Here at The Sumner Collective I've got core values in environmental and humanitarian ethics.
I want to be on the right side of history and so I have a strong focus on what can I do to reduce the impact on the planet and people.
Firstly, I aim to produce high quality, timeless products with durability. There's no way a garment from me would be a 'wear once'. With this in mind I can reduce unnecessary consumerism and stop so much going to landfill.
Working oversea's has shown me first had how much waste the fashion and costume industry has and I want to be the change.
Within the fashion label I choose natural fibre fabrics and threads. This means less landfill and less micro-plastics. I'm currently researching natural fibre care tags and elastic which will make the products 100% compostable.
The fabric scraps created are reused on smaller projects, used as wrapping paper and when they are too small to be reused they are fed to my worm farm or placed in my compost to be returned to my permaculture garden.
My home studio has recently moved and is now on a rental property. While I have been previously powering the sewing machines on solar I am unfortunately back to the grid. Hopefully not for long! Solar electricity is an important goal for the company and will take a high priority going forward.
I contribute monthly to Carbon Positive Australia to offset some of the carbon that is produced by The Sumner Collective and I have a brand goal to be carbon neutral in the next 5 years.
Currently everything is made in-house by yours truly making it very easy to focus on humanitarian ethics. As a brand going forward, if the making becomes too big for one person, The Sumner Collective will only be outsourcing within Western Australia. This is to keep product miles down while also having an education and awareness of how the products will be made. This will also increase local jobs.
Doing the right thing and being kind and compassionate while doing it is greatly important to me. I'm very proud to say I'm doing all I can to make this world a better, more sustainable, place.
