C&A is a Belgian affordable clothing store with around 1,900 outlets worldwide. Today, C&A heavily advertise their commitment to sustainability. Its supply chain was ranked fourth best in a review of the transparency of 200 of the world’s largest fashion brands and retailers by the group Fashion Revolution. Since 2017, as part of their commitment to sustainable principles, C&A have developed a range of Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM (C2C) products. Regulated by the non-profit organisation, The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation, the C2C standard provides set criteria for manufactures to create sustainable products. Certification provides manufacturers and consumers with tangible proof of the product’s sustainability. There are five different certification levels (basic, bronze, silver, gold and platinum).

Following the success of their first sustainable T-Shirt (launched in 2017), C&A and Fashion for Good set out to develop the first C2C Gold Standard certified pair of jeans. The jeans, with over 49 separate components, were more technically complex than the T-Shirt to develop, and they had particular difficulty finding a suitably strong sewing thread which met C2C Gold standard. The difficultly in developing them is chronicled by C&A and Fashion for Good in a guide produced alongside the jeans, available on their website Developing C2C CertifiedTMJeans.