Oceanr boasts fully sustainable economic ecosystem
Oceanr says it has been at the heart of a quiet revolution in sustainable fashion since its foundation, crafting high-end apparel for superyachts, luxury resorts and private clients from all over the world, with partners including Richard Branson’s Necker Island, Four Seasons Resorts worldwide, and notable superyachts including Endeavour, Legend, and Scott Free.
Shortly after debuting its sustainable range of yacht crew uniforms during Monaco Yacht Show 2022, Oceanr was awarded the BITA Green Business Award 2022.
Ever since the company’s inception in 2016, it says it has been committed to the use of recycled fabrics. Its recycled polyester originates partially from discarded fishing nets, other ocean waste and recycled plastic bottles, thus contributing to the cleanup of the ocean.
Oceanr’s recycled polyester fabrics harness technology from Oceanbalance: a sustainable fabric brand which the company owns following its acquisition of Aspect in Latvia.
The brand has a total of 18 sustainable fabric types all sourced from verifiable recycled materials, and is currently working on the design of five new ones.
It’s also currently investigating how it can use pineapple leaf fibres, specifically Piñatex, as a sustainable alternative to leather.
“I think it is quite impressive that 50 per cent of fabrics comes from the ocean waste, and other 30-40 per cent comes from recycled polyethylene,” says Oceanr founder Tom Cotter. “We are reducing our water consumption by 20 per cent, energy consumption by 50 per cent and CO2 emissions by 60 per cent*.”
Before the end of 2023, Oceanr plans to have a QR code applied to any product with details of where the plastic comes from, how far the product has traveled, the people involved and more.
“We have recently introduced the idea of returning garments at their end-of-life in order to repair or recycle them. Basically, we offer our clients a discount for new order for whatever product they return to us,” says Cotter.
As part of its ‘Take-Back Program’, Oceanr says it will be collecting used materials from resorts, businesses and consumers and reintroducing them to the original processing and manufacturing cycle.
The company has also partnered with eco-organisation ‘Plant-for-the-Planet’ to offset its carbon footprint and go far beyond being simply ‘carbon neutral’ (which was already achieved by the organisation back in 2020).
“Through a targeted life cycle analysis, we can get accurate data about how much carbon is in each product. We are also committed to planting trees as a CO2 compensation measure. The more the company grows, the more we will focus on this commitment,” say Cotter.
Finally, for every product sold, Oceanr reckons 1 kilo of ocean waste is removed, due to its partnership with Enaleia. Enaleia is a social start-up founded in 2016 in Greece which encourages fishermen to adopt sustainable fishing techniques and assists in the reduction of ocean plastic by ‘fishing for it.’
(*Estimated data on recycled vs conventional polyester)
