Our Vision

Everyone should receive a wage that covers his or her basic needs, yet the wages earned by the people who make your clothes are not liveable. Despite decades of talk about living wages, workers have seen little action. We need a new normal. We need to change the industry.

What is fair wear?

Fair Wear Foundation is an independent, non-profit organisation who work to improve conditions for workers in garment factories.

Living wage

Living wages are a human right. Everyone should receive a wage that covers his or her basic needs, yet the wages earned for most of the worlds clothes are not liveable.

Continental Clothing Co. is proud to have been working with the Fair Wear Foundation since 2006, and has achieved 'Leader' Status. This category is for member companies who are doing exceptionally well, and are operating at an advanced level. Leaders show best practices in complex areas such as living wages and freedom of association.

Fair Wear

In July 2016 at the Ethical Fashion Show in Berlin, we, Continental Clothing Co. launched The Fair Share™ collection. It is an extension of the EarthPositive® range, produced within the same supply chain but using Fairtrade organic cotton. The branding of Fair Share™ products is designed to communicate and draw attention to the payment of a Living Wage. Adding as little as 10p to the price of a T-shirt results in a 50% increase in the wages of the poorest workers at our factory in India.

The Fair Wear Foundation looks to ‘beacons’— cases where they work with leading Fair Wear members to raise wages — as the starting point for industry change, Fair Share™ is one such beacon. Based on these experiences, it is then possible to develop tools and guidance to help other clothing brands improve. We then share these tools and insights beyond Fair Wear to create widespread wage improvements for the people who make our clothes.

This is how we inspire change, this is how we demonstrate Leadership, this is how we make a difference.

Did you know?

If the Earth were the size of a basketball, the atmosphere would be as thick as plastic wrap. 40 billion metric tons of CO2 pollution is pumped into it every year.

Air

Just as many people think the oceans are almost infinite in their size, many also look up at the sky above and believe that the sky too, is almost infinite in its size. In fact it is not, it is an extremely thin layer where very complex chemical dynamics take place.

Human activity pumps roughly 40 billion metric tons of CO2 pollution into the atmosphere per year, and this quantity is increasing, not decreasing, year on year. To believe that this growing mountain of chemical pollution accumulating in this thin layer, can be accommodated forever into the future without these green-house gases directly raising the planets temperature to beyond what is survivable for the vast majority of humanity, is delusional.

Did you know?

We produce and throw away more clothes than ever before. Worldwide, 87% of clothing is landfilled or incinerated and less than 1% is never made into new garments.

Land

Virtually all of the Earth's habitable land has already been irreversibly changed and damaged, the oceans have been polluted and are dying, and now the climate, the final frontier for the consequences of post-industrial human activity on the planet's atmosphere, is warming, changing weather patterns and accelerating the occurrence of extreme weather events the consequences of which may be flooding or droughts, with devastating consequences on those affected.

Over-consumption is at the root of the planet's environmental crisis. Fast fashion means we now produce and throw away more clothes than ever before. Worldwide, 87% of clothing is landfilled or incinerated and less than 1% is made into new garments.

Did you know?

20 percent of global waste water is produced by the fashion industry: Fertiliser run off causes algae blooms creating oxygen deprived dead zones killing off all sea life.

Ocean

The damage that humans are causing to the oceans is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. We need to take steps to reduce pollution, overfishing, and climate change. We also need to develop more sustainable fishing practices and protect coastal habitats. If we do not take action, the oceans will continue to suffer, and this will have a devastating impact on marine life and the planet as a whole.

The Climate Emergency is not one separate problem to be deal with, climate change represents the cumulative effects of all of humanities bad post-industrial decisions, it is the culmination of the runaway damage done to ecosystems and habitats, forcing many species to or past the brink of extinction. The solution must be to address all of the root causes of the damage done, and find a new way of living in harmony with the natural world.

Earth is the planet that we call home and only planet that we have. We must all work together to reverse the damage collectively done and to create new models for living and for industry that have no negative effects on the environment or climate. We must do this if future generations are to be born into a world worth living in.

Be unconventional

Conventional business practices have combined to cause extinction level environmental damage to species, and now to the climate; unless change happens now, this damage will accelerate and may become irreversible.

Make the choice

We can only do so much. Without your support, ...

Everyone can make a difference. Take action ... Your choices matter, decide what you are going to do.

Make it the norm

We will inspire collective action through a global commitment towards sustainable practices and foster global collaboration to address environmental challenges through responsible fashion production.

Earth Positive was designed in 2007 to be a blueprint for sustainable fashion, long before it became fashionable to include CSR in company financial reports or produce impact reports. And in the face of climate change today, Earth Positive represents an industry wide solution. This matters because fashion is cultural, fashion is influential, and fashion can be revolutionary. Historically, changes in what it was fashionable to wear represented important milestones in changes to the hierarchy of society, such as with the women's rights movement. Fashion today can be important in communicating personal values, after all, what a person wears is a visual statement of who they are and what they believe. Choosing and wearing Earth Positive apparel over conventional apparel is a personal statement demonstrating support for the environment and hope for the future. This matters.