#MVCONSCIOUS
A CONSCIOUS EFFORT
Times are changing and as the world wakes up to the importance of preserving our planet and taking care of everything that lives on it, we as businesses have a duty to follow suit. We believe that the clothes you wear can make the difference between a good and bad day, but that can't be at the detriment of our planet. So we're taking steps to improve the way we work, from how our packaging is produced and recycled, to the fabrics we use, and even how we recycle in our stores and at MVHQ. We're also curating tips for how to make your clothes live longer as well as small changes you can make at home to reduce your waste.
Over the next few months we're going to be testing and learning, and trying to constantly improve how we work in the future - this is the start of our conscious journey and we want to share what we're doing with you. After all, the small changes we make today will add up to a big change tomorrow.
Liz Houghton, CEO, Founder
WHAT WE'RE DOING
bottles
recycled stores
suppliers
of scap
training
made easy
products
conscious team
a new life
0 plasticbottles
Removing all single use plastic bottles from MV HQ
A small step towards our plastic-free ideal, we encourage our staff to use reusable bottles – plastic bottles are banned from our Head Office. We have also given all our staff a reusable coffee cup and are working with our stores to follow suit in 2020.
fully recycledstores
Our store back of house areas will be fully recyclable (i.e. no waste by 2021) including all plastic wrapping.
mapping oursuppliers
We are collating information on our suppliers to ensure they are compliant with all our policies and working towards a more conscious approach to production.
SEE OUR POLICIES
signatoriesof scap
SCAP track the carbon, water and waste usage per tonne of the garments sold in the UK, and they help us identify where we can then make improvements to our footprint and reduce our waste and water usage through our supply chain.
teamtraining
We’re educating our teams on all things sustainable, the challenges posed and how to rethink the way work in the future.
recycling clothesmade easy
Our first recycling event in our Bristol store was a huge success, with customers bringing in old clothes to swap with each other, so we're rolling out the concept and launching a host of events across our boutiques. We’re also launching our relationship with Giveback Box whereby our customers can utilise our boxes to send back unwanted clothes and household items for charity. For more details see our Planet page.
consciousproducts
SUSTAINABLE AND CHARITABLE LAUNCHES
We're working on new ways to bring you sustainable products. We've new denim and cotton pieces launching soon, as well as partnerships with our charities. See our Conscious Products for more details
focusedconsciousteam
CSR ACROSS THE BUSINESS
We recognise that we need to establish conscious thinking across our business, so we have a team focused on delivering change and educating the wider teams, with representatives from Buying, Garment Tech, Marketing and Retail to ensure connected thinking throughout. We also have recently recruited a dedicated CSR coordinator, whose day-to-day job is to seek information and make improvements to all of our activities and policies.
give packaging anew life
All of our packaging to be fully recyclable
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to recycle our packaging at home, so we're reworking it all so you can do just that, even our web order bags will be made of paper. Our new packaging suite launches from March.
CONSCIOUS
PRODUCT LAUNCHES
Look out for the conscious badge on any of our new products.
Sustainable Denim
2 of our key styles are already made from sustainable fabrics - the Maryland black and dark indigo jeans. We are in the process of testing more fabrics with a view to be fully sustainable by 2025 (if not before).
Love The Oceans x MCS
For the second year running we're donating all the profits from our jewellery collaboration with the Marine Conservation Society to them. Find out more about our charities on our MV Giving page. The collection launches in February.
Sustainably Sourced Cotton Tees
3 sustainably sourced cotton graphic print t-shirts will be available from March.
Recycled Polyester
We are testing new styles made from recycled polyester so that we can launch a fuller collection later this year.
Meet Sarah
I'M DELIGHTED TO BE PART OF TEAM CONSCIOUS. THERE ARE LOTS OF EXCITING CONVERSATIONS HAPPENING AT MVHQ AND I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO DELIVERING CHANGE OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS.
With CSR (corporate social responsibility) becoming an ever increasing part of business, we have recently recruited a dedicated CSR Coordinator to MVHQ. Our new recruit, Sarah, will be working on our production policies and how we work with our suppliers to achieve these, as well as inputting into the wider Conscious team agenda. We also have an extended team, from Marketing to Warehouse, focused on delivering our Conscious objectives through their individual teams - we like to call them Team Conscious.
You can get in touch with Sarah directly at conscious@mintvelvet.co.uk
