Companies that Consider Sustainability an Expense Will Not Survive

The new EU Textiles Strategy has been announced. How is it going to affect you? What specific steps are you taking to ensure that you adhere to the new regulations that have already come in, and the ones that are likely to take shape in the near future?
Brands are looking for sustainable and—especially—recycled products. And many brands are committed to making their products sustainable and/or recyclable in certain proportions. We are happy to be the first supplier of many brands in this regard.

Companies that consider sustainability as an expense will not be able to sustain themselves. Policies such as European Green Deal will also force companies to work in this direction.

Sustainability is not new for us. Bossa launched its first RE-SET collection in 2006. The usage of organic cotton and natural dyestuff has been taken to the next level with this collection. Every year a valuable addition has been made to it. Today, Bossa offers a wide range of products with natural dyestuff, recycled cotton, recycled PET, organic cotton, natural fibres (i.e. linen, hemp, wool), BCI cotton, Cotton Made in Africa, GMO-free Turkish cotton, naturally coloured cotton. Blending recycled cotton with virgin cotton is really important and is not so easy. We have made investments in producing high quality recycled denims.

At Bossa, we are developing a zero waste lifecycle to close the loop. Starting from 2019, we have begun to use all our textile waste in our blend by opening or cleaning them.  

And also social responsibility—it is at the hearth of what we do. We believe it is our duty to be socially responsible. Bossa’s Human Resources Policy was founded on modernity, equal opportunities and human rights. We believe that sustainability needs transparency. As Bossa we have transparently explained our production figures for the last three years with the ‘Towards Zero Waste’ booklet.  

The future is transparent—where all actors of a supply chain can be accountable for the information committed to the chain of custody, and the incentive for transparency is based on a trust count or rating system that allows others to make decisions based on peer reviews. In textiles/fashion—and practically every other industry—blockchain has transformative potential for making the supply chain transparent.

The D-Chronicles concept is designed by Bossa and FibreTrace collaboration. The concept assigned a blockchain-based ID, which start to follow it from farm to shelf and chronicling its history by secure blockchain. Thanks to FibreTrace technology, we embed an ID which will stay forever inside of the products and tracking every step from raw materials through the supply chain right up to the finished garment and to the shelves in the stores, consumers can view a map of the clothing’s movement through the entire manufacturing and distribution process—viewing every step of a garment’s journey to a consumer. Bossa partners with FibreTrace to provide trust, transparency and traceability in the industry. The D-Chronicles concept is the future.

We are also working with companies to trace with spraying system. We are always open to collaborate with trace companies and also with brands.

As a denim company, what kind of information or knowledge do you seek to help you source/manufacture earth-friendly denim? What is the focus on sustainability in your company? What steps do you take at the B2B level and the retail point to help the consumer make an informed ‘sustainable’ choice?
Using sustainable materials like organic cotton, tencel, modal, Refibra, recycle cotton, Ecovero, etc, is a very important sustainable keypoint that we focus on. We are always searching for new sustainable materials and using them as a raw material in our articles.

We acknowledge that it is important to reduce, reuse and recycle in order not to compromise the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.  Bossa has been actively involved in the protection and preservation of the environment since its startup.

• “We care about future”
• “We aim to raise the level of awareness on environmental issues”
• “We do our part”

Adopting the following procedures are aimed at reducing our environmental impact: re-usage, sustainable materials, energy efficiency, water saving, process engineering, collaboration, co-creation, certification and ecological dyeing.

Recycling, reducing and saving are critical to the environment. It is a staple and sustainable system in which natural resources are renewed and wastes never accumulate—closed loop.  At Bossa, we are developing a zero waste lifecycle to close the loop.

Currently, the strongest demand from brands is sustainable and—especially—recycled products. We are happy to be the first supplier to many brands in this regard. We also have investments related to this subject. We will increase our capacity and we will add a recycling process to our production.