply chains, there is a lack of transparency in the fashion industry regarding chemical use and their full effects on the environment. To divert from these unsustainable and toxic chemical practices, we use Oeko-Tex certified dyehouses to ensure no toxic substances are used in the dying of our fabrics.

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Evidence

Recycled Nylon Elastic

Elastic needs to be soft, supportive to create a frame for underwear. It needs enough elongation to stretch and be comfortable to wear, but also enough power to hold. While there are many suppliers of elastic, recycled elastic is very difficult to source, so we created our own. Our in-house elastic is a beautiful, soft elastic that is made from GRS certified recycled nylon. The decision to be uncompromising on our standards delayed our launch, but we were unwilling to use virgin nylon. Utilising nylon manufacturing waste to create recycled nylon diverts waste from landfill.

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Pre-loved Bras - creating positive change

Second-hand bras and crops that are in good wearable condition are sorted through our warehouse pick and pack training program and donated to women in need via the charity Support the Girls.

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Evidence

On A Mission Climate Positive Company

We work with On a Mission to offset our emissions and carbon impact across our entire supply chain. Our Climate Positive certification with On a Mission recognises that our business buys at least 1.5 times more carbon offsets than we produce each year. We are continuously striving to leave as little impact on the environment as possible, in all we do.

Evidence

PETA Approved VEGAN

PETA is an Animal Rights organisation that protects the treatment of animals. Their Vegan certification indicates that our products are completely free of animal ingredients, and that no animals were used or harmed in their making.

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Social Traders Certified

This certification shows that our business, as part of our constitution, has a social, cultural or environmental purpose as its primary objective, and ensures that our primary efforts and resources are invested into this purpose.

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HERO Home Compostable Mail Bags

We choose Hero compostable HEROPACK shipping mailers which are certified as both Home and Commercially Compostable. Our mailers hold certifications which meet the Australian standards (AS5810 and AS4736) administered by the Australasian Bioplastics Australia (ABA). Our supply chain also complies with ISO 14001 standards, ensuring environmentally ethical sourcing and production. We also only use compostable postage labels - so the entire parcel can be reused to send back product or recycling or composted in your home green bin. https://heropackaging.com.au/

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Evidence

Soy-based ink printed packaging

We made our packaging minimal in size to preserve natural resources. We use recycled kraft board. We developed it utilising soy-based inks instead of the more common fossil fuel ink. There is zero plastic and small amount of animal free glue holding it together.

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Evidence
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