ECOALF: The Company Born from the Need to Take Care of Our Planet

Submitted by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office

The company’s roots: its essence and mission

ECOALF was founded in 2009 out of frustration over the excessive use of the planet’s natural resources and the amount of waste produced by industrialized countries.

It was born out of the desire to manufacture the first generation of fashion products made entirely with recycled materials of the same quality, design and technical properties as the best non-recycled products on the market.

In recent years, ECOALF has shown that we can meet our current needs without continuing to indiscriminately abuse the planet’s natural resources and jeopardize the needs of future generations: because there is no planet B.

ECOALF is now a well-known Spanish brand with a highly international market: 50 per cent of its business is outside Spain, with Europe and the USA being its strategic markets. It has a multi-brand sales channel, e-commerce and its own stores (three in Spain – in Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga; and in Amsterdam, Berlin and Tokyo).

It was the first Spanish fashion brand to obtain B Corp certification, which recognizes companies not because they are the best in the world, but because they are the best for the world.

The brand: a key asset for the company

Javier Goyeneche, President and founder of the company, conceived the ECOALF brand. It was named after his sons, Alfredo and Álvaro, and was also intended to represent the fabrics of future generations.

Under the brand’s motto, BECAUSE THERE IS NO PLANET B, ECOALF is celebrating a decade of maintaining its mission and vision intact by creating a new generation of recycled products with the same quality and design as the best non-recycled products.

R&D: An invaluable tool

Thanks to ECOALF’s continuous investment in sophisticated innovation and R&D processes, they have developed more than 300 fabrics of high quality and technical properties with used plastic bottles, fishing nets, nylon scraps, used tires, used coffee grounds, and post-industrial wool and cotton.

These novel materials have served to create new lines of menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, footwear, accessories, travel clothing, and even a line of seamless yoga wear.

Its technology has not only reduced the consumption of natural resources through recycling, but has also helped to give waste a second chance by turning it back into raw material.

More than 200 million plastic bottles have been recycled and more than 38 million liters of water have been conserved thanks to its 2019 winter collection alone.

“BECAUSE THERE IS NO PLANET B”

The company’s campaign featuring the slogan “BECAUSE THERE IS NO PLANET B” has become a mass movement that has garnered support from hundreds of people the world over, who all share the same message, increasing visibility of the need to protect the planet. The aim of the campaign is to mobilize people, unite them and act on behalf of the planet, because there is no planet B.

With more than ten thousand #becausethereisnoplanetb posts and hundreds of people joining the movement by signing the manifesto and sharing their photo, the campaign is giving a voice to all those who care about the oceans and who, like ECOALF, fight for solutions and help raise public awareness.

Moreover, 10 per cent of the BECAUSE THERE IS NO PLANET B collection’s profits are allocated to the Upcycling the Oceans project to continue its expansion and ocean cleanup.

In 2015, ECOALF launched its most ambitious project to date: Upcycling the Oceans an unprecedented worldwide adventure that first set sail in the Mediterranean.

The main objective is to extract the waste devastating the oceans with the help of fishermen and transform it into top-quality thread, with which clothing and accessories can be the manufactured.

Through its Ecoalf foundation, the company began to extract waste from the Spanish coast of Levante and thanks to ECOEMBES contributing to the project, ECOALF is now operating in 42 ports, with the support of over 3000 fishermen. More than 500 tons of waste have been removed from the seabed. This project is now being replicated in Thailand and is now in full expansion throughout the rest of the Mediterranean in Greece, Italy, France and Lebanon.

Join the drive and be part of the change: https://ecoalf.com/es/p/becausethereisnoplanetb-35