140 – Why UK manufacturing is more sustainable – Christopher Nieper OBE, David Nieper

Christopher Nieper OBE is the managing director of David Nieper, a womenswear business in Alfreton in Derbyshire. The firm was set up by Christopher's parents sixty years ago and is now one of the most vertical textile operations in the UK. Christopher recently invested in state-of-the-art digital printing equipment so that the factory can print it's own fabric onsite. David Nieper already prints all their own catalogues and produce their own knitwear in house, alongside the garment production.In this episode you can hear about the research Christopher commissioned from Nottingham university looking at the greenhouse gas emissions produced to make clothing at the David Nieper factory in Derbyshire. The study then compared these findings to the emissions produced by making garments in China, Turkey and Bangladesh and then shipping them to the UK. It makes for very interesting insights into how making in the UK can be quantified as more sustainable. A big advocate for slow fashion, Christopher has also found that his customers keep and wear his clothes 10 times longer than average. Listen to this episode to discover: How the David Nieper factory uses 'just-in-time' manufacturing to achieve a 98% sell-through on their garmentsChristopher's plans to make the David Nieper factory the greenest factory in Europe, recovering the heat generated by the factory to use as renewable energyHow he's changing the attitudes of young people in his local town by giving them a taste of what it's like inside a real manufacturing environmentThe charity that the business has set up to help rebuild a local secondary school that was in the bottom 2% of schools in the UK and make it over-subscribed for the first time in 30 yearsChristopher's idea for a labelling scheme for clothing that ranks the environmental sustainability of every garmentThis episode is the recording of a talk that Christopher did at Make it British Live! Online. You can watch the talk and see the slides in the shownotes for this podcast at www.makeitbritish.co.uk/140   Stay in TouchBritish Brand Accelerator - Find out how you can work with me to build your British-made brandMake it British websiteJoin Make it British - become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturersMake it British on InstagramMake it British on YouTube - subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.Mentioned in this episode:British Brand Accelerator