CARBON RECAPTURE

Many people aren’t aware of the environmental impact of a t-shirt, after all, how bad could it possibly be? Well, we have dug deep to find out what that impact looks like and what we can do about it. While sustainable clothing production may be more expensive, we believe it is of the utmost importance.

WHAT IS A CARBON FOOTPRINT: A Carbon Footprint is a quantity of all greenhouse gases produced, measured in kilograms of CO2 equivalent. Our CO2 footprint is the impact our actions as a company have on the atmosphere. We aim to be completely transparent about our impact and to leave the planet greener than we found it.

CO2 OF A T-SHIRT: According to the Life Cycle Assessment study conducted by Anvil, a regular cotton t-shirt produces around 15kg of CO2 over its lifetime (from manufacture, to binning it). An organic t-shirt produces just 4kg of CO2 over its lifetime. That’s why we go fully organic where possible within our range. For us, this is carbon reduction number one.

CARBON RECAPTURE THROUGH OUR PARTNER ‘ONE TREE PLANTED’: Carbon Neutral Australia explains that trees absorb carbon dioxide, refresh the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, and provide habitat to protect the Earth’s biodiversity. Through our partner ‘One Tree Planted’, we will plant 5 trees here in Australia for every garment sold.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: Carbon is captured as the trees grow and store the carbon in their leaves, branches, stems, bark and roots. Through Carbon Pirates, we estimate that 5 new trees will collectively capture 29.5kg carbon annually. At 10 years old, the trees will capture 110kg of carbon annually. Your t-shirt is better than carbon neutral. The trees will continue to grow and recapture even more carbon as they mature over the next 25-35 years. Buying a RYM t-shirt has a positive impact on the atmosphere, very good for Ya Mum.

1% FOR THE PLANET: We send 1% of all sales to ‘1% For The Planet’. The intent of ‘1% For The Planet’ is to help fund a diverse range of environmentalist organisations. We will a choose an organisation within this spectrum that aligns with our values to contribute to.

MINIMISING CO2 FROM DESIGN: From a design perspective, we fully understand that adding multiple colours to the print and garments results in a significant increase in the impact of the process, so our designs are typically 2 colour, screen printed with eco-friendly water based inks. In our effort to minimise the use of dyes, we also avoid wild fabrics.

MANUFACTURING REDUCTIONS: A huge reduction of up to 90% in emissions from the manufacturing stages can be achieved by the use of renewable energy and low-impact techniques. Our supplier strives to use eco-friendly, low impact practices where possible in their fair-trade, organic factory. Respect Ya Mum chooses sea freight to deliver from the factory to us. Sea freight only makes a minimal contribution to the lifecycle CO2 footprint of a garment.

POST CONSUMER CARE: 60% of environmental impact generated from clothing comes from consumer care. There are simple and easy things you can do to reduce your own environmental impact. First of all, don’t wash your t-shirt after every single wear. Unless you’ve been rolling around in the mud, simply air your t-shirt out. When washing, use environmentally friendly detergent and a cold, quick wash. Avoid tumble drying as it is energy intensive, and generally dreadful for the environment.

PLASTIC FREE PACKAGING: We avoid using plastic where possible and choose to send our clothing to customers in eco-friendly fully compostable mailer bags from Hero Packaging.