Sustainability and Goals

This section includes - Our donations, sustainable fabrics, biodegradable packaging, our goals plus more.

 

When we started Waev we already knew what fabric we wanted and how we wanted them to be made, we first began looking for local manufactures here in Australia. Thus began the difficult  quest of searching for manufactures to make our garments using recycled and sustainable materials. This ended up being our first hurdle. With sustainability in mind and also wanting to be Australian made we began doing lots of research. Calling, emailing local makers where we discovered it would be way out of our budget to have both of those factors at one time whilst initially starting up. So we started our adventure looking for alternative manufacturers who specialise in sustainable fashion and recycled materials. We are currently having most of our pieces being made in Thailand and China. Our aim is within the next 2 years to be fully Australian made. All of our labelling, stickers, logos, compostable packaging and more are made here in Australia. As well as our teams both in packing, fulfilling, sorting, marketing and much more being done locally here in Australia (In Melbourne and Queensland). We are so grateful that we now have been able to expand our team and support fellow Aussie workers in the process. A good step in the right direction. One of the first questions that I asked our manufactures is if they have fair work/trade and how the working conditions and environments are. We have been assured by our suppliers that they have fair work and trade as well as being provided numerous videos and photos of the workers and facilities (see video attached below). However being in Australia we haven't seen first hand ourselves which is another huge factor as to why everyday we are striving and getting closer to our goal of being Australian made. This would also then allow us to have great connections and relationships with all of our makers and to be able to watch the process first hand. Our packaging that we use is fully biodegradable which can be easily put into a compost bin and break down easily and quickly. The advantage of using biodegradable packaging is that is breaks down easily and doesn’t contribute to the huge plastic problem the ocean and planet has. Normal plastic can take 1000 years to break down, filling and polluting our oceans and laneways. Whereas our biodegradable packaging can take 30-90 days to break down and is made from plant based materials. Most of our items are made from recycled nylon/polyester, organic cotton/hemp and even from recycled plastic bottles. If you have been following our journey you would know that one of our major goals we had was to make swimwear/yoga wear from recycled plastic bottles or better known as Repreve fabric (a climate neutral/positive fabric) which we achieved within 6 months! Our Repreve range is continuously growing which we now have over 15 different items made from this fabric. Our other items that are not made from recycled or sustainable materials in most cases do not get restocked. This is because we are working to phase out any old styles that are not sustainable therefore limiting our carbon foot print on the earth. Although fashion often is seen as not ever being fully sustainable, our goal is to be carbon neutral/positive and have a great impact on the fashion world all within the next 2 years. The more we continue to grow the closer we get to our goal so thank you for the support, it all makes a difference. We also donate 5% of profits to charities of your choice (follow our instagram stories to choose which charity each month you would like donations to go towards) This is a great way for us to give back as a company and contribute to a positive change in the world. Which was also one of goals to introduce when we first started and we are so pleased now have achieved. Some of our bigger goals include growing to quite a large business that way we can employ many people, creating many jobs and opportunities for fellow Aussies. We also want to make real change in the world by staring our own Waev organisation to help end poverty, trafficking, war, animal cruelty and clearing oceans and pollution. When you buy from us we want you to buy our vision, a vision for our larger goals and sustainability in fashion which together we can achieve. If you have any insights or advice into how else you think we can become more sustainable or just any ideas you have, feel free to shoot us an email or message us on social media. We would love to hear them! Thank you so much for reading our sustainability and goals. If you made it all the way to the end, use code ‘ vision ‘ for 10% off our entire store.

Love and Light, Waev 

https://vimeo.com/571903745