The fashion industry is becoming ever more exposed for its growing emissions and damage to both people and planet. Denim, both as a material itself and its process, is now widely documented for being a key polluter.
HNST Studio embodies a counter movement. For us, climate change presents no limitation to how we make and sell products, instead we flip the script. We embrace and work with that challenge: we are driven by turning negative impact into positive impact.
Measuring against industry norms*
Conventional Denim: Normal Industry Standards
Water Usage
Jeans are mostly made from cotton, one of the most water-intensive crops. The average pair requires
1478
litres of water
Chemicals
Denim dyeing and finishing can release hazardous chemicals (cadmium, mercury and lead) into water systems. This is harmful for local ecosystems and communities.
Recycling
Recycling conventional denim is challenging due to fiber blends and stretch fabrics, which complicate the recycling process and make it hard to separate synthetic materials from cotton. Mechanical recycling methods also degrade fiber quality, limiting the potential of recycled denim for use in high-quality products. Hardware is difficult to separate from the garment and can be labour and cost intensive. As a result, most recycled denim ends up being downcycled into low-quality products like insulation.
Carbon & Other Emissions
The average pair of jeans produces
7.86
kg of CO2eq
This is roughly equivalent to 44 plastic bags, or driving 33 km in a diesel engine car.
HNST Studio Denim: Radically Cleaner
Water Usage
To make our jeans, we use 91% less water, using approximately
138
litres per jeans from fibre to factory.
Chemicals
The Smart-IndigoTM dyeing technique (for blue denim) uses significantly less harmful toxins than traditional methods, simply requiring only indigo pigment, caustic soda, water, and electricity.
Recycling
Our products are designed with ecodesign principles in mind to enhance recyclability. Our base material and coatings are natural, our rivets are embroidered, our buttons can be removed and reused, and we use minimal labels.
Carbon & Other Emissions
Our average pair of jeans produces
4.16
kg of CO2eq
From farm to factory. We reduce carbon emissions by using recycled materials. Recycled cotton requires less energy in processing compared to producing virgin cotton, which reduces overall carbon emissions of our jeans. Using pre-existing materials means bypassing water- and energy-intensive steps like growing, harvesting, and initial processing of raw cotton.
*The calculation of the bAwear score is based on the proprietary bAwear textile model and SimaPro software and on the input (primary data) HNST provided. In case primary data was lacking, secondary data was used. The secondary data are extracted from the EcoInvent® database and public available literature sources. The calculations are performed using ReCiPe 2016 midpoint methodology