Sustainability

See the 2019 Impact Report

As we roam in the harmful industry of manufacturing, we aim to work towards creating a sustainable alternative by harnessing the power of business. Reflect Studio is underpinned by the strong belief that institutions should use profits and growth as a means to a greater end: positive impact for our society and planet.

Therefore, we invest in our manufacturing, our people and our operations, with a commitment to fulfil our part in an inclusive and sustainable economy.

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B-Corp

As of November 2019, Reflect Studio became a member of the community of corporations that use business as a force for good. As a certified B-Corp, we are required to re-certify every three years and are held accountable for various criteria such as impact measurements of our production and our effects on the environment, employee rights and benefits, company management, transparency and social impact of the company.

To discover more about our B Impact Report, visit bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/reflect-studio

How we align with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership.

We align our 5Ps with SDGs in order to structure our sustainability framework. Check for the boxes at the beginning of each P category to see how our work relates to the respective SDGs.The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

5Ps of Reflect Studio

The equation of sustainability covers everything from the design of the product to growing of fibres and materials, fabric, dyeing, print & embroidery, movement of the materials to manufacturing, shipping, sales and product care. So we cover them all within the categories of 5P: Product, Planet, People, Partnerships, Progress.

01.Product
02.Planet
03.People
04.Partnerships
05.Progress

01.Product

As a manufacturing office, our material choices have the greatest impact. We continuously push for better fibres, better applications, better products. From the design stage to manufacturing, we are committed to creating environmentally responsible products.

↳ 01.1. Conscious fabrics, applications and products

We always ensure that the materials we choose to are fibres that are independently certified. For our garments, we use organic cotton, deadstock fabrics, GOTS certified organic cotton, GRS (Global Recycling Standard) certified recycled polyester and recycled cotton. For our accessories such as tote bags and cases, we use Recyclable Tyvek, Organic Cotton, Recycled PVC. For kitchenware, we do use plastic only to avoid single-use plastic products, such as design-led, efficient water bottles instead of single-use cups. As for paperwork, we make sure our products are manufactured using FSC certified paper.

*Deadstock fabrics: We buy verified ageing, leftover, and over-ordered fabric from factories, other designers and fabric warehouses, called deadstock. This allows us to give a second life to fabrics that are destined to landfill.

↳ 01.2. New materials

Through our R&D projects, we constantly seek innovative materials and long-lasting usage. Our production team reviews available material alternatives to see if they are commercially applicable so that the design team can implement it.

02.Planet

According to Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the total greenhouse gas emissions from textile production equals 1.2 billion tonnes annually. That is more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping combined, just in addition to the great amount of waste generated and waters used.

That is why we have to evaluate our responsibility towards our planet. The P for Planet is about assessing Reflect Studio’s environmental stewardship, including not only how we manage our environmental impact arising from our main business activities but also our day-to-day impact as a team, such as our use of studio kitchen or office supplies. It covers water use, carbon footprint, energy use, waste management as well as specific matters like climate, sustainability and our impacts on land and life.

↳ 02.1. Opting for sustainable manufacturing processes

As we implement environmentally conscious materials in our manufacturing processes, we also do our utmost to reduce our carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy consumption and avoid the use of pesticides. To measure the positive impact of our green choices, we partner with GreenStory.

↳ 02.2. Packaging and shipping

For brands we manage such as WWF Market, we offer fabric and FSC certified paper covers as packaging for e-commerce orders. For our local sales, we partner with UPS in order to use their biodegradable plastic bags for order deliveries. For our international sales, we partner with DHL Green in offsetting the carbon generated from our international shipments.

↳ 02.3. Locally designed. Locally made.

As an Istanbul-based design + manufacturing office, our headquarters and our manufacturing network are based in Istanbul. When an order is placed and the designs are ready, production sheets are prepared in-house, where the selection of raw materials is conducted together with creative and production teams. Our production planner, together with the lead, sources every single item on a garment. Within an average of four to six weeks, Reflect Studio production team of six people (production lead, lead assistant, planner, quality controller, two operation assistants) pursues every single step in the production chain, the quality controller visiting and checking every single supplier at each stage, covering a total 116 kilometres within the city of Istanbul, in the following order. Compared to the industry-standard global supply chain operations, our end-to-end local manufacturing approach results in carbon-efficient operations.

↳ 02.4. Offsets

It's not enough just to manufacture sustainably, we partner with local NGOs to replace some of the resources we use. For example, in exchange for the emissions that arouse from our quarterly manufacturing and operational practices, we plant trees to ensure carbon dioxide is caught from the atmosphere.

↳ 02.5. Conscious office habits

Recycling isn’t only about using recycled fabrics for manufacturing, but also about our habits at the studio. We recycle our food & drinks packaging in our kitchen and compost organic wastes.

We also use tons of stuff from paper supplies to coffee. To manage our environmental and social impact not only in the manufacturing stage but also at the studio, we prioritize products with fair-trade, non-toxic, recycled, biodegradable or recyclable content.

03.People

People is about all stakeholders of Reflect Studio: our team, workers in the factories we manufacture with, our suppliers, our clients. We aim to evaluate our company’s choices on fair production, as well as our employee’s financial, physical, social well-being and safety. We want to establish a transparent relationship with our clients and invest in our services accordingly.

