Best of Y.O.U in 2022!

In this last blog of the year, we're celebrating the moments we're most proud of in 2022, and sharing a sneak preview of what's to come in 2023 - including the launch of our fibre-to-fibre recycling programme - our bid to become fully circular!

 

 January

• We published our 2021 Impact Report - a transparent summary of how we've reduced our environmental impact, increased our social one and about our wins, misses and targets. 

 

February

• We launched a circular fashion scheme in partnership with TerraCycle in our Y.O.U Oxford Shop, which allows customers to drop off their underwear, socks and tights for recycling. We accept any brands, not just our own, so that's lots more undies saved from going to landfill. 

 

March

• We celebrated B Corp month and International Women's Day! Not only are we a feminist brand, Y.O.U underwear is the highest-scoring B Corp in the UK and the top fashion brand in the world. 

 

April 

• We shared our guide to digital sustainability. Every email we send, every website we load and every post we like emits a small amount of carbon dioxide, so we examined the ways we can help lower Y.O.U Underwear’s digital footprint. 

 

May

• In May, we marked Water Saving Week and Menstrual Hygiene Day by exploring the links between plastic-free periods and water supplies - a great opportunity to showcase our affordable and sustainable period care range. 

 

June

• We hit our target of donating 23,000 pairs of underwear - over 6 months ahead of schedule! We donate 3 pairs as a bundle - one to wear, one to wash and one to dry, so over 7,600 women and girls have received clean underwear. 

 

July

• We were recognised as one of the Best for the World B Corps of 2022, in two areas - community and environment. 

August

• We partnered with Leiho to sell socks. For every pair of socks sold, Leiho donate a pair to support homeless people across the UK and they dedicate 5% of their sales to go towards purchasing essentials for the homeless community. 

 

September

• We opened our new shop in the Covered Market in Oxford. It sells our ethical underwear, sustainable swaps, eco-friendly gifts and products made by local Oxford makers, and is fast becoming the number 1 sustainable shopping hub in the city! 

 

October

• We won three amazing awards! A Sustainable Scale-Up Award, from Enterprise Nation's Sustainable Small Business Awards 2022; A Gold Award from the Global Good Awards for being the Best Start-up Enterprise of the Year 2022 for our positive social or environmental impact and a Business Boost Grant, worth £25,000 from Simply Business.  

 

November

• We launched a more supportive bra! Developed directly in response to customer feedback, our new bras offer more support and coverage but still with our signature super-soft organic cotton - all without wires. The bra comes in 3 band sizes, each of which is available with a standard cup size and a + cup size, providing greater flexibility to suit women's different body shapes. 

 

December 

• We encouraged everyone to have an ethical Christmas.  We promoted Ethical Hour and Small Business Saturday campaigns - non-commercial initiatives to urge us all to 'shop local' and support small businesses in our communities. We were also busy in two Christmas Markets -  The Oxford Etsy market and Oxford's Christmas Market. Lots of you snapped up our organic cotton tea towels and organic cotton scrunchies for your secret Santa and stocking filler gifts. 

 2023 and beyond.....

We are already putting plans in place to start our fibre-to-fibre recycling program so we becoming fully circular, thanks to the money we were awarded from the Simply Business Business Boost Award. We will be sharing more about this as we make progress next year. 

We are very excited to be extending our range further and adding more products. All of them have been created based on the feedback you give us, so please do keep letting us know your thoughts and preferences. You can contact us here. We will continue to listen and give you stylish, super-soft underwear that is as good for the world as it is for your wardrobe. 

Wishing you all the very best for the year ahead and thanks again for being on the Y.O.U Underwear journey with us.