Environmental Responsibility

David Nieper takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and manages its own environmental agenda. Our environmental mission is: ‘To promote the sustainable use of natural resources, with minimum waste and impact on the environment.’

Safeguarding our environment

In 2019 David Nieper became a zero waste-to-landfill company, whereby all waste produced by the business and within the manufacturing process is either, reused, recycled, composted or sent to energy recovery. This sustainable manufacturing strategy creates minimal waste boosting both environmental and economic sustainability for the company.

All factory roofs are covered with solar panels to generate electricity. 145,000KWh are generated each year, sufficient to supply almost all the company’s electrical needs and to feed surplus power back into the national grid. To reduce energy consumption the company has installed modular boilers, heat pumps, double glazing, triple layered roofs, low energy high frequency lights and auto stop sewing machine motors.

David Nieper has engaged with the University of Nottingham’s Energy Innovation & Collaboration team to undertake a study into the company’s carbon footprint, illustrating that a garment produced in our sewing rooms creates 47% less emissions than a similar garment produced in China. The report will enable the business to continually benchmark progress within its environmental programme and improve carbon resource efficiency further.

“As both a designer and manufacturer, safeguarding our environment to ensure a sustainable future is of paramount importance.”

Christopher Nieper OBE DL, Chief Executive

Sustainable Fashion Production

Every David Nieper garment is made in our Derbyshire sewing rooms in the UK, this means that our garments only have a relatively short distance to travel from our sewing rooms direct to our customers. The company operates a ‘just in time’ manufacturing model, whereby we don’t make a garment until a customer places an order, and the company delivers 99.8% of all orders placed with no overproduction or waste.

David Nieper is not part of the fast fashion generation and designs quality clothes to last. The design team create classic styles that are comfortable, fit well and don’t date. They build in features which accommodate changes in size and body shape, such as elastic waistbands, adjustable fastenings and use materials with more ‘give’ – these elements prolong the lifecycle of a piece of clothing. In a customer survey conducted in 2019, David Nieper customers reported wearing their clothes five times longer than the national average* (2.2 years).

Long distance transportation of textiles and components is highly damaging to the environment. In a typical fashion supply chain, garments are sent from an overseas manufacturer via sea or air to a logistics centre in the UK, and then transported to the retailer. Manufacturing in the UK reduces the carbon footprint and allows greater control over the production process. David Nieper is an advocate of fashion designers reshoring production to the UK.

Find out more about how we make our clothes.

Supply Chain

In total we work with 130 suppliers mainly for the supply of fabric, yarn, greige, lining, lace, buttons and ribbon. We work closely with suppliers and have built long-term relationships to support our focus on traceability, ethical production, working conditions and quality. Where possible we work with British suppliers to reduce carbon footprint.

David Nieper operates a vertical business model and is working to re-shore and integrate as much of the supply chain as possible. Since 2010, David Nieper has bought the production of knitwear and catalogues in-house and set up a garment cutting factory.

Given growing concerns about the amount of water used in fashion production, during 2019 David Nieper opened a digital print factory to bring fabric printing in-house. The aim is to reduce the amount of water needed in the print process for our collections. Additionally, by digitally printing in-house we can do small fabric runs, further reducing waste and ensuring styles don’t go out of stock for customers.

Printing our own fabrics means that we have been able to select a supreme green cotton supplier, which cultivates crops via sustainable practises using non GMO seeds. Once harvested, our cotton goes through the process of ginning and spinning using energy from renewable sources.

Yarns

David Nieper prioritises transparency and sustainability in its supply chain and works with suppliers who have achieved a high level of internationally recognised credentials with respect to human rights, animal wellbeing, environmental best practise, traceability and sustainable development.

David Nieper’s yarn suppliers are accredited with ITF (Traceability and Fashion) which identifies the traceability for a company’s entire production and guarantees greater transparency on the origin of the products. Our suppliers are also credited with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Certificate, the Associazione Tessile e Salute Cert no 14900093, 100% Energia Pulita (renewable energy certification) ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 - which identifies an international management system for health and safety in the workplace - and are compliant with REACH regulations.

Our cotton yarn supplier is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative. The Better Cotton Initiative exists to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future, by developing Better Cotton as a sustainable mainstream commodity.

Find out more about our yarns.