SUSTAINABILITY

3RD ROCK was founded with ethical, sustainable and green foundations since 2010. It is in our DNA, and we are incredibly proud to make a difference whenever we can.
We know making sustainable choices can be difficult, and you don't always know what you are getting. So we have tried to make it as easy as possible to show you exactly how we help protect this great planet.

ecomorph denim

Highly durable with incredible flexibility 3RD ROCK EcoMORPH Denim was built for you to move and to excel. What more could you ask for? well…

Jeanologica green technology used on 3RD ROCK Denims

1 glass of water used to process 1 pair of jeans

Aniline Free Indigo

5000 trees planted per year

The Eco credentials of the EcoMORPH Denim are very exciting indeed. Not only is it made from GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified Organic Cotton, the high tech state of the art processing systems used for washing and finishing the garments actually eliminate all the key environmental issues from our denim processing. This is High tech eco denim right here!

Our denim is finished using the Jeanologia production process. The facility we use is one of only 6 in the world that offer this green denim technology. Aniline free indigo (The 1st sustainable indigo by Archroma!) was also used to colour this 3RD ROCK DENIM collection

  • Light and Raw wash denim garments use the Jeanologica E-flow system alongside the Laundry 5.0 waterless washing technology to achieve the colour through laser machine and ozone washing
  • Reduces water use by 85% (using only one glass of water per jeans)
  • ZERO Discharge - we guarantee zero contamination eliminating discharge of chemicals into the water supply.
  • Recycles the 20 litres of water used in the process.
  • Ozone washing saves 62% energy
  • Zero Bleach used - It's washed by the atmosphere
  • Zero stone / no pumice used
  • Zero PP spray (Potassium Permanganate)
  • All above energy & resource savings contribute to the washes Green EIM score (Environmental Impact Measurement) software that measures the environmental impact within the garment finishing industry.

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  • Mid wash denim garments use the ‘Eco Green’ washing process Jeanologic E-flow system alongside Yilmak’s rainforest system.
  • The Jeanologica E-flow system saves up to 95% water, 40% Energy & 90% chemicals
  • Rainforest finishing reduces water use by over 50% (from normally 12 litres per load to 5 litres per load) and therefore 50% less energy for steam production.
  • Zero stone / no pumice used
  • Zero PP spray (Potassium Permanganate)
  • All above energy & resource savings contribute to the washes Green EIM score (Environmental Impact Measurement) software that measures the environmental impact within the garment finishing industry.

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  • The Facility that produces these denims plants 5000 trees a year and recycles up to 20% of waste materials
  • They are also SEDEX audited

organic cotton

Organic cotton crop

This lady helps us to combat pests organically

symbiotic farming nourishes the soil and the farmers

No CO2 produced in creating synthetic fertilisers  

In all 3RD ROCK prodcuts we only ever use Cotton that is farmed organically, produced entirely free of chemical pesticides.

Our organic cotton is certified by GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) the highest organic standard in the world. GOTS stands alone in its stringent requirements for both environmental and human safety throughout the supply chain

WHY ORGANIC COTTON?

BECAUSE...

  • Natural pesticides and fertilisers are used instead of chemical ones. Chilli, garlic & cows urine are mixed and sprayed onto the crops to deter insects
  • Mixed planting - Symbiotic planting of beans between cotton plants brings nutrients naturally to the soil, enhances the cotton's growth, gives farmers a food crop to feed their families and maintains biodiversity and soil fertility.
  • Organic cotton farmers, their communities and their ecosystems are healthier and happier. The cotton is a healthier and cleaner product for the farmer right through to the end user.  
  • Lower CO2 - By using natural fertilizers instead of synthetic ones (7 tonnes of Co2 are produced by creating 1 tonne of nitrogen fertiliser).
  • More sustainable farming - less cash input for organic cotton farmers as they don't buy expensive chemical pesticides and can produce their own seeds for next seasons crop. They can also command a higher, more stable price for their crop too.
  • GM FREE - Not using genetically modified hybrid seeds contributes to a more sustainable quality of life, less dependency on big multinationals, less debt (as not forced to buy pesticides alongside seeds) and less instability of soil fertility.

