Sustainability at Step of Grace

First of all, the definition of “sustainability” covers a broad area of processes that encompasses many things: carbon footprint, water and land usage, water and soil pollution, biodegradability and durability of products among many others. It is a multi-faceted approach that takes into account many criteria along the process. There is no one solution to being sustainable, so it depends on how brands choose to apply them. However, we can definitely all agree that sustainability means minimizing the harmful effects our products have on the environment--before, during, and after its life cycle. This is what we are committed to do and will continuously try to improve on everyday.

HOW DO WE CHOOSE OUR MATERIALS?
There is no “‘magic material” that has zero ecological impact. Therefore, you as the consumer have to make an informed choice by weighing the pros and cons, and making compromises. We are here to help you streamline that process, by striving to always look for materials with the least ecological impact while also making sure that it looks and feels great.

Right now we do this by choosing natural fabrics (like linen, GOTS Certified Cotton, and Bamboo Fibres) or semi-natural fabric (like responsibly harvested rayon and tencel) that have low eco-impact, all the while taking into consideration the criteria needed to build beautiful pieces that will last. Hopefully this results in high quality products you can trust and at a reasonable price; because we want our products to be accessible.

We also take extra caution not to fall into the pitfalls of generalizing a material. Linen is a sustainable material, but not all linens are created equal. We strive to use 100% pure linen and natural linen blends in our pieces--never polyester linen which is cheaper and while also considered as “linen”, they are not sustainable. The same goes for other kinds of natural fabrics.
We are also committed to avoid using any harmful synthetic dyes in all of our fabrics and will only utilize natural dyes or low impact dyes as per OEKO-TEX standard.

As of August 2019, all our buttons are made from repurposed sea shells. They are fully biodegradable and contain no plastics.

HOW DO WE ENSURE SUSTAINABILITY IN OUR PROCESSES?
We define sustainability in our processes through a 3-pronged approach:

1. We do not keep keep a big inventory to avoid waste. We only produce what we need.
2. We focus on quality workmanship and construction to ensure our items last a long time.
3. We will never work with sweatshops or child labors and will never resort to unethical production practices.

HOW DO WE PACKAGE SUSTAINABLY?
We avoid the use of single use plastics and other non-biodegradable materials in our packaging and accompanying materials as best we can. 

1. We use fully biodegradable and home-compostable waterproof wrappings made from cassava for our clothing.
2. We use natural handmade papers made out of banana tree fiber for our tags and cards.
3. We ship in compostable cardboard boxes and seal them using water-activated paper tapes.
4. We forgo the use of boxes for our footwear and resort to reusable calico dust bags.
5. We use sustainable, renewable and compostable 0% tree Bagasse paper made from sugarcane waste to print all our business cards and marketing materials