Pure is a private label of de Bijenkorf, a leading department store in the Netherlands. In 2009, the Bijenkorf management decided the time was right to start its own sustainable label. In spring 2009, the ethical brand ‘Pure’ was launched. Pure partnered from the very beginning with MADE-BY and during that time focused mainly on training the development team on integrating sustainable materials into the collection. 

Social Conditions in Factories
De Bijenkorf is a member of the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) and as such is committed to supporting the factories in its supply chain to become BSCI compliant. For the 2010 collection, more than 60% of the collection was produced in sewing factories in Portugal, which is classified as Class A owing to it being a low risk country. Additionally, 19% of the styles were produced by two factories in China which are BSCI compliant and fall under Class B in the Social Benchmark. 

Environmental Impact of Raw Materials
In 2010, by far the biggest percentage of fibres used in Pure’s collection was Class B, equating to 89%. This result was down to the use of both organic cotton and TENCEL®. The main focus was to introduce blends such as organic cotton/TENCEL® and recycled wool/TENCEL®. Recycled wool is not included in the 2010 scorecard, though it will be for 2011. The aim for the upcoming 2-3 years is to have only Class A, B and C fibres in the entire collection, while allowing a minimal margin for unclassified fibres, such as elastane.