DeFacto released its 2023 Sustainability Report, disclosing achievements gained under its sustainability initiative and future strategies. The brand, which published its sustainability report for the 10th time this year and transformed it into an integrated report to prepare its first integrated report, continues on its path with the principles of "Drawing Inspiration from Nature", "Growing Human-Centered" and "Creating Economic and Innovative Value".
DeFacto continues to pioneer in the ready-made garment sector through its work under the sustainability initiative. The global fashion brand, which shares its work and targets in this area transparently with the public, announced its Sustainability Report, published for 10 years, as an integrated report this year. The report, released under the title "2023 Integrated Report", contains striking data related to the sector and the brand. With the report released this year, DeFacto also became a member of the Integrated Reporting Association, which aims to increase awareness at the national level regarding integrated reporting and thinking, develop institutional capacity, and facilitate the sharing of best practices.
DeFacto CEO İhsan Ateş: "Since 2005, we have seen sustainability as one of the focal points of our business"
In his assessment of the report, DeFacto CEO İhsan Ateş spoke as follows with an integrated thinking approach, saying "Drawing Inspiration from Nature", "Growing Human-Centered" and as a result of all this "Creating Economic and Innovative Value": "Although the fashion and textile industry makes a very important contribution to the global economy, it consumes a disproportionate amount of natural resources and presents various challenges to nature's sustainability. Approximately 100 billion products are produced annually, which means a truckload of textiles is discarded every second. Our sector, which largely operates with a linear business model, is clearly unsustainable in its current form. As one of the leaders in the fashion and textile sector in our country, we take responsibility in this transformation and take the necessary steps. Since 2005, we have seen sustainability as one of the focal points of our business. Starting from the supply process through sustainable raw material procurement, presenting sustainable products at the design stage, and throughout all processes until our product reaches the customer, we work to bring the planet, people and society to a better place, inspired by our sustainability approach."
One out of every 5 ready-made garment products is produced sustainably
İhsan Ateş, noting that they believe fashion is a very powerful area of impact for building a sustainable future, sees sustainable fashion as a critical priority that will carry their sector and company into the future. While offering our customers the best combination of fashion, quality, price and sustainability, we also leverage the power of technology and digitalization in this direction and take important steps. We use innovative, sustainable materials in production that have a lower environmental footprint, require fewer resources and reduce dependence on traditional textiles. As a member of Better Cotton, we sourced 16 percent of our cotton consumption as Better Cotton last year.
One out of every 5 ready-made garment products we produce is manufactured sustainably. One of our important targets for 2030 is to make 90 percent of our ready-made garment collections sustainable," he said.
Number of sustainable collections increasing
İhsan Ateş, emphasizing that sustainable innovative product collections are one of the most important steps taken in this field, stated: "Under the DeFacto LIFE initiative, we present our green-labeled products manufactured with recycled or sustainably sourced materials to our customers' appreciation. For example, the waste from olives, a fruit everyone enjoys eating, is a raw material for us. As an indicator of our 'Drawing Inspiration from Nature' focus, in our Sustainable Olive Skin Collection, made from waste obtained after the industrial processing of olives, we recover the waste from the olive industry and transform it into a new raw material," he said.
Ateş, emphasizing that they also create an opportunity for farmers to generate a second income from their waste, thus contributing to the circular economy, stated: "Our Vegan-Sustainable Olive Skin Collection contains important innovation behind it. With this innovation, we provide circularity from the waste of the olive industry. The obtained vegan olive skin reduces carbon emissions by 94 percent compared to traditional leather."
16 liters of water used to bleach one pair of jeans reduced to 1 glass of water
İhsan Ateş, noting that with the Wiser Wash Collection they have shortened the production process to reduce the ecological and water footprint and improve working conditions, stated: "While normally 16 liters of water is required to bleach a pair of jeans, thanks to our special treatment process and technology, we reduce this amount to just one glass of water. Thus, we provide more sustainable denim production. Moreover, we eliminate the use of pumice stone, which can cause harmful chemicals and various health problems. With this collection, we provide 80 percent water savings compared to traditional denim, while reducing effects that cause climate change by 59 percent.
DeFacto Growing Human-Centered
Designating one of the focal topics in the integrated thinking structure as "Growing human-centered," DeFacto, as the first retail company in Turkey to sign the United Nations Women's Empowerment Protocol in 2015, creates a gender-equal, inclusive and fair work environment. Continuing to increase the ratio of female employees in 2023, the brand succeeded in raising the ratio of female employees at home and abroad to 60 percent, while reaching 43 percent in our female manager ratio.
DeFacto Becomes Member of Integrated Reporting Association Turkey
Publishing its first integrated report, DeFacto became a member of the Integrated Reporting Association, which has aimed since 2015 to increase awareness at the national level regarding integrated reporting and thinking, develop institutional capacity, and facilitate the sharing of best practices. The association aims to increase awareness in this direction and contribute to the spread of integrated thinking and integrated reporting in all institutions and organizations by cooperating with public, private sector, civil society and academic organizations at national and international levels to improve capital markets and investment environment.
DeFacto 2023 Integrated Report: https://kurumsal.defacto.com.tr/surdurulebilirlik.html
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