08
#3. Levi's
#4. Patagonia
Levi's focuses on creating a legacy in which they incorporate sustainability into their product's life cycle. In order to foster and ensure this legacy, Levi's has created three main innovations:
1. Water<LessTM: Levi's recognizes the importance in water conservation efforts especially during a time of water scarcity. With the launching of Water<Less initiative in 2011, Levi has saved more than 1 billion liters of water in manufacturing, including 30 million liters of fresh water through reusing and recycling.
2. Levi's WellthreadTM Collection: This collection features processes in which Levi's has incorporated procedures that are more environmentally sustainable - such as featuring Levi's Water<Less fabric, which saves more than 65% of water in the dye process in comparison to the traditional route and also focusing on closed loop recycling.
3. Waste<LessTM: This collection specifically focuses on creating less wastes, which resulted in products that are 20% made of post-consumer plastic bottles. On average, that is about 3-8 plastic bottles per pair and about 11.9 million recycled bottles since the start of this collection (Spring 2013).
As a brand, Patagonia is known to be sustainable and environmentally focused. Patagonia’s mission statement reads: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” Its conservation efforts can be seen through its origins - Patagonia's founder Yvon Chouinard is not only the creator of this multi-million dollar company but also an American rock climber and environmentalist. He has also created a non-profit called 1% For the Planet, in which businesses who become members pledge to donate 1% of their sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment.
- Grace Kim '19