Quick guide: The most sustainable fabrics

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We’ve put together this guide of the more sustainable fabrics for those who want to get an idea of what to choose when shopping. We mostly focus on materials that are readily available, that you’ll be able to find in most shops whether shopping online or in stores. 

You’ll notice that the fabrics we mention are of natural origin. That means they biodegrade in a shorter amount of time (years vs. hundreds of years for polyester for instance) so as to not litter the planet with waste. They also use up fewer resources when produced compared to other types of fabric not mentioned here.

What you’ll need to do is check the care and composition labels before buying. Most countries have rules that make sure there’s information on what a garment is made of. It’s important to stress that not shopping at all or shopping secondhand is still more sustainable than buying new.

What fabrics to look for

As a quick summary, these are your more sustainable options when shopping:

• Organic fabrics of natural origin (cotton, linen and hemp of plant origin and wool from sheep and alpaca).
• Semi-synthetic fabrics of natural origin (Tencel from wood pulp and Piñatex from pineapple leaves).
• When possible, go for recycled variants of these fabrics.
• Finally, go for non-blended fabrics (except in the case of recycled cotton that’s often used in blends).

Organic linen

Linen is made from flax, a plant that requires less water than cotton (the most widely used natural fabric) and little-to-no pesticides or fertilizers. It’s manufacture (turning the plant fibres into yarn and fabric) is also more mechanically intensive than water intensive and generally uses fewer chemicals in smaller quantities.

As flax is a fairly unfussy plant, it can grow in most climates, including colder ones that usually aren’t as water-stressed as warmer climates. 75% or so of the world-wide production currently takes place in Europe.

Finally, being a natural fiber, linen is of course biodegradable.

The end result is a durable, breathable and versatile fabric that can be used for anything from shirts and dresses to sheets and upholstery. It’s important to note that you should always go for the organic version, if available, to make sure that more sustainable practices were involved in its production. However, we still consider non-organic linen quite sustainable.

Organic hemp

Hemp is very similar to linen, both in terms of look and feel and in terms of their sustainability credentials. A very resilient plant that’s naturally resistant to pests, hemp also does not require much fertilization, water or use of pesticides. Being a natural fabric, it is also biodegradable.

Moreover, hemp has a very high yield, meaning that you get a lot more fiber compared to planting cotton or flax on the same land. It does, however, mostly grow well in warmer climates.

The resulting fabric is highly durable, UV protective and keeps you warm during winter and cold during summer. The only issue with hemp is that it is one of the rougher materials to touch, so it is often blended with other fibers to make it softer and blends are not easily recyclable and - depending on the other fibers added - not always biodegradable. What we can tell you is that hemp gets softer with wash and wear, so definitely stick to the non-blended version. Once again, if you can buy organic hemp, that is preferable over conventional hemp.

Organic & recycled cotton

Cotton is one of the most common materials and it is the most used natural clothing fabric. Organic cotton is cotton that is grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers and processed without harmful chemicals. Because of this, it has a much smaller environmental impact compared to its conventional counterpart, its farming using less energy and much less water than conventional cotton. It also makes for better soil and less water pollution in the farming area, safeguarding biodiversity and emitting less CO2.

An even more sustainable cotton is recycled cotton. Made from post-industrial or post-consumer cotton waste. Buying anything recycled reduces water and energy usage because it eliminates the farming step and it reduces waste. With current methods, recycled cotton is not strong enough on its own so it usually needs to be blended with a different fiber. This means that you’re looking for clothes made out of:

• a combination of recycled cotton and organic cotton, or 
• 100% organic cotton.

Tencel™ lyocell

Lyocell is a cellulose (plant matter) fabric made by dissolving wood pulp into a viscous liquid and then spinning it into thin fibers. Any wood pulp will do, but we’re specifically looking at Tencel™, a brand of lyocell, that is made mostly from beech wood (it used to be eucalyptus). Tencel™ is owned and manufactured by Austrian company Lenzing AG.

