MEASURING WHAT MATTERS - (EPD)
We believe that true sustainability starts with transparency. That’s why Fristads has taken the lead in developing a clear, reliable tool for measuring the total environmental impact of a garment. With the world’s first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for clothing, every customer can see the footprint of their workwear and make informed choices that reduce emissions, save water and minimise waste. Measuring is knowing – and only by knowing can we make meaningful change.
An EPD is a third-party verified document that shows the full environmental impact of a product across its life cycle, from the design until the end of life of a garment. That means we assess every step of the process: the raw materials, the energy and water used in production, the transports and even packaging. An EPD follows the international ISO 14025 standard and provides comparable, reliable data that guides buyers, procurement managers, and end users towards more sustainable decisions.
EPDs are more than a document – they are a powerful tool for reducing environmental impact. Creating the EPD required us to take a deep dive into our entire production chain to find out where our emissions come from and along the way, we challenged ourselves to design and produce workwear differently. For customers, EPDs make it easier to compare products and choose the option with the smallest environmental footprint.
The journey to create an EPD for clothing began with a simple but challenging question: How can we truly make a difference? To find the answer, we partnered with RISE, Sweden’s governmental research institute, and they helped us develop the EPD. In 2019, this groundbreaking work resulted in our launch of Fristads Green – the world’s first environmentally declared clothing collection. What started with a collection of workwear for craftsmen has since expanded to garments for the service and industry sectors, as well as weatherproof outerwear and high-visibility collections. Today, EPDs are being rolled out across all our product categories, setting a new standard for transparency and sustainability in workwear.
On our website, all Fristads Green garments with an EPD are marked with our Green Leaf symbol. You’ll find the EPD reports below each Green product under the tab named “Downloads.” All EPDs registered in the international EPD® system are also available and free to download at www.environdec.com.
The EPD makes it easier for Fristads’ customers to make informed decisions about workwear. But the EPDs aren’t just about us. We’ve been advocating for a common industry standard to measure the environmental impact of workwear for years. That’s why the EPD for clothing is free and open for anybody to use. For us, it’s about driving the entire industry forward and proving that more sustainable workwear is not only possible but doable, measurable, and scalable.
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