 

WHERE IS IT FROM?

The organic cotton yarn is made into specific fabrics locally to where the garments are made, this keeps transportation and our carbon footprint to a minimum:

  • Woven into twill in Turkey for the trousers and shorts,
  • Knitted into jersey in Portugal for the sweatpants, leggings and undies
  • Woven into denims in Pakistan for the jeans and denim shorts.

recycled / regenerated

Mountains of discarded carpets are regenerated into ECONYL fabrics

Post consumer plastic bottles are recycled into RePET

Ocean plastics (incl. fishing nets) are regenerated into ECONYL fibres

Cleaned and made into PET chips ready to be made into new fibres

We use two types of GRS (Global Recycle Standard) certified fabrics : RePET (Recycled Polyester) and ECONYL (Regenerated Nylon) 

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM?

1) RePET (Recycled Polyester) comes from post consumer waste such as plastic bottles and food packaging. These are ground down into tiny PET chips and melted down to form new fabroc. We use up waste that would otherwise be clogging up our seas and landfills. It also massively reduces the amount of virgin resources needing to be mined for this purpose, and creates a circular economy

Each pair of HIRO trousers made using this fabric contains recycled 24 plastic bottles.

 

2) ECONYL - Regenerated Nylon yarn produced by Aquafil. This fabric has fantastic properties including UV protection, fast drying, versatile, hyper-resistant, thin, stretch, soft and breathable: it has a unique mix of muscular compression and comfort. We use it mainly in our TITAN leggings because of its excellent coverage and pilling resistance, our LUNA bra because of its shape retention and in our paired EQUINOX + TIDE active sports bikini because it is twice as resistant to chlorine and suntan creams and oils than other fabrics.

ECONYL is made from a combination of:

  1. Pre-consumer waste, coming from industrial processes such as plastic components, industrial waste and fabric scraps
  2. post-consumer waste: Some of which is ocean plastics - nets from the oceans rescued by volunteer divers and nets coming from aquaculture and fish industries. We also use old carpets destined for landfills. Each year 1.8 billion Kilos of carpets are discarded into landfills in the USA each year!? Aquafil have two carpet recycling facilities to help reduce this waste.

The environmental benefits of using ECONYL are:

  • It contributes to cleaning up ocean plastics and saves marine life
  • Reduces waste going into landfills
  • Implements a closed-loop supply chain.
  • Saves using crude oil to make Nylon, which is now used from recycled sources (70,000 barrels are saved for every 10,000 tons of ECONYL raw material)
  • Avoids 65,100 tonnes of CO2 eq. emissions (for every 10,000 tons of ECONYL raw material) by not needing to process the crude oil into Nylon

upcycled fabrics

UNIQUE POWDER POUCHES

HALO HEADBANDS

Jess presents the NutSac

FIX PATCHES

There are a few very special 3RD ROCK items that have been hand-crafted with upcycled fabrics and production waste scraps to give unique and interesting items with personality.

CHALK BAGS AND BOULDER BAGS

Our powder pouches are all upcycled from surplus fabric - organic cotton rolls, carpets, and other fabrics and trims (zips, binding) from old production runs which would have gone to waste otherwise. Each one is hand made right here in the UK and has it's own unique personality.

REPAIR CLUB FIX PATCHES

Out of the ashes of a pandemic came the ADAPT collection, but what did we do with the legs of all the trousers we made into shorts? We made fix patches or course! Fun embroidery onto the surplus material can not help you to re-vamp your old faithful climbing trousers or worn through jeans, or even just brighten up your backpack. Either way we are happy the fabric is going to good use.  

 
 

working towards

  1. Research microplastics from our products - and offer solutions (i.e. the GuppyFriend wash bags)
  2. To create a completely circular apparel collection with a 'take back project' partnership with ECONYL. This will require an international network structured around recovering the materials at end of use, for regeneration into ECONYL® yarn.  

Printing

We print our t-shirt designs locally in Nottingham.

