We publish a short annual report every January. This is the plain-language version of the 2026 edition — the technical PDF with footnotes and audit letters is available on request.

What we measured

We tracked seven numbers across our business for the twelve months to December 2025:

  1. Grams of recycled PET per towel produced
  2. Litres of water per towel across dyeing, weaving and finishing
  3. Kilograms of CO₂-equivalent per towel delivered to end customer
  4. Percentage of ocean-bound vs post-consumer PET input
  5. Number of returned towels sent to industrial recyclers
  6. Number of microfibre wash bags shipped with orders
  7. Supplier audit coverage, in % of supplier spend

What improved

  • Water per towel: down 11% year on year, mostly from the switch to solution-dyeing at our Thessaloniki mill.
  • Ocean-bound share: up from 24% to 31%, which we are proud of; this material costs us 3× more per kilo.
  • Supplier audit coverage: now 94% of spend, up from 71%. The remaining 6% is one small dyehouse in Portugal that is scheduled for its first full audit in March.

What didn’t improve

  • Carbon per towel: down 4%, which is less than we hoped. Air-freight for restocking US and Australian warehouses is still 38% of our total emissions and remains hard.
  • Returned-towel programme: 148 towels returned this year. That is a lot of goodwill from our customers and still a tiny number compared to units sold. We need to make the postage prepaid label easier to find; it currently lives at the bottom of the care-guide page.

What we found hard

Microfibre shedding during washing is the single most honest problem we have. The emerging science is unsettled — the shedding is dramatically lower than conventional fleeces, but it is not zero. Our mitigations are a Guppyfriend bag with every order and a laundry filter R&D partnership with a Milan university. Progress but no breakthrough yet.

What we commit to in 2026

  • Ocean-bound PET share up to 40% by Q4.
  • Sea freight for 70% of trans-Atlantic restock.
  • A take-back drop-off partner in each of three new countries (currently only Greece and the UK).
  • First third-party audit of our emissions numbers rather than internal self-assessment.

None of this is marketing. We publish the numbers because we think a brand that uses the words “sustainable” or “eco-friendly” should also publish the arithmetic behind the words.