Other types of lyocell exist as does knock-off Tencel, but Lenzing’s Tencel lyocell is more sustainable for two reasons: 

• the trees are felled in forests that are growing (instead of forests threatened by deforestation),
• and their production lets almost no chemicals out with their waste water which is directly connected to water treatment plants. 

Their production is so good compared to others that it is practically referred to as closed-loop (more than 99% of dissolving agents are recycled vs. 90% that we’ve seen cited for another top garment manufacturer). 

Since Tencel is made from plant material, it is fully biodegradable and the fabric itself is silky, breathable, and durable. It is a very versatile fabric and we, for instance, make both tops and pants from it.

Piñatex

Piñatex is a sustainable and cruelty free replacement for leather, made out of discarded pineapple leaves. Being a food byproduct, it reduces the pineapple industry’s waste and does not require additional land, water, pesticides or fertilizers for its production. Piñatex also avoids the use of toxic chemicals and heavy metals used in animal leather production and the leftover leaf waste is recycled and used for fertiliser or biomass. 

The end product is a soft, pliable, leather-like material that can be produced in a range of colours and finishes. If you’re looking for something in leather, we highly recommend that you try out a Piñatex alternative.

Alpaca wool

Alpacas tread lightly on earth (how could they not? Look at how cute they are!), so their wool is one of the most sustainable. Their hooves are softly padded, which reduces the impact they have on soil. Compared to other grazing animals, alpacas also eat less and more importantly do not destroy root systems, so that plants can continue to grow even after alpacas have munched on them.

On top of that, 80% of the world's alpaca fiber comes from Peru, where 50,000 families in the Andean highlands rely on herding alpaca for income and to sustain themselves. This means that when you buy clothes made out of alpaca wool you get all the great attributes of wool (softness, warmth & breathability), but with less impact, all the while supporting indigenous communities’ work. As with all the other fabrics on this list, wool is biodegradable.

Organic wool

Wool is a controversial fabric. On the one hand, it’s of natural, renewable origin, thus accessible and biodegradable. Wool is also a higher value, durable fiber which means that wool products generally stay in use longer, need less washing and can be recycled.

On the other hand, it comes from animal agriculture which is associated with environmental degradation, land clearing and animal welfare concerns.

That being said, there are a couple of certifications that ensure the wool you’re buying is sourced from farms that pay attention to and tackle the potential issues by making sure that grazing is done responsibly (rotating between areas to make sure that the soil and plants have time to regenerate), the animals are treated well, mulesing is avoided, pesticides or fertilisers for the soil are not used and neither are fungicides and insecticides on the animals. In short, the sheep’s environmental impact can be negated with proper practices and they can even become climate positive, improving soil health and biodiversity. 

To make heads and tails of this, make sure you look for wool that has either the Responsible Wool Standard or the GOTS certification.

As mentioned earlier, wool is also recyclable and it’s becoming easier now to find items partially made out of recycled wool.

Before you go: Some honorable mentions

That’s it, that’s the list for now. There’s sooo much more to say for each of these and there are so many more fabrics out there too. But the ones above are the fabrics we think most people should keep in mind when shopping.

Now, there are a lot of newer, sustainable fibers that deserve mentions too. We didn’t include them in the main list simply because they’re not yet widely available and you’re not likely to come across them. But if you really want to take sustainability to the next level or are simply curious about the newer materials, here are some of the promising ones that are on our radar:

• Qmonos, a synthetic spider silk developed through the fusion of spider silk genes and microbes. No spiders are harmed or farmed in the manufacturing process.
• Qmilk, a material that uses casein, a milk protein sourced as a byproduct of the dairy industry. The end result is a silky fabric that is biodegradable.
• Apple leather made from a waste of the apple juice industry. It’s durable, biodegradable and it recycles what would otherwise be waste.
• Woocoa, a vegan wool made out of hemp, coconut fibers, and mushroom enzymes

Finally, if you feel like taking a deeper dive into the world of fabrics, including the ones to avoid at all cost, take a look at our full fabrics and materials article. There, we go into more detail about sustainable practices, how our environment functions, and how each fabric measures up.