Sustainable Launch

Back in 2019, we announced we had made several changes to our home in Manchester to lower our environmental impact. These ranged from motion sensor lighting to ensuring over 90% of all of our waste is recycled, if you want to remind yourself of all of these developments, check out the full article here. Since then, we have continued to adopt a sustainability first mindset, such as in 2021 when we amended all of our packaging to be from recycled tissue and paper. And of course, with our garments being manufactured in Great Britain we do not have the transport emissions other companies have when importing their items into the UK.

However, it is our great pleasure to announce our most significant sustainability step to date, switching out traditional fabrics for environmentally friendly ones! This is a development we have attempted for many years but until now there has always been a barrier in matching the quality and durability you expect from an Oliver Harvey chef jacket, chef trouser or apron. Whether that was premature fabric pilling (the frustrating frayed threads that appear on your old clothes) or not being able to survive commercial laundering for multiple washes to the standard we were comfortable with. As much as we know chefs want to ensure sustainability in their practices, they were only going to accept items that remained the highest possible quality.

But perhaps the most important barrier to going sustainable was cost. These are challenging times for our industry and although as a community we care about our environment deeply, few of us are in a position to increase our outgoings significantly, however worthy the cause and our desire to do good. Until recently, switching in sustainable chef uniforms from traditionally manufactured ones came at a premium. For example, it may have only been a few extra pounds per apron, but that multiplied over a chef brigade or front of house team and it quickly adds up. With this in mind, it was paramount to us that we do not increase our customers prices and after long discussions internally that is precisely what we have done. Your favourite chef jacket will now be manufactured in sustainable materials at the same price it’s always been.

After years of testing, sampling, redesigns and much more we have finally found alternatives to our Cotton and PolyCotton fabrics that arguably outperform our traditional, virgin materials in terms of durability and softness on the skin.  These are 100% organic cotton and a 65% recycled polyester and 35% organic cotton blend. Firstly, let’s focus on organic cotton, check out our infographic below which details the differences between organic and traditional cotton:

Recycled polyester is simply a second life of traditional polyester that would otherwise be sent to landfill or dumped in our seas. It requires a mechanical breakdown of plastic which is then melted and reformed into polyester fibres. This not only prevents adding to the current 150 millions tonnes of plastic in our oceans but also using less energy and fewer resources to manufactured whilst not compromising on performance.

These new fabrics are now utilised in over 70% of our chefswear and aprons and includes some of our most iconic styles such as the Cumbria Chef Jacket, Durham Chef Trouser and our Classic Chef Bib Aprons. To identify which products are now manufactured with environmentally friendly fabrics if you go to any of our product categories and look out for the green leaf in the top right corner of the image. Not only that, we now have a filter on the left hand side of our product category pages where you can tick a sustainable box to make sure you can only see these amended garments.

We are thrilled to make this announcement and whilst it is regrettable it is not everything we manufacture, our commitment to unrivalled quality and retaining the same price for our customers prevents us from switching those particular styles over at this moment in time. However, we are continually evaluating the market and textiles is evolving at a tremendous rate so we are confident in the coming years we shall be the first fully sustainable chefswear manufacturer in the UK and beyond. This is the most significant step in that direction we have taken to date and you can now showcase your own sustainable credentials through your clothing without needing to spend any more than what you currently are!