Verandah becomes first Indian fashion brand to bag sustainability certification: What is the Butterfly Mark?

Luxury resort and swimwear brand Verandah has become the first Indian fashion brand to be awarded the Butterfly Mark Certification, which is decided by a team of UK-based luxury sustainability experts.

What is the Butterfly Mark?

Experts award the certificate based on its trademarked Butterfly Methodology, which includes environmental, social, and governance+ assessment and risk and opportunity mapping tools, reflecting the brand’s commitment to sustainability in all areas of business.

With this, Positive Luxury hopes to create a community of brands that might emerge as industry leaders and drive other brands to offer luxury goods sustainably.

Which other brands have received the Butterfly Mark?

Luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Lisa Franklin, Dom Perignon, Veuve Cliquot and Tom Ford Beauty have held the Butterfly Mark certification for ‘contributing to the future of the planet’.

Further, YSL beauty, Kama Ayurveda and Kiehl’s have got the certification in the beauty realm, and IWC Schaffhausen and Tag Heuer in jewellery and watches.

Why is sustainability needed in fashion?

A booming industry, fashion presents some worrying statistics that make the switch to sustainability a need of ever-evolving urgency.

Owing to fast fashion, brands are producing twice the amount of clothes today than they did in the year 2000, according to earth.org. Such garments are often made of nylon or polyster, which result in microplastics in the oceans, esitmated to be to the tune of plastic pollution emanating from 50 billion bottles.

Globally, just 12% of the material used for clothing ends up being recycled. The rest ends up in landfills. In fact, of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills.

What does a brand need to get the certification?

As per The Guardian, each brand awarded the butterfly mark has to meet stringent requirements: brands need to demonstrate how they make sustainability part of their business model. All brands featured take great care over sourcing raw materials, manufacturing and marketing.

Among other assessment areas, as per The Standard UK, are the companies’ relationship with employees, taxation, community investment, innovation, and the brand’s social and environmental structures.

The certification is also awarded to products from segments like beauty, premium drinks, travel and more.

Verandah’s use of production waste to create accessories and lifestyle pieces, crafting garments out of renewed and biodegradable yarns and the use of GOTS certified organic cotton are among its sustainable practices.

Butterfly Mark’s tech reach

The Connected Butterfly Mark is a tech tool that brings a brand’s sustainability performance directly to consumers through a website widget, NFC tag, QR code or hyperlink, and requires nothing more than an internet-connected smartphone, tablet or laptop to install.

The Connected Butterfly Mark enables organisations to convey to consumers their sustainability performance with transparency.

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