In line with Fashion Revolution Week this year AFC Members ELK have released a 124 page, in-depth report providing complete business transparency, from internal operations, to exploring all fabrications and materials used, to listing their tier one suppliers. Co-founders Marnie & Adam seek to share their journey and by doing so open up the conversation with their customers, business partners and team. The Transparency Report proposes goals, celebrates achievements in their ethical and environmental mission and highlights to all, the areas where their business and the industry, needs to improve.
In line with Fashion Revolution Week this year AFC Members ELK have released a 124 page, in-depth report providing complete business transparency, from internal operations, to exploring all fabrications and materials used, to listing their tier one suppliers. Co-founders Marnie & Adam seek to share their journey and by doing so open up the conversation with their customers, business partners and team. The Transparency Report proposes goals, celebrates achievements in their ethical and environmental mission and highlights to all, the areas where their business and the industry, needs to improve.
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During a routine visit to a supplier in The Philippines to inspect their production, ELK cofounders Marnie Goding and Adam Koniaras were struck with an ethical dilemma. Upon viewing the environmental impact from the production of one of their designs, they surmised that without intervention, they would continue to support a supplier whose practices were at risk of creating significant environmental issues.
Despite their best efforts, Marnie and Adam were unable to convince the supplier of the need to change their business for the benefit of their community, the environment or their own welfare. They had no other choice but to cease working with this supplier.
This started a journey that has seen them spend the last five years learning, researching and probing every facet of their supply chain and reassessing every element to the ELK business determining the impact it makes socially, ethically and environmentally.
ELK is acutely aware that the fashion industry, in its current format, is not sustainable. To address these significant social and environmental challenges, they are focusing on the biggest impacts and implementing initiatives where they have the greatest ability to effect change.
“We are not following a trend – we are on this journey because we want to be, and because we have to be. We have produced a transparency report with a depth of analysis that sets the benchmark for other brands. We are part of a greater movement that will create change”.
Marnie Goding & Adam Koniaras | ELK cofounders
Providing complete business transparency, from internal operations, to exploring all fabrications and materials used, to listing their tier one suppliers, allows ELK to be held accountable. Marnie and Adam feel by sharing their journey with their community, through the creation of this report they are creating a platform to open up the conversation and provide complete transparency to their customers, business partners and team.
This Transparency Report proposes goals, celebrates achievements in their ethical and environmental mission and highlights to all, the areas where their business and the industry, needs to improve.
“We are on this journey not only because we want to, but because we have to.”
Marnie Goding | ELK Cofounder
State and National politicians are not doing enough, it is up to individual businesses to take the lead on these important issues.
Whilst on the surface, little appears to have changed at ELK, significant work is going on behind the scenes and the following points are just a handful of immediate changes highlighted in their 2019 Transparency Report:
• ELK have reduced 70% of plastic consumption plastic per garment by roll packing or eliminating it entirely.
• ELK have established various waste initiatives including worm farms at their head office to compost food waste, diverting more than 400kg of waste from landfill each year.
• 92% of materials used by ELK are from natural or renewable resources.
• ELK reuse or recycle more than 90% of rubbish produced at their facilities in Australia.
• All printed ELK garments are designed with multi-directional all over repeat prints to reduce wastage.
• ELK are proudly working with recycled leather this season, made from offcuts of undyed leather gloves from the building industry. The offcuts are ground into a fine pulp, refined and combined with a bonding agent and rolled into sheets of clean leather. Waste is minimal as there are no natural flaws or variations and no tanning process is involved in the making of recycled leather.
• 83.7% of Elk permanent employees are female.
Today, ELK see it as their responsibility to work with integrity, transparency and honesty and are committed to reducing the impact the business has on the planet in every way. This Fashion Revolution Week, Marnie and Adam pledged to find solutions for a better way to make fashion, inside and out, end to end.
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