ETHOS
Our sustainable philosophy has been an integral part of our brand since inception and we are not driven by trends or seasons. At the heart of Marle is the desire to create pieces connected to nature and our luxurious, natural fabrics inspire the design process, ensuring our pieces are both high quality and timeless. Our collections are designed with intention, quality and longevity in mind and are designed to be worn together, with each edition imagined to be worn back with the last. This approach means Marle will be worn for years to come, allowing our customers to make more conscious purchases that are also kinder to the environment.
We acknowledge that producing sustainable clothing is a journey and not a destination - it’s important to us that each step we make is done with intention and commitment. We will continue to learn, to do better, to lessen our environmental footprint and to grow our ethical initiatives. We thank you for walking this journey with us.
COMMITMENTS
As a brand who aims to tread lightly and consciously on this earth, we have quietly been giving back through various initiatives and partnerships since inception. We have previously partnered with Worn for Good and we work with i=Change and donate to the following.
i=CHANGE AUSTRALIA
$1 from every sale goes to one of our three chosen charities. At Marle, we are passionate about the planet, our people and future generations and as such, focus on charities that support our values.
Every dollar helps Papua New Guinean women rebuild their lives and live free of violence.
In the highlands of PNG, women experience violence regularly. Many are beaten on a daily basis. Sexual harassment is also extremely common in markets, where women's ability to do business is crucial for the strength of their communities. When women are safe from violence, entire communities and economies flourish.
$30 buys a Baby Bundle to ensure safe childbirth
Send Hope Not Flowers works with Australian Dr. Barry Kirby in remote Milne Bay Province, PNG. We gift families with a Baby Bundle to incentivise mothers to come to a health clinic to give birth. The bundle is filled with basic supplies for mother and baby - and includes the $5 cost for delivery at the clinic. The Baby Bundle project is directly responsible for a 78% decrease in the maternal death rate in the region
$1 removes 1.2kg of plastic and debris from the sea
Over 160 million tons of plastic is produced each year to create single-use disposable items and packaging. With no established system to close the loop, this has led to over 70 years of accumulation of plastics in landfill (40%) and the environment (32%), with only 10% being recycled. Seabin Smart Tech, similar to a rubbish bin X pool skimmer, removes floating plastics as small as 2mm, filtering 600,000L of water per day from oil and surface pollutants.
FABRICATION
When it comes to fabrics, nature simply can’t be beaten. Durable, luxurious and full of benefits - we work exclusively with natural fibres and fabrics. Durability is of peak importance to us, as we design with longevity in mind, so we need fibres that last, that age gracefully, are reliable and provide a level of texture. Another benefit of solely using natural fibres is that fabrics and yarn made of the earth can return to the earth and break down naturally, beautifully without contributing to landfill. For more information on our natural fibres see our ‘Fabrics’ section here.
PRODUCTION
We believe our production should positively impact every person in our supply chain. A garment passes through many hands to come to fruition and we love the craftsmanship and beauty this brings to our clothing. Those people deserve to be taken care of, to feel safe in their workplace and have job security - just like our staff in New Zealand.
We value our suppliers and our relationships with them. We know our suppliers first-hand - that closeness is what helps us create clothing with incredible quality that we are proud of. We cherish our relationships with our factories, and that daily communication and regular face-to-face visits keeps us confident in their practices. Prior to Covid 19, we visited our factories in China in person.
Our knitwear factory is Gold WRAP certified, please read more about this here, and our two suppliers have signed our in-house Code of Compliance - please view that here - and are also BSCI certified. These audits are done independently to ensure best practice.
PROTECTING OUR PLANET
We aim to tread lightly. It is important to us that we create our garments conscious of our impact and, as well as only using natural fibres, we constantly develop initiatives within the business simultaneously.
We deliver our garments in biodegradable bags made of corn starch and our care labels are 100% cotton. We eradicated our use of single use plastic within our office, including the bags in which our products are shipped in. We’d always used recyclable bags but worked hard on creating our own compostable bag. They’re TUV certified and we can proudly say break down within a few weeks – tried and tested by our team at HQ. For packaging, we use third party suppliers such as Porter Packaging and for our online orders, they are sent in compostable bags or recyclable cardboard bags. Our tissue paper is supplied through No Issue tissue who have their sustainability journey available online here
We reduce our impact through safe and minimised use of chemicals and when possible, we work with un-dyed fabric which conserves water, energy resources and reduces the overall footprint of the garment.
We choose sea freight over air shipments. Air freight has a Co2 emission over 40 times sea freight. Our offices have an environmental focus with our staff encouraged to take part in recycling schemes.
We have always been realistic about our impact on the environment and while we do our very best to be as sustainable as possible, it’s still a journey and an area of the fashion industry that is constantly evolving. With constant improvements in the industry, technological advancements and new fabrics being created, it is important that each step we make is done so with intention and commitment.
We work with a team of suppliers who are both incredibly advanced technologically but understand our commitment to sustainable and ethical practices.
STAFF
We are a family run business and believe family life, personal life and work life should successfully intertwine. We offer our head office staff flexible hours to assist them to make this happen. This comes back to our philosophy of being more human about business and looking after the people we work with.
FUTURE
It is our mission to work towards zero-waste in our manufacturing process, refining all design elements to not only be biodegradable but recycled too. We will continue to evolve our practices with accountability and transparency.
If you have any suggestions to help us better our product, processes or service, we welcome your feedback.