Smartwool

Smartwool reports using 94% 'renewable and recycled content' in its products, but it's not clear how it's defining these terms. It makes products with a mix of good materials, including recycled nylon, ZQRX merino wool, and recycled post-consumer wool, as well as high emissions materials, such as nylon, elastane, polyester, lyocell, and conventional cotton. It has plans to reduce its reliance on high emissions materials with goals for 100% regenerative, recycled, or responsibly sourced renewable materials, and it has reported on progress towards some of these goals within the last year.

Smartwool's parent company, VF Corp, uses RECs and solar for renewable energy in a portion of its production and offices. It has a goal of 100% renewable energy in owned or leased facilities by FY26. It sources and manufactures its materials globally, which is standard practice in the fashion industry.

Smartwool's parent company, VF Corp, has made efforts to reduce virgin plastic in its packaging and has multiple packaging-focused goals for the near and medium term, including maximizing recycled content in plastic packaging and minimizing overall packaging. It doesn't report clearly on any current eco-friendly packaging materials, but it provides specific examples of packaging minimization initiatives. Smartwool is committed to eliminating single-use plastics in its packaging by 2025 and is a member of the Responsible Packaging Movement

Smartwool doesn't offer repair services or support, but it does offer a 2 year warranty. It gives detailed and environmentally conscious care instructions for its products.

Smartwool has multiple take back programs. Smartwool Resale accepts its own brand's socks and clothing for resale, and Second Cut accepts any brand's socks for recycling. It shares details on how successful this recycling program is at diverting items from landfills.

Smartwool offers a core collection but also releases new items throughout the year.

Commons is still anazlying this brand's marketing emails.

Smartwool has a prominent sustainability page, but the information it conveys is somewhat misleading. This page links to its parent company's sustainability page, which is more comprehensive and was last updated in 2023. Smartwool's parent company, VF Corp, has a detailed annual report, with a clear, impact driven strategy and progress reporting. Most of the information is at the overall organization level, but it also includes some progress updates per brand. Its latest annual report is from 2023.

Smartwool's parent company, VF Corp, has measured its emissions, and has verified them with a third party. It reports emissions on an overall organization level and identifies top drivers, but its reporting process is unclear. Commons found discrepancies in the numbers between VF Corp's sustainability reports and its official CDP report. Its CDP-reported FY22 emissions total was 4,339,304.38 tCO2e.

Smartwool's parent company, VF Corp, has SBTi-approved annual emission reduction targets for the long term. The last update on these targets was in 2023 for FY22 and included mentions of new measurement methodologies, which makes it harder to tell if it is on track. Commons couldn't find verification that VF Corp offsets any emissions.

Smartwool's parent company, VF Corp, publishes information about its Tier 1 and 2 supply chain partners. It also publishes traceability information for its top materials, which ranges from 42% for synthetics to 72% for wool. It has a supplier code of conduct, which includes provisions for no forced labor, no unapproved subcontracting, and allowing collective bargaining, but it doesn't include living wages or requirements for regular partner audits.