Long Cardigan by Etrican
May 18, 2012 by Lastrina
Filed under Clothing, Fashion, New Products and Services, Women
Brand: Etrican
Attributes: Non-Toxic, Organic
Description: This piece is a natural colored cardigan with contrast trimmings and pocket details and longer than usual sleeves and length.
Made of organic cotton in India, the cardigan comes in four different sizes.
Etrican was established in 2009 and is one of Singapore’s first green fashion labels offering organic cotton clothing.
You can buy from Etrican’s online store.
The product is awarded a Green Rating of 4 stars based on 8 points in the following 5 criteria (updated on 17 May 2012):
Business Sustainability
2. Does the company have a sustainability policy or publish a sustainability report?
Etrican is committed to be a sustainable business and its apparel is made using environmentally friendly fabrics and materials. They use organic cotton for their clothing, and use reused or recycled materials for their accessories. They also try to be environmentally responsible in their business operations.
4. Has the company taken steps to implement green practices in the office or reduce the environmental impacts from its offices?
Energy and Climate Change
11. Has the company taken steps towards reducing its energy consumption, carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions?
Etrican has taken steps to keep their production regional so as to reduce its carbon footprint, and also to reduce energy consumption in their office.
Materials and Waste
19. Has the company taken steps to reduce the material and packaging used for the product, or to reduce the waste generated in the production of the product or service?
The company does not give out packaging if customers are collecting the products directly from them and are fine with no packaging.
Chemicals and Health
23. Does the product or service use natural ingredients or use no harmful chemicals?
The product is GOTS certified. Based on the GOTS criteria for fibre production, a textile product carrying the GOTS label grade ‘organic’ must contain a minimum of 95% certified organic fibres.
The GOTS criteria for processing and manufacturing also includes the prohibition of critical inputs such as toxic heavy metals, formaldehyde, aromatic solvents, functional nano particles, and genetically modified organisms.
24. Is the product or service certified organic and have a credible third party certification or label?
The product is certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), which is recognised as the leading processing standard for textiles made from organic fibres, and defines environmental criteria along the supply chain and social criteria as well.
Social and Ethical
27. Does the company have a corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy?
Etrican believes in environmental and social responsibility. The company uses organic cotton certified by GOTS, which one of the social criteria is to have a policy for social accountability to ensure that the social criteria can be met.
Etrican’s accessories are handmade with the help of GtG, a non profit organisation in India offering fair employment to people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In addition, Etrican’s gifts range are handmade or hand painted by a group of deaf and other physically challenged people employed by Silence, a centre for socio-economic rehabilitation based in India.
30. Are the company employees involved in community activities or volunteering their time to help the community or the environment?
Etrican’s founders, Yumiko and Dragos are actively involved in community activities as participating vendors or sponsors for events such as Re-Live by Eco Singapore, Project Pebbles, Green Carnival by NUS SAVE or Clean and Green Singapore.
“I wore the cardigan for a full day and love the snuggly feel to it. The piece is light in weight and definitely a comfortable item to wear even outdoors. The longer length also made for a perfect transitional layer.”
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