Shasa Leads Fashion Sustainability Branding with Cotton
July 20, 2021

Being a Cotton LEADSSM Partner Helped Create a New Sustainable Fiber Product Line

Fashion isn’t often heralded as a leader in the sustainability space. But that is not the case with SHASA, a Latin American  fashion brand. Customer demand—and their own sustainability initiatives—has led SHASA to make remarkable strides in their sustainability journey by providing communications and branding that clearly denote products made with cotton, a natural and biodegradable material.

SHASA’s sustainability initiatives are far-reaching, and they’ve pursued many different avenues to improve the carbon footprint that their company makes. In the last year, their efforts have included: 

 
  • 100% LED lighting in stores
  • Non-toxic, environmentally compliant for store construction
  • FSC-certified paper bags (no plastic)
  • Reusing more than 40,000 cardboard boxes
  • Recycling more than 4 tons of plastic hooks
  • Tree seeding programs to reduce carbon footprint

 

 But SHASA is also reaching beyond their internal structure to include their value chain in sustainability efforts, putting cotton at the heart of their sustainability story through their “The Future Is In Your Hands” campaign. As part of this initiative, SHASA prints Cotton Incorporated’s Seal of Cotton on an entire line of products made with the material and has created a search tool on their website for customers seeking cotton products. At the end of 2020, our stores had more than 500,000 products under “The Future Is In Your Hands” concept.

“Being a Cotton LEADS partner allows us to be more aware and provide an environmentally friendly commitment to our clients,” says SHASA. “Undoubtedly, these alliances have helped us provide products and communicate about these products and sustainability with our community more clearly.”

 

Other searchable elements in SHASA’s “The Future Is In Your Hands” initiative include:

 
  • Made with Natural Fibers
  • Made with Recycled Materials
  • Made to be Reused
  • Made with Sustainable Processes

Cotton has its own category within “The Future Is In Your Hands,” but overlaps several of the other categories as well. SHASA says that focus on cotton comes from the fact that it is grown from the earth, making it a natural and sustainable material. Their partnership with the Cotton LEADS program helps them highlight the ways that cotton continually becomes even more environmentally friendly with more efficient land and water use and reduced waste and emissions.

Beyond its in-store and online branding, SHASA uses its social media channels to talk about sustainable cotton and its role in their environmental initiatives. SHASA’s partnership with the Cotton LEADS program helps them provide more information on cotton and promote their environmentally friendly practices and brands. These communications not only boost demand in “The Future Is In Your Hands” products, they also reflect a growing concern and demand from customers about sustainability.

“The interest in these products is being more present—of course it goes hand in hand with the information that is included in our stores, hang tags and web and social media content,” says SHASA.  

 

SHASA says leveraging cotton’s sustainability story alongside their own through “The Future Is In Your Hands” has been a success that continues to grow. The Cotton LEADS program helps partners like SHASA communicate the importance of natural materials and provides tools and data on how cotton production can and is becoming more sustainable across the globe.

 

“We are very happy to be part of Cotton LEADS program,” says SHASA. “It helps us take care of our community and collaborators through programs dedicated to spread our values, ​​and we promote those initiatives throughout the supply chain and to our customers.”

 

Learn More about Becoming a Cotton LEADS Partner.

Read our full Q&A with SHASA about their sustainability initiatives and “The Future Is In Your Hands” campaign.

 

 

The work we do is possible because of collaborations with researchers like these and partnerships with people all throughout the value chain. Ready to commit to sustainably produced cotton? Become a Cotton LEADS partner today. Interested in doing even more? Contact us for ideas to get the most out of sustainable cotton and your partnership with Cotton LEADS.

 

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