Throughout our journey, we’ve naturally innovated and adopted sustainable products and practices as they became available. This has always seemed right to us.

Our dedication to sustainability is embedded within our products and branding services, our operations, and with our clients, internal practices, staff and local community. We recognise and respect the circular economy and the way we work enables our clients to reduce, reuse and recycle.

We have just renewed our BPMA StepForward Pledge for the second year. The StepForward Pledge is a British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA)-led initiative helping members take proactive steps to improve their sustainability performance, accelerating the pace of change towards a more sustainable future for our industry. Our renewal reflects the further progress we have made towards embedding sustainability with our products, services, operations and the communities we serve..

What is Sustainable Merch?

There is no universally recognised system for assessing sustainability or ecological impact of promotional clothing and merch. To determine the sustainability of merchandise, we consider and address the entire lifecycle from raw materials, manufacturing processes, transportation and packaging, usage, longevity, and after-life to help you make the best choice to suit your needs and to respect the environment.

Here is how we address Sustainability:

• Carefully select our suppliers (and/or factories) for quality and sustainability certifications and their commitment to ESG.
• Increasingly source and apply branding locally wherever possible.
• Identify and proactively promote product ranges and branding techniques to our clients that have the least environmental impact.
• Provide sustainability credentials to accompany the products and production processes we propose.
• Recommend useful, quality, sustainable products and advise avoiding specific dates and/or event messaging.
• Continually evolve our in-house branding services to onboard new sustainable solutions, materials and finishes such as embroidery thread made from 100% recycled PET bottles.
• Invest in and use the latest innovative printing machinery and water-based inks to reduce energy usage and minimise waste.
• Work on-demand (through our shops and uniform management system) to avoid overstocks, waste and allow for personalisation.
• Reuse all boxes and use distribution packaging made from recycled and recyclable materials.
• Contract a private waste management company who enable 97% of our waste to be recycled, generate energy from all waste and ensure nothing is sent to landfill.
• Prioritise transport partners who have a forward-thinking sustainable policy.
• Provide regular sustainability training and development for our staff.
• Repurpose unused or unwanted stock, saving on unnecessary storage and avoiding landfill. We then pass on these goods (as well as any of our client's unwanted/old branded goods) to our charity partners https://goodsforgood.org.uk/ (global) and https://www.gratitude.charity/ (local)
• Provide a certified textile destruction service to help manage the clearing of unwanted uniforms and merch that cannot be repurposed. Materials are shredded and recycled to create new materials, avoiding landfill and protecting our clients’ brands and staff.
• Offer a full laundry service for garment reuse and can then dispatch the items back to our clients’ warehouse for re-use and re-issue.

“We are proud to offer an impressive range of branded apparel and merch with great sustainable credentials enabling our clients to brief with conscience. With emphasis on innovative materials and production processes, working on-demand with less waste.  It has always made sense to us. BUT there is always more to do. We will continually evolve our working practices to better protect our environment.

Karen Saragoussi, Founder & Director TeamTogs

Click here for our full Sustainability policy