Spotlight on Sustainability

Let’s start with the basics.

Our luscious leathers and sumptuous suedes are made with hides from the meat and dairy industry – in other words, by-products that would otherwise have gone to waste. Better a beautiful Brompton or Belgravia than the bin, right?

Energy consumption is one of the fashion industry’s biggest environmental issues, so it’s something we’re particularly conscious of. That’s why we use a tannery awarded Silver Status by the Leather Working Group.

Our tannery sources the majority of its energy from a solar power system on the roof of their own building, and everything else from certified sustainable energy suppliers. It’s also working towards fully carbon neutral production!

We’re picky about who we partner with

Each of our providers can prove they’re fully certified and accountable, and their materials can be traced from start to finish – all the way back to the farm they came from, in the case of our luxurious leathers and sensational suedes.

Our suppliers are Sedex approved, which means their processes and supply chain regularly go through a detailed sustainability audit. This covers every aspect of the production process – water usage, air and noise emissions, use of restricted substances, energy consumption, effluent treatment, you name it – as well as their supply chains.

GREEN STITCHES ONLY

There’s nothing more exciting than a blue box delivery, but it feels even better knowing it’s part of a sustainable process. Our famous boxes are made from recycled materials and designed to be used again and again – use them for keeping your boots, bags and shoes in great condition for years to come. The cloth dustbags, too.

All our other outgoing packaging is 100% recyclable, even the tape (remember to remove it and recycle separately). Our eco packaging peanuts dissolve away under hot water, while our bubble wrap can be recycled at your local recycling centre. Watch this space for our corrugated paper void filler, which will be one step better.

All deliveries to our warehouse are in recyclable and recycled cartons (that’s an endless recycling cycle right there). In partnership with Veolia, our cardboard skip collects these empty cartons each week and recycles over 50 tonnes each year! We also upcycle the pallets, giving them funky second lives as fences and pony shelters.

From cushions to doggy fashion to door stoppers, our dustbags are ready… With credit to Alex Morgan, Eden Harrhy, Harriet Cousins, Hayley Tanset, Joanna Xavier, Louise Lambert, Rebecca Vick, Stef Flanagan, and Rebecca Thompson.

People and planet

Sustainability is about people as well as planet, so we’re hot on staff wellbeing and working practices among our suppliers. We only work with companies who take their responsibilities to their teams, communities and environment as seriously as we do.

From transport support to nutritious meals to empowering young mothers, our suppliers are doing great things for their people. That gives you the confidence that every pair of hands that’s touched your boots before they slip onto your feet has been happy to be a part of their journey to your wardrobe.

It wouldn’t be fair

to place such rigorous sustainability demands on our suppliers if we didn’t do the same on ourselves, so here are just a few of our hands-on initiatives here at Fairfax & Favor HQ:

• Office heating – we’ve reduced our CO2 output by up to 9.5 tonnes a year by heating our office with a wood chip burner, sourcing wood from cleared or storm damaged wood from the estate itself.


• Transport – we operate a cycle to work scheme.


• Tech equipment – when we upgrade our IT stuff, we recycle old kit by donating it to charity or selling it on.


• Odd and sample shoes – forget landfill! Our odd or sample shoes go to Jo’s Odd Shoes (more here), and we donate our seconds to Depop, eBay and sample sales.