Sustainability Progress Report 2023

Upcycled Collection

 In 2022, we partnered with Looptworks: a Portland, Oregon based business that completely re-purposes used or excess materials into new, limited edition products—a process known as upcycling.

1. We took returned and lightly damaged Catalina Collection products and, instead of sending them to a landfill, shipped them to our friends at Looptworks.
2. We carefully and meticulously took apart and deconstructed the returned products, turning them into material for new products.
3. We then took the deconstructed materials to assemble new limited edition one-of-a-kind products: the Upcycled Patchwork Tote and the Upcycled Laptop Sleeve.

In 2023, we designed and produced four new upcycled designs made from other Lo & Sons collections to be launched in early 2024.

Product Materials

Recycled Poly

In 2023, we expanded our efforts to use recycled materials such as recycled poly. In addition to our recycled poly collection, every Lo & Sons bag is lined with 100% recycled lining material (up from 50% recycled lining in 2022). These combined recycled materials diverted over 900,000 plastic bottles from the landfill in 2023. 

By recycling plastic bottles rather than sending them to the landfill, we reduced carbon emissions by 16 tons in 2023. This is equivalent to taking 3.6 cars off the road for an entire year.

Nappa Leather

By working with a Leather Working Group (LWG) certified Gold-rated tannery to make Nappa leather, we saved over 47,300 kilowatt hours of electricity and 119,700 gallons of water, which is equivalent to:

• 5,987 showers.
• The electricity use of an average American household for 4.5 years.

Cactus Leather

In 2022, we introduced the Waverley 2, the Pearl, the Leather Wallet, and the Small Wallet in a plant-based vegan leather alternative made from nopal cactus. By choosing nopal cactus instead of traditional plastic-based vegan leather materials, we reduced greenhouse gas emission by 71%, energy consumption by 63%, and water usage by 99%. Since introducing Cactus leather last year, 11% of all leather products we produced used this leather alternative. In 2023, we expanded our use of Cactus leather to replace traditional leather trim on our Nouvelles and Catalina Supreme Totes.

Recycled Nylon

In 2023, 66% of our nylon bags were made from recycled nylon, such as our best-selling Rowledge and Nouvelle. We plan to transition to 90% recycled nylon in 2024.

Lining

All linings with a solid print are made from 100% recycled poly. All linings with the jacquard print are made from 50% recycled poly and in 2023, we plan to make the 100% transition.

Web

In 2022, we introduced a new crossbody bag: the Nouvelle, and used recycled yarns to weave the web shoulder strap. In 2023, we worked with suppliers to expand our collection of recycled web straps to include the Catalina Supreme Tote in 2024.

Hang Tags

In 2023, 100% of our hang tags were made using recycled cardstock and printed with soy ink. Even the string is recycled!

Mesh

In 2023, 86% of the mesh used in our bags, such as for the interior pockets, was replaced with recycled mesh. In 2024, 100% of our mesh use will be recycled.

Packaging

• 100% of our plastic packaging is made of recycled materials and able to be recycled again. 
• 100% of our dust bags are made of recycled materials, including the string.

Manufacturing

In 2023, 15.5% of our production was done at a factory that runs on solar energy and uses a Water-SUSTReclamation-System, which can convert over 100 tons of wastewater to clean water per day with a conversion rate from wastewater to clean water of 100%.

Learn more about our sustainable business practices here.