With greenwashing all too common in the fashion industry, consumers often look to third parties to verify sustainability claims.
Good On You, a consumer-facing platform that assesses brands on their impact on people, planet and animals, just gave its seal of approval to denim brand Kings of Indigo. Good On You gave the Amsterdam-based company a four out of five overall rating.
“This Good On You score feels like a crowning achievement for Kings Of Indigo, not least because it means we’re now part of their Best In Class section on the app, but being a truly planet-friendly brand means not just keeping up with every single development in sustainable fashion to make our product better, but means leading the charge too,” the brand wrote on its website.
To date, Good On You has assessed more than 2,000 fashion brands. While it awarded Kings of Indigo a high rating, there were two areas in which it showed the brand could improve: people and animals. Kings of Indigo, however, is putting steps in place to better address both categories. By 2021, the company said it will have adjusted its workers’ wages to account for cost of education and savings. It also declared in its 2020 sustainability report that it would continue research on living wages, request detailed open costing from suppliers, and participate in the Fair Wear living wage incubator 2.0 in order to reach those goals.
As for the animal category, Kings of Indigo uses sheep’s wool in some of its collections, and despite it being 100 percent recycled, it’s still unable to be classified as a vegan company as a result.
Kings of Indigo is committed to staying ahead of sustainable practices, and has been certified by The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), OEKO-TEX, OCS100 and GOTS. Its latest sustainability report outlined those certifications and more, as well as its water-, chemical-, and energy-reduction practices. The report showed that, of the 82 jeans styles in its Spring/Summer 2020 collection, half are measured as having no impact or low impact on the environment.
