Kontoor and Wrangler Make a Splash with Water Conservation Efforts
From the cotton field to our products, water is vital to our business. At Kontoor Brands, we’re challenging ourselves to raise the bar on what consumers can expect from our environmental impact. For us, it’s simply a matter of doing the right thing – for people and the planet.
“Our commitment to water is all-encompassing,” said Jordan Brewster, a sustainably coordinator at Kontoor. “It’s our mission to ensure we not only use water responsibly but that we return clean water back into the communities that depend on it.”
While we maintain a commitment to handling the earth’s most precious resource with respect, our teams around the globe recently brought these beliefs to life through both product and process innovation and volunteer efforts.
Earlier this month, Wrangler® introduced the first-ever denim apparel dyed with foam – Indigood™ Foam-Dye – a revolutionary technique that uses 100 percent less water and reduces energy use and waste by more than 60 percent compared to conventionally-dyed denim. Products using Indigood are available globally in Wrangler’s ICONS collection. This launch demonstrates Wrangler’s ongoing commitment to sustainability that’s reflected in its global sustainability goals, which include:
- Conserving 5.5 billion liters of water at owned and operated facilities by 2020
- Using 100 percent preferred chemistry throughout its supply chain by 2020
- Powering all owned and operated facilities with 100 percent renewable electricity by 2025
- Sourcing 100 percent sustainable cotton by 2025.
The celebration of this industry milestone, in conjunction with World Oceans Day, inspired employees from across Kontoor to volunteer and support a variety of clean water initiatives.
Our dedication to sustainability goes beyond water conservation. #TogetherWeCan protect our oceans to better our future.#WorldOceansDay #WranglerWeCare pic.twitter.com/CWs2p7OBnU
— Wrangler Jeans (@Wrangler) June 8, 2019
At our EMEA headquarters in Belgium, 40 employees partnered with the local community to clean the Port of Antwerp, one of the largest seaports in Europe, resulting in 16 trash bags full of bottles, Styrofoam, fishing masks and other debris. Across the Atlantic, employees gathered at a waterway in Greensboro, North Carolina – home to Kontoor’s headquarters – to remove more than 400 pounds of trash.
“We’re proud to see individuals and teams across the Kontoor family taking action that’s in line with our values,” said Brewster. “There’s a lot of excitement and dedication to these initiatives and events. Taken together, these smaller, localized activations, paired with process changes like Wrangler’s Indigood Foam-Dye, add up to meaningful changes.”
As leaders in apparel, Kontoor and our brands have the ability to be the change we want to see in the world. We are always looking for opportunities to have a positive impact on the communities and environments in which we operate and embrace the responsibility to lead by example. Learn more about our approach here.