↳ 03.1. Fair working conditions

The complex structure of manufacturing unfortunately leads to an opaque supply chain where one cannot examine the working conditions of subcontractors. However, we believe every single individual in our ecosystem should benefit from fair and safe living standards. That is why we have obtained, and continue to obtain certain international standards that are issued by international 3rd party certifications.

All our suppliers are certified with BSCI (Business Social Complaince Initiative), which protect the rights of employees in terms such as working hours, compensations, freedom of unionisation, healthy and safety.

↳ 03.2. Transparent supply chain

Transparent supply chain lies at the core of our way of doing business. Textile industry, by its nature, involves a multi-step, complex manufacturing processes. These include sourcing of the fabrics, yarn and materials, washing, dyeing, printing, finishing, accessory part manufacturing, cut and sew, final manufacturing and assembling. There are either integrated manufacturing plants who offer end-to-end production or first tier companies who do final cut and sew, manufacturing and sub-contract the rest of the steps. In both alternatives, there is neither control nor transparency within subcontractors or the suppliers.

With Reflect Studio’s strong notion that radical transparency establishes trust, we have built our own manufacturing department that finds, evaluates, plans and controls all suppliers in this complex production processes in the making of our garments. We work exclusively with small factories, whom we build a close, trusting relationship with.

Relying on 3rd party international standards is a must. However, as a manufacturing office, we aim to clear the opacity of the standard supply chain we go beyond the certifications and develop intrinsic and transparent relationships with our suppliers.

→ To read more about our quest to build the best product through a transparent supply chain, read our article: How we strive to build the best product through a transparent supply chain.

↳ 03.3. Building trust with our stakeholders

To ensure trust with our stakeholders, we share the manufacturing journeys behind our products with our business partners, clients and followers. For our projects carried out with institutions, we calculate our environmental and social impact in the making of the products and share an impact report with our accounts. For the brands we operate, we utilize calculation methods in partnership with Green Story and communicate our total impact with our followers and buyers.

Every single Reflect Studio garment comes with a QR code attached to the washing instructions tag. When scanned, the code embarks our customers on a journey of production documented by the team, outlining each step of the process starting from cotton picking to the packaging of the final product.

↳ 03.4. Diversity, inclusion and gender equality

At Reflect Studio HQ, over 50% of the team are women. In our supply chain, we work with 20 different ateliers of which 13 of them are women-owned. We constantly work towards empowering underrepresented communities through our hiring policies.

↳ 03.5. Transparency within our team, benefits and activities

We sustain full transparency within our team concerning our operations, sourcing policies and finance. Every quarter we share our policies, decisions and reports during our meetings.

We invest in our team culture throughout monthly cultural activities, summer retreats, as well as weekly Friday afternoon sessions where we encourage everyone to share contents that enrich each other.

04.Partnerships

When leveraging brand identities of institutions through aesthetic, functional and sustainable products, we take pride in doing so exclusively through our partnerships with non-governmental organizations. Our partnerships also cover our associations with independent, 3rd party platforms in order to better evaluate our impact as objectively as possible.

↳ 04.1. Official licensor of WWF Turkey

Since December 2018, Reflect Studio is the official licensor of WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature) Turkey. The studio manages the website, design, production, marketing, sales and distribution of WWF-branded products through wwfmarket.com. We transfer 11% WWF Market’s total revenue to WWF-Turkey. Doing so, we have been contributing significantly to WWF in their projects that aim to conserve natural habitat and various species.

↳ 04.2. Partnerships for objective impact measurement

We like to challenge ourselves to evolve and make better decisions when it comes to sustainability. That is why we partner with independent, global organizations when measuring our impact.

S360: is the Istanbul based sustainability specialists helping brands and corporates to make better choices. Since November 2018, Reflect Studio has been receiving professional consultancy from S360 team in terms of strategic solutions for corporate sustainability.

Green Story: helps us quantity the impact of our production compared to industry standards by calculating the footprint of our products.

Good On You: is the go-to source for trusted brand ratings, articles and expertise on ethical and sustainable fashion. It’s recognized and trusted ethical rating system, as well as advice and information, leads the way towards a more sustainable and fair fashion industry. As of 2020, we are rated as “Great”, the highest score with our fair and sustainable manufacturing practices.

Common Objective: is an intelligent business network for the sustainable fashion industry. As of March 2019, Reflect Studio has been granted the Leadership Award by Common Objective. CO leadership award puts the spotlight on businesses with products or services that maximize benefits to people, and minimize impact on the environment.

05.Progress

Progress at Reflect Studio stands for all our efforts and investments in our quest to build better products, with fair and transparent processes. Progress exists for us to classify, evaluate and enhance our activities within all other 4Ps and move forward continuously.

↳ 05.1. R&D

A space free from commercial limitations, Research & Development is a Reflect Studio project where we experiment with innovative designs & materials, widening our creative boundaries. To extend our use of environmentally friendly, sustainable and innovative fibers, we continuously design and test with new raw materials.

↳ 05.2. Education

We invest in education to improve ourselves on 5Ps and their requirements as a team. We organize Sustainability Talks to invite an industry expert every six months for Q&A, encourage all members of the team for online courses in sustainability management regardless of department and offer educational content about circular design practices.

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2020 Impact Report