BEDI Studios | Environmental Sustainability

A fishnet tangled in weeds and coral on the ocean floor

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

One Day Everything New Will Come From Something Old.

A pile of salvaged seatbelts, tangled together

Material Choices

This is where BEDI began— with seatbelts salvaged from Quebec's scrapyards. When Founder, Inder Bedi, discovered that these incredibly durable and utilitarian components often end up in landfill, he was inspired to find a way to integrate them into everyday designs in a sleek and timeless way. (And he still personally goes to the scrapyards to cut them out of the cars whenever we need more!)

The most sustainable option is the one that already exists. Our commitment to using upcycled and recycled materials allows us to achieve a level of sustainability that is uncommon in the fashion industry. There are no mysteries around our materials— everything is sourced thoughtfully, sustainably, and whenever possible, locally.

Saving The Seas

The main material we use in our designs is ECONYL®, a highly sustainable and durable fabric from Italian textile manufacturer Aquafil. One of the main components in this robust fabric is regenerated fishing nets.

Econyl’s parent company, Aquafil, is a key partner of The Healthy Seas Foundation, aiming to eliminate abandoned fishnets causing unnecessary deaths and harm to marine life. Volunteer divers retrieve this marine waste from fish farming and fishing industries without disturbing marine ecosystems. The fishnets are subsequently cleaned, sorted, and sent for regeneration.

This impressive material is stretchy when woven, relatively tough, and easy to weave into tightly knit garments and industrial textiles. Not only does it come from sustainable sources, it is also infinitely recyclable.

You can find Econyl used in all our outerwear, most of our bags, and some of our smaller objects

Paper with the outlined of planned fabric pattern cuts

Minimizing Waste in Production

Salvaging and upcycling existing materials is the most obvious way in which we reduce waste. However, there are many things we do behind the scenes to minimize waste!

The main material we use is a robust, recycled nylon, made from recycled fishing nets and carpet waste. This beautiful, durable material is made in Italy, and we receive it in large bolts. As we prepare to cut this material, we’re able to use technology to determine the optimal layouts to cut from each bolt of fabric. For example, when making the KIRSI parka, we make all the XS and XL sizes together, as cutting the material for these two sizes at the same time allows us to line up the patterns in a way that minimizes excess fabric. As we use this recycled nylon for both our winter coats and our bags, any empty areas that do occur between coat patterns is used for small bag sections, such as the top and sides of the SHERPA fanny pack, and the front of the WATSON sling. Even smaller excess pieces are used to make our DIXON keychains.

We use the same technology to assess and cut our upcycled leather. As the leather we use is all salvaged, we are grateful to be able to use technology to be able to plan our bag patterns around any unusable areas of the leather. Small pieces of leather that fall outside our bag patterns are used to make our keychains.

As we make everything in small batches locally, we’re able to make tweaks and adjustments in real time to minimize waste.

A close up of the sewing needle on a sewing machine

Keeping BEDI out of Landfills

Our efforts to minimize waste don’t stop when our products leave the store.

The quality of our materials and the quality of our craftsmanship means we are able to offer a lifetime guarantee on all BEDI outerwear and bags. Fifteen years from now, if a zipper fails, you don’t have to take on the burden of finding someone who will repair it. We will fix it, for free, so you can keep enjoying your coat for many years.

It’s also important to consider style. What’s the point of a coat or bag that will last forever, if the colour or design will be out of style in a year? Trends come and go, and a bold coloured puffy jacket that may be “in” right now, might seem dated in a few years. That’s why all BEDI products have a classic, minimalist design that will never go out of style. We have a core collection of classic colours for outerwear and bags: Black, Navy, Evergreen and Graphite. We periodically do small runs of limited-edition colours (such as this season’s Bordeaux colour!) always with a focus on colours that will look classic no matter the trends of the day.

Lastly, we offer a trade-in program, which we call our “Second Life” program. If your tastes change, or you find you need a different size in future, you can arrange to return your BEDI piece to us, in return for 25% credit towards the purchase of a product of same or similar value. Pieces that are returned to us are refurbished to meet our high standards, and then sold at a discount in our Second Life section of our website.

Minimizing Emissions

How we keep our emissions low:

We manufacture all of our outerwear and bags in Montreal, Quebec. Quebec has some of the cleanest electricity in the world, with Hydro-Quebec generating more than 99% of its electricity from renewable energy [1]
Our head office and Flagship store are also in Montreal, which means the electricity we use each day is from renewable sources
We manufacture locally, reducing the need for transportation
We manufacture by hand
We choose materials that involve lower emissions than conventional materials– by using primarily recycled and salvaged materials, we are able to avoid the emissions that would come from making everything new
Our ballistic nylon (made in Italy) insulation (made in Belgium) and some salvaged leather from Italy are all sent to us via ship, rather than by air.
Your BEDI order is always shipped to you with carbon-neutral shipping

A macro shot of small waves in an ocean at sunset

Water Preservation

One of the benefits of using primarily recycled materials is the reduction in water use.

For example, we do not have to make any bag straps. We simply use existing seatbelts.

The main material we use in our collections is Econyl, from Aquafil. Econyl is made from recycled materials, including fishing nets and carpet waste. The regeneration process which allows these materials to be turned into nylon is done in a sustainable closed loop manufacturing system, and uses far less water than conventional nylon.

For example, according to the eco-profiles of a plastic industry project, 1 kg of virgin Nylon requires 663 kg (or 663 litres) of water to make. [2] In comparison, the total water used for the production of 1 kg of Econyl FDY (Fully Drawn Yarn) is approximately 11 litres (or 11 kg) [3]

When it comes to making our coats and bags, they are made by hand in small batches, and require no water to make.

On a smaller scale, we are mindful of water usage in our office and our store. We have low-flow faucets and toilets, and we only use biodegradable soap and cleaning supplies.

We are mindful of our products' impact on our water system after they leave the store also. Please see our care guide page for a note on microplastics.