G-Star Raw was established in 1989 by Jos van Tilburg. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the brand designs and sells outerwear, tops, and bottoms. Their products are manufactured in Bangladesh, China, India, Turkey, Tunisia, Vietnam, Morocco, and Mauritius.
In our pursuit of knowing how sustainable G-Star Raw is, we researched their current practices and how much they are impacting the environment. Areas we explored include raw material use, brand communications, long-term use, energy efficiency, and waste generation.
A look into their fabric components show that they are unremarkable in this regard. This is shown by their use of run-of-the-mill fabrics that are neither the most polluting nor the most eco-friendly options. The majority of their products is made of cotton, which is known to have very high water and energy requirements. In addition, the brand also uses organic cotton, recycled polyester, and recycled cotton in creating their clothes.
G-Star Raw values sustainability by actively communicating their green efforts and goals while informing their customers about the most pressing environmental issues. They have marketing campaigns that inspire the public to take steps in improving their global impact. Moreover, they enhance transparency by sharing details of the environmental life-cycle assessment results of their products.
To promote long-term use of their products, they establish initiatives that help consumers reuse their old clothes or repair any damaged articles. That said, they are currently not organizing any garment collecting program that might prompt customers to raise their efforts in reducing their personal waste footprint.
One of the most remarkable changes that they’re implementing is their use of energy-saving technologies and renewable energy within their operations. Despite this, they don’t provide their customers with eco-conscious care instructions that could’ve stretched their energy conservation vision as far as the consumer stage.
The environment suffers some adverse impact whenever a package is transported quickly. Unfortunately, it appears that they haven’t taken the most essential step of creating a greener shipping practice. This is made clear by the absence of standard shipping options for their online customers. On top of this, there are also no incentives offered to users who opt out of express shipping methods like overnight and same-day delivery.
G-Star Raw lessens their contribution to the waste problem by using the appropriate size box and fewest possible components to pack their orders in. Despite this effort, they haven’t yet developed a packaging solution that is free of any plasticÑa move which could significantly reduce their overall emissions.
After researching how sustainable G-Star Raw is, we determined that, based on their computed score of 5 or a rating of Garden Variety, they are reasonably sustainable. This is an average rating and indicates that they are unremarkable with repect to their environmental efforts.
