GOING FURTHER FOR positive impact
For athletes all around the world, playing sport means more than simply winning or losing.
While we regularly compete upon grass, ground, sand, or sea, it is very clear that we, the sports community, want to look after the planet we love to play sport on.
When we sat down together to discuss the idea that would become Hard Yards, we decided that making a positive impact on the health of our environment would be one of our core values. From day 1, we were conscious that we wanted to make it clear what this actually means, and ensure that we are transparent with what we do now and with our plans for the future. Greenwashing is becoming all too commonplace in the sportswear industry and misleading customers only hinders making a genuine positive impact.
Earth Day 2022 has just passed and it gave us some time to reflect on what transparency means in this regard; an openness about where we are, and accountability for where we are heading in the future. Our journey has only just begun, the foundations have been laid, and we’d like to share this journey with you as we grow the Hard Yards community together.
2021 Impact Report - Fundamentals First.
Support Local Manufacture - With our HQ in Leicestershire, we strive to support our local manufacturing community where we can. Doing so helps us to reduce the travel mileage (land, air, and sea) of our products and having local access to our factories also means that we can physically see how our products are made, what materials go into them and how they are processed. Currently, the only aspect manufactured outside Leicester is the raw material for our High-Impact Guard, which is made in Portugal.
Product Lifecycle - We know that no product will function as intended indefinitely and so we seek to work towards a better lifecycle for our kit. At manufacture, we use natural yarns such as organically-grown cotton and mix in synthetic fibres when the processing cost vs longevity gain is balanced or positive for the latter. In use, we strive to make products that will serve you on the pitch season after season and so we opt for more durable yarns and weaves that help your Hard Yards kit last longer.
Packaging - We committed early to a minimum standard. This standard is making our packaging from 100% FSC recycled card stock that is itself 100% recyclable; even down to the sticky label that keeps the box closed.
Active Positive Impact - For every product we have delivered, we have planted mangrove trees (>1200 so far!) to restore carbon-sink zones around the world and support local villagers with a stable income. To find out more, this journal article from Chris will explain in more detail.
Steps for 2022
Local Manufacture - As our product-line expands, we’re maintaining our local manufacture commitment and looking for ways to bring this to 100% across the range.
Product Lifecycle - Cotton is a staple yarn for us, however we’re bringing organic varieties and recycled synthetics to this years developments as well as investigating alternative plant-based fibres such as bamboo, merino and rayon-based yarns as potential improvements.
Packaging - We’re introducing the ‘Get Naked’ campaign, where we offer the option to reduce the amount of packaging that we use for your order. You can read more about this campaign here. Further to this, we looking to make more of our packaging not only recyclable, but also compostable and we are looking at a variety of plant and fungus-based options for this.
Active Impact - This year, we’re aiming to hit or next milestone of 5000 trees planted with over 50,000kg of carbon sequestered out of the atmosphere by our reforestation activities.
In the spirit of putting in the ‘Hard Yards’ we acknowledged that we would never be perfect at launch, however we have committed to working towards making a greater positive impact year after year. We’re taking those small steps forward, adding those marginal gains up and every year we’ll share with you how we and the Hard Yards community are making a difference beyond our immediate reach.