We use eco-friendly Magna printing inks https://www.magnacolours.com/why-choose-water-based-inks/- 

Magna adhere to GNA compliance standard - GNA have most strict restricted substance list http://gnastandard.com/rsl-standard/the-standard/

packaging

FSC Hang tags attached with Jute twine

Paper packaging sacs

I'm sticking with you - recycled paper tape

hand tied - no plastic bags transition well underway

  • FSC hang-tags - We label our products with card hang-tags that are certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FCS) which means the paper comes from responsibly manages forests.
  • Jute twine no Kimble - our hang-tags attachments are an eco-friendly jute twine instead of plastic
  • Paper shipping sacs - We use recyclable and upcyclable paper sacs for our web-shop packaging. If any returns come back to us in these sacs and can't be used again we add them to our 3RD ROCK studio tree which is very slowly becoming a beautiful focal point or recycle them responsibly
  • Paper tape - After much research, we found a tape that is made from recycled paper. It sticks uses natural latex rubber adhesive from trees that don’t typically need pesticides to grow, which was a bonus. This tape is also 100% biodegradable. As the manufacturer's say, ‘Sticking things together no longer has to be a sticking point, environmentally speaking.’
    DID YOU KNOW: Paper can be recycled up to 7 times, so make sure you recycle your tape and packaging once again after your items arrive.

logistics

STUDIO DAY TO DAY RUNNING

We recycle our waste responsibly, use energy saving lightbulbs and make sure we use sustainable energy suppliers.

TRADESHOWS AND EVENTS

We are careful about the shows we attend, and try not to travel too far. Our stand is sturdy and practical, not something that will fall apart. We want it to last forever, and we create practically zero waste at events.

COUNTED WITH INTENTION

We don't have hundreds of thousands of items and we tend to sell out of certain styles very quickly. Although it may mean saying goodbye to your favourite pair of jeans or legging pattern each season, this is a conscious effort to not produce extra garments. Extra clothing made means extra waste and energy used to produce them.  


We hope that your 3RD ROCK kit is loved and worn to death. And although we know it might be disappointing to see your size sold out, we try to keep our stock appropriate to what people may purchase. However, you can let us know you're looking for a certain size and we'll do our best to accommodate you if you ever are out of luck.

PARTNERSHIPS

  • We work with ocean.co so that every sale made on 3RD ROCK's website donates money to support ocean clean-up projects with local communiteis across the globe. You can read all about that on our ocean clean up page.

working towards

  1. Compile an eco friendly garment care directory of detergents, soap nuts etc and where to buy them
  2. Research our carbon footprint from 'Factory to Front' door and assess how we can achieve being carbon neutral.

traceability

Helena - Grading the Saturn bra pattern in Portugal

Claudia - Sewing the Peace Bra in Portugal

Khurram - Measuring quality assurance of the Freerider denim shorts in Pakistan

Aamir - Buttoning the Fitz jeans in Pakistan

#WhoMadeMyClothes Campaign

We believe in transparency, sourcing locally and ethical practice.

Do you know where your clothes come from? Our clothing is made mostly in Turkey, Portugal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. We source most of our fabrics within Europe and print our t-shirts in Nottingham, close to our studio.  

Here at 3RD ROCK we only work with factories that comply with the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) base code of labour conduct, or are SEDEX audited or FairWear Foundation members. We also have our own 3rd party audits done on the facilities we use.

Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base code basics:

  • Employment is freely chosen    
  • Freedom of association (=Unions)  
  • Working conditions are safe and hygienic  
  • Child labour shall not be used  
  • Living wages are paid  
  • Working hours are not excessive  
  • No discrimination is practiced
  • Regular employment is provided  
  • No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed

For more information on the real cost of 3RD ROCK clothes please follow this link to our blog on the subject

working towards

  1. Publish our 3rd party audits
  2. Apply for B CORPORATION certification
  3. Research our carbon footprint from 'Factory to Front' door and assess how we can achieve being carbon neutral

WHAT’S COMING NEXT?

There are always ways in which we can make our practices more sustainable, and we are always open to your suggestions!
Just email us at info@my3rdrock.com if you have any ideas or questions.