BAM Bamboo Clothing
The Need
BAM (formally known as Bamboo Clothing Company) designs and produces high-quality sustainable clothing made primarily from bamboo. They work directly with their suppliers to ensure they are buying sustainably grown bamboo and are maintaining full transparency into their supply chain. As an example of their commitment to sustainability, they sell a 73 Zero insulated jacket that – as their website indicates – “98% of this jacket is recycled from something else and 100% of this jacket can be recycled into something new”. BAM asked for our help to complete their B Corp Certification. They also wanted to update their supplier handbook to make it more rigorous and enable them to sell their products through various online marketplaces that sell purpose-driven clothing.
The Work
We split the work into two streams, one focused on B Corp certification and the other on creating a robust supplier handbook. For the B Corp certification, we used our standard process and gave them greater confidence in their ability to certify.
To create the supplier handbook, we thoroughly researched supplier handbooks (all publicly available via a simple Google search) from Patagonia, Cotopaxi, TOMS, Allbirds, Athleta, and Nike to identify areas of focus and potential best practices. We reviewed Fair Wear Foundation’s code of labour practices (BAM is a partner organization), the Good on You standards, Canopy commitments, and ZDHC requirements to ensure they were integrated into their supplier policies. Using this analysis, we wrote supplier policies to meet all of BAM’s objectives.
The Impact
Many of the handbooks we reviewed were over 50 pages and some exceeded 100, making compliance very challenging for small suppliers. Through our work, BAM ended up with comprehensive policies that were thorough yet short and manageable for all their suppliers. In total, we created four full documents, three of which are available on their website. Our support positions BAM to pursue new markets, now as a Certified B Corporation!
