Origins
Innovative Materials and Systems
Giving Back
Our story: A collective of one heart, many hands.
Just over 2 years ago, PANGAIA emerged as a collective of scientists, designers, technologists, and creatives to create a new kind of business - one that operates in harmony with nature and works to safeguard a future for generations to come.
We call this philosophy Earth Positivity, and it is our north star.
With nature as our greatest ally and biggest inspiration, and science as our compass, we bring to life innovations and showcase how they can be transformed into everyday products. From carbon into eyewear, grapes into leather, pollution into ink, bacteria into color, and flowers into insulation that will keep you warm. We are always looking for ways to do better.
In some cases, we start from ground zero, making baby steps while tackling challenges such as scale and price every day. In other cases, we have invested our time and resources to bring new innovations from our network, collaborations, and partners to a wider market. One of our biggest future investments will be in regenerative cotton, which will support biodiversity and positively impact communities.
We published our first Impact Report in December 2020 and are pleased to share an update on the progress we made in 2021 in this new report. The main focus for 2021 has been PANGAIA Apparel, which generally excludes some of our businesses like PANGAIA Science, which will be woven into our work during the course of 2022.
We understand there is still a long way to the future that we envision. As we progress, we will continue to share our challenges, learnings, and achievements along the way.
What we mean by Earth Positive:
Both a goal and a philosophy, we are building a business that creates value while elevating human, animal, and plant quality of life, bringing us in harmony with nature and giving back more than we take.
Our 7 Impact Pillars
To help achieve our vision of an Earth Positive future, we focus on 7 pillars of impact that ensure we can meet the social, environmental, and economic challenges we as a business and as a society face.
Biodiversity
Protect and restore biodiversity by sourcing responsibly and investing in a diverse range of regenerative resources that preserve and promote plant and animal life.
Water Health
Pioneer a water stewardship program to minimize water consumption and prevent unsustainable chemistry and plastic pollution.
Climate Change
Become a Climate Positive business, committed to aligning with the most ambitious targets of the Paris Agreement. This means undertaking practices that take more carbon from the atmosphere than we contribute.
Innovative Materials
Help future-proof the industry and the planet through materials science innovations and reducing reliance on non-renewable resources.
Circularity
Extend the life of our resources and products as well as reducing waste and closing the loop on resource use, creating a truly circular value chain.
Elevating Human Potential
Respect human rights, promote fair, safe, and dignified work, and drive positive change throughout our community.
Giving Back
Support the communities around us through donations to and engagement with environmental and social causes and charitable organizations.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
To ensure that our strategy is rooted in the wider global agenda, we have aligned our pillars with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals. We aim to support the SDGs through our work and our participation in the Fashion Avengers, a working group bringing together fashion companies to inspire and accelerate progress towards the SDGs.
- No poverty
- Zero hunger
- Good health and well-being
- Quality education
- Gender equality
- Clean water and sanitation
- Affordable and clean energy
- Decent work and economic growth
- Industry, innovation and infrastructure
- Reduced inequalities
- Sustainable cities and communities
- Responsible consumption and production
- Climate action
- Life below water
- Life on land
- Peace, justice and strong institutions
- Partnerships for the goals
Our Business & Governance
PANGAIA is headquartered in London, UK, with satellite teams in New York City, Los Angeles, Paris, Florence, and Porto. Initially founded by a core collective of 7 people, in 2021, we employed 143 people globally, who work either in our offices, from home, or a hybrid. We sell most of our PANGAIA products direct to customers through e-commerce, and we had 5 pop-up stores in 2021. We also operate as a Business to Business solution, offering the selection of innovative materials that we work with to industry partners and beyond.
PANGAIA is overseen by an Executive Board of Directors that meets once a week and engages an advisory board to provide support on areas that include brand strategy, sustainability, and innovation strategy. The Board has 8 members, 5 of which identify as women (that's 63%). Our environmental and social purpose is represented and advocated for by the SVP Global Engagement and the Chief Impact Officer, who is also a founding member of PANGAIA.
In addition to this leadership representation, our Earth Positive ambition is integrated into all decision-making, with each department having specific Impact-focused objectives. The Impact department is made up of subject matter experts whose remit is to work collaboratively towards the Impact strategy across the business and with external partners.
2021 at a glance
This report outlines the challenges we have faced and the progress we made in 2021. Some of the achievements we are most proud of include:
- 83% of our products available online are Climate Positive. This means we use the results of our Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) to offset the footprint to Carbon Neutral. By additionally planting, protecting, or restoring a plant with every purchase, each product becomes Climate Positive.
- All 5 of our pop-up retail stores were carbon neutral! We worked closely with our retail partners like Selfridges and Galeries Lafayette to ensure the associated Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of the building materials, employee travel, and energy powering the shop floor were all accounted for and offset using accredited carbon tokens.
- We launched PANGAIA Lab, a new platform to showcase advanced materials science innovations and new cutting-edge technologies that are ready to scale. The first launch was in partnership with Twelve, the carbon transformation company that captures CO2 from the air and combines it with water and heat to create multi-use polycarbonate materials. The result was PANGAIA’s first-ever sunglasses with CO2made® lenses.
- We donated over $670,000 in total to environmental and social causes. We also provided PANGAIA products to frontline workers and vulnerable young people, adding up to a retail value of over $1.8m.
- We funded the planting and protection of over 630,000 trees through 11 grassroots NGOs across 15 countries through our Tomorrow Tree fund.
- We donated over $30,000 from our retail partnerships, pop-ups, and internal sample sales to our Bee The Change fund.
- We published PANGAIA’s first Modern Slavery Statement.
- We mapped our Tier 1 supply chain partners, determining production in 6 key countries.
- We mapped and quantified our scope 3 emissions during our first year of GHG accounting, which was a great achievement for us as it quantifies the largest proportional impact and guides our strategy to reduce this footprint.
- We upgraded our Environmental Management System (EMS) to capture more facilities and expanded the reporting of our GHG emissions.
- The PANGAIA team grew and is now made up of over 20 nationalities, speaking over 30 languages.
An Open Invitation
We believe that no single organization can solve the challenges our society is currently facing alone. PANGAIA is rooted in collaboration and we welcome others to join us on this mission. We invite all brands, institutions, academics, innovators, and educators to talk to us about these challenges and join us (b2b@thepangaia.com) in amplifying and scaling solutions.
Learn more about our policies and how we use data
We acknowledge it is our responsibility to hold ourselves accountable for our actions. Our policies and methodologies set out guidelines on expectations, and pathways for identification, escalation, and resolution should infringement occur.
These documents aim to cover all stakeholders, including business operations, joint ventures, business partners, and all sites that supply products or perform services to us.
We currently have the following formal policies and supporting documents that are reviewed at least once a year by the Executive Board.