Sustainability is the most popular buzzword of our time—overused in the fashion industry and almost never enough in marketing. Most businesses do not realise that the term refers to more than just raw materials or manufacturing practices; SUSTAINABILITY IS A PROMISE…

One that SiS aims to keep!

With a mission to promote sustainable and ethical products, the Swiss Impact Store promises that every product available on its platform is responsibly sourced and produced. The marketplace’s official website currently showcases 500+ sustainable products. But as more and more brands want to work together, the process of selecting brands is getting even stricter.

SiS uses stringent criteria for evaluating vendors to ensure they meet the brand’s high standards for sustainability. This blog post mentions and elaborates on the five pillars of the “SiStainability Scale” that ensure each partnering brand aligns with SiS’s vision for a cleaner future.

So let’s get counting!

Five Pillars Of The SiStainability Scale: Ensuring Planet-Friendly Vendors

The “SiStainability scale” is what we at SiS call the set of criteria that Swiss Impact Store uses to evaluate and rate each possible partner.

There are five values that the scale abides by:

Eco-Friendly Resources
Low-Impact Production
Earth-Conscious Supply Chain
Ethical Code Of Conduct
Growing Dedication

Let’s find out what each is about.

1. Eco-Friendly Resources

A business is only sustainable if it uses planet-friendly resources to manufacture its product. These include the raw materials and the energy sources to power the production line.

SiS requires a GOTS certification from its partner brands. GOTS is the industry-leading textile processing standard for fabrics made with organic fibres. Textile products must contain at least 95% organic fibres to be certified. Therefore, with authentic accreditation, SiS guarantees the use of eco-friendly materials.

Brands must also mention and explain the materials they use for their product manufacture. Some common raw materials used by sustainable partners of the brand are:

100% organic cotton
ECONYL® Regenerated Nylon
TENCEL™
Cactus leather
Pinatex
Hemp
Modal
Cocona
Natural rubber
Stainless steel

2. Low-Impact Production

Another crucial aspect of sustainable shopping is assessing whether your favourite product’s manufacturing process is environment-friendly. Production methods that give off greenhouse gases release toxic chemicals into the water bodies or involve contact of hazardous materials with the factory workers are a big no-no.

The Swiss Impact Store takes the time to analyse each seller’s production line impact and offers customised solutions to their sustainability tracking challenges.

SiS’s environmental impact program lets its partners:

Track all steps in their supply chain, from raw material extraction to the point of sale
Measure the ecological, social, and circular impact of their products
Analyse and diagnose the potential areas for improvement
Promote sustainability transparency by sharing accurate data

3. Earth-Conscious Supply Chain

There can be several loopholes in a business’s supply chain that affect its sustainability. The organic cotton it uses may force underage girls to drop out of school and work in the fields.

SiS goes above and beyond to ensure the entire supply chain of its partners is transparent and trackable. We urge brands to not just focus on making their chains faster and more profitable but help them measure their impact, set scientifically correct goals, develop indicators to assess performance, and effectively communicate the results for improvement.

The sellers must provide the following information to prove their supply chain’s sustainability:

How do they control their raw materials production?
What does the production line look like? Does it take place in a factory, use machinery, or is the product handmade?
How much of the product do they usually stock?
Is the remaining inventory disposed of, donated, or recycled?
What does the brand do to reduce its carbon footprint?
How are the employees remunerated?
How much do the products travel?
What kind of packaging does the brand use?

Once SiS receives all the information, a team of sustainability experts conducts vigorous research to verify the brand’s claims.

4. Ethical Code of Conduct

According to the International Labour Organization, an estimated 160 million children worldwide are engaged in child labour, with 73 million doing hazardous work. It means that 1 in 10 children worldwide is forced to work in conditions that harm their physical, mental, social, or moral development.

SiS and its brands intend to fight blatant injustice. They feel responsible for the people working for them and fulfill their labour rights wholeheartedly. Local manufacturing facilities are preferred to ensure routine audits and reduce logistics impact.

We expect our partners to pay their employees timely, practice safety in their factories, ban child and forced labour, and ensure fair wages.

5. Growing Dedication

The best thing about sustainability at SiS is that it is an ongoing process—continuously evolving and improving. We understand that each passing day brings new scientific discoveries and more effective ways to save the planet.

We look for an undying dedication in our partners to make the planet cleaner for future generations. Therefore, all our partner brands undergo regular audits to assess their performance, make changes when needed, and take our help to unlock their full sustainability potential.

SiS also brings the same forward-thinking mentality to the table. The team behind the marketplace is constantly on the lookout for new technology and methods to improve our SiStainability scale and help our partners achieve their dream of a cleaner world.

Conclusion

Eco-friendly brands are to SiS what water is to plants. They are simply essential. But just as plants do not thrive when the water is polluted, SiS’s legitimacy depends on our brands being genuine and authentic about their sustainability.

And that is why we leave no stone unturned to evaluate each aspect of our partners’ dedication toward the planet and help them achieve their sustainability goals. And our SiStainability Scale is a significant help!

So are you ready to shop sustainably with confidence? Head to the Swiss Impact Store and feel good about your purchases knowing they are responsibly sourced and produced.

Or join our tribe of sustainable sellers, knowing you will be among like-minded friends who want to see you grow!