Material Exchange

Sustainability at Material Exchange

Discover how we are working to drive responsibility and impact reduction in apparel and footwear sourcing

Sustainability at Material Exchange

Discover how we are working to drive responsibility and impact reduction in apparel and footwear sourcing

Our commitment to the Earth

Designing, producing, and distributing fashion and footwear products has long negatively affected the planet. We at Material Exchange are very aware of the impacts man-made fashion systems have had on Earth and, as a global digital sourcing platform, we are working to reduce these natural- and human-resource-intensive impacts.

Material Exchange is committed to leading and accelerating new, responsible sourcing and procurement methods to work toward a sustainable, just, and equitable future of the global fashion industry. We vow to continue designing and steering new sourcing processes and software solutions that protect nature’s resources, reduce virgin material extraction, minimize waste, and drive positive change to all lifeforms across the globe. We will always keep the planet and its people at the forefront of everything we do; it is why we are here.

– Andrea Kennedy, VP of Sustainability

Dive into our sustainability initiatives

Material Exchange is focused on sustainability activities and actions to drive responsible fabric sourcing. Explore each one below and discover how we’re working to transform the fashion industry, one material swatch at a time.

Our sustainability objectives

sustainability objectives - environmental
Environmental

Reduce planetary impacts 

We strive to help brands, agents, and suppliers eliminate wasteful and harmful material-sourcing processes and commit to assisting them through digitization in meeting their low-impact and responsible sourcing goals. We also work from within to continually manage, measure, assess and decrease our environmental impacts across Material Exchange and have the smallest impact on the planet as possible. 

Social​

Inspire sustainability mindsets​

We commit to educating our staff and ourselves to successfully inspire work toward long-term equity, diversity, impact-awareness, and wellbeing in our global teams and in all communities we touch as we support brands in their ethical and responsible sourcing goals; facilitate suppliers on their social equity and sustainability journeys; and promote the SDGs to all Material Exchange stakeholders. 

sustainability objectives - social
sustainability objective - social
Economic

Drive economic ​growth

We seek to embed sustainability, transparency, and trust into all company commitments, product strategies, and customer experiences to support transformational, low-impact digitized sourcing that drives profit and growth for our material suppliers; footwear and fashion brands; agency partners; investors and all the Material Exchange team, so we can continue to do good long into the future. 

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