Sustainability Manifesto
“Sustainability for me is not solely about manufacturing ethically and sustainably., It’s about creating beautiful, well-made clothes designed to last”
Yane Ferriera
The Leblon London Mission
Our goal has always been to create a Luxury Womenswear Brand that strives to work openly and fairly towards a sustainable supply chain with 100% material and product traceability, a nurturing work community and no compromise on quality.
Leblon London was established during the global pandemic with the ethos of a small, independent business. Covid disruption was an opportunity to fully address sustainability and supply chain issues. At this time, the need for urgent climate, social compliance standards and action across all manufacturing points be they large or small was all the more apparent.
New realities lead to new goals: how to grow the business within the framework of sustainability, learning how it impacts our planet, our workforce and our customers.
How to improve our environmental performance by aiming to comply with International Standards as well as manufacturing locally, reducing our waste and carbon footprint.
Manufacturing
Currently Leblon London produces its samples and limited-edition ranges in-house, this being a fully sustainable, ethical and transparent model.
The challenge we face is how upscale this model whilst retaining these values. Our target for 2024/2025 is to expand our manufacturing outlets in the UK and in Europe. We are looking to use small, ethical makers and to continue focusing on small runs and minimal waste. Transport from Europe to London will be by van to reduce carbon footprint.
Being fully transparent
Leblon London is committed to sourcing audited and certified UK based and European manufacturing sites.
This makes our supply chain fully transparent as well as enabling to ensure that the setup of our manufacturing sites is sustainable and planet friendly from the get go.
Being socially compliant
Adhering to UK law of Workforce rights we’re making sure the working hours and working conditions of our staff must comply with Local and National Laws and regulations. Providing a safe and hygienic working environment, being respectful to our workers needs as well as their mental wellbeing and health.
Monitoring waste collection and disposal from manufacturing sites
We have been proactive in setting and monitoring.
All our makers as well as in-house we have general waste and recycling waste bins.
We reduce our waste by ‘making to order’ we buy in our materials to match actual orders and not speculatively. Our waste is minimal ,we keep all off-cuts and end of line materials to use in future collections and to create individual, made-to-order garments.
Working towards 100% plastic free, planet friendly packaging
- Our bags and gift boxes are locally sourced from the UK and are 100% recyclable.
- We no longer use Sellotape unless necessary, opting for a kraft paper tape.
- We pack all our clothing in acid free tissue and in boxes eliminating the need for plastic bags.
- We run a paperless business opting not to print documents unless absolutely necessary and use recycled paper for printing
- We aim to re-use any packaging materials we have be it boxes, envelopes, paper, tissue.
Upcycling and using deadstock
Any materials, threads or trimmings not used are kept and used in production be it sampling, one-off pieces or made to order items. We produce limited range pieces to ensure that in our production process , none of our materials will eventually find their way into a landfill
Our target for end 2025
Ensuring we keep a low carbon footprint whilst expanding our manufacturing is our long term target. As we look towards European manufacturing, our aim is to have all deliveries transported via road.
We are looking to source recycled fabrics for future ranges and aim to have 20% recycled materials within our range by end 2025.
We’d like to achieve as close as possible to zero plastic by end of 2025, we’ve been able to reduce our plastic use in our London studio to almost 0% and are working to ensure our makers adhere to the same standards.
We believe that small, slow, handmade, cruelty free and waste free manufacturing not only suits our brand ethos but makes us sustainable, not just now but in the long term. This means that our production sites are smaller and our margins tighter as we work hand in hand with our new makers finding sustainable sources and building long term working relationships, but this is what we believe in.
We are 100% committed to this cause and will continue to work closely with our partners to achieve these goals.
We look forward to sharing our achievements at the end of 2025!
