Mondetta embraces sustainability

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This article was published 21/02/2020 (2056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mondetta Performance Gear’s newest clothing line is 74 per cent sustainable, making the spring collection its most eco-friendly one so far.

Creating fabrics that will decompose by 70 per cent in one year in a landfill is the next step, said Ash Modha, CEO of the Winnipeg-based company. “I think we’re about 18 to 24 months away from that next level,” he says.

Prices in the new collection are either staying the same or going down, he says.

“We’ve can bring that value and affordability to sustainable products,” he says.

The clothes are mostly made of reused fabric from last year’s stock that have been broken down and re-made.

“That’s a massive undertaking and now that we’ve perfected that, we can start to build new fabrics.”

For about five years, Mondetta, MPG’s parent company, has experimented with fabrics made of coffee grounds and materials that are bluesign-compliant, meaning the chemicals and dyes are made sustainably.

“So many people just use a sustainable fabric,” says Modha. “But that’s just 10 per cent of the battle, it has to happen from the milling and the knitting of the fabric, to the packaging.”

When Mondetta started this journey, the big sellers weren’t quite ready for it, Modha says. “The industry was in the infantile stages of sustainability, he says. “You need big customers like Walmart to start pushing this and when they do, the mills and factories start taking it seriously.”

Making products last longer is part of making them more sustainable. Using a Swedish material, PolyGene, MPG can make its products last longer between washings, giving them a longer lifespan.

“A pair of women’s tights for example, you used to have to wash them daily and now you can wear them, two, three, or even four times before having to wash them,” says Modha.

MPG has made sure the entire manufacturing process for the latest collection was Global Recycled Standard certified and Global Organize Textile Standard certified, on top of following ethical employment standards, the company says.

Mondetta’s next goal is to become a certified B Corporation, which is the highest standard of verified social and environmental responsibility.

“Every step of the sustainable process needs to be audited,” he says. “If it’s not audited, it doesn’t mean anything,”

Mondetta was founded in Winnipeg in 1986. Its products are available online and in stores across North America.

melanie.ritchot@freepress.mb.ca