About Us

Our Story

Hi, nice to see you here! I am Linda, a young Dutch entrepreneur with a mission to ‘sustainalize’ the world. I studied International Development and Sustainable Business and Innovation, and I am trying to turn the scientific knowledge I accumulated there into something we all benefit from. I wanted to combine this know-how with a lifelong love for beautiful clothes, and therefore I started the sustainable and ethical brand you are getting to know right now.

I come from a family that has a passion for responsible business. Therefore Peponi has some sister companies, like an innovative company that’s developing windmills (Nedpower Green Energy), a Macadamia farm in Mozambique (G&F) and a drinking water producing factory for the poorest part of society in Kenya (DWL).

Peponi means ‘paradise’ in Swahili, a language often spoken in our water factory in Mombasa. This brand is called Peponi because I believe that paradise – a sustainable world in which we can love fashion as well- is possible, as long as we all do business in an honest and sustainable way.

Take a look around on our webshop, I hope you like it!

Mission & Vision

Our mission is to maximise your wardrobe’s potential so that it is smaller, more useful, more sustainable, and longer lasting. We do that by creating sustainable fashion that is timeless, comfortable, mix-and-matcheable, and appropriate for any occasion.

We want to reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry overall, by making conscious fashionistas realise they only need a small wardrobe, with key items, to look great.

Fair & Sustainable Production

Production Process Tencel

The Eucalyptus Tree

The eucalyptus tree is a large, fast-growing tree that requires little to no pesticides, and often only needs rain water to grow. Eucalyptus is originally from Australia, but can now be found all over Europe as well. This tree does not need resource-rich soil to thrive, and therefore can even be planted on degraded land that is not useful for agriculture. As the tree is very large, it provides much more raw resource material per square meter than, for example, a cotton plantation. In short, a very sustainable tree!

When planted, harvested and grown in a responsible manner, eucalyptus trees could be a lead sourcing material for sustainable fashion. The only thing that could really be harmful is deforestation of natural habitats: Lenzing – the company making our Tencel – takes this risk into account, and developed very strict harvesting principles to sustainably manage the forests.

Lenzing's Harvesting Principles

Even if the type of tree is very sustainable, forest management is essential to ensure responsible production and to reduce impact on natural ecosystems. We chose Lenzing as a fabric producer as they are very strict in forest management: all of the wood harvested from the forests needs to be replanted, in order to keep a balanced system and to make sure deforestation is not an option. In Austria, where Lenzing is situated, the growth rate of the forest is even higher than the amount of wood harvested: there, the forest is actually getting larger!

Besides that, every single gram of the wood is used: timber that is unsuitable for high-end products like furniture are used to produce the Tencel fibers, instead of being left as natural waste.

Production Plant Proximity

More than half of the sourced wood is procured from Lenzings’ own Eucalyptus plant in Austria, while another significant part is sourced in Europe as well. Of course, this forest-factory proximity has a significant effect on transport: as the different production steps are close to each other, the heavy timber does not need to be transported that much, reducing impact on the environment.

Certification

More than 99% of the wood used for Tencel is assessed with third-party FSC or PEFC certification, which is the most strict way of certifying timber harvesting and forest management. The rest of the forests are assessed once a year by Lenzing with the same strict criteria. The timber suppliers thus do not only comply with a very high environmental standard, social & ethical business management is also taken into account.

Water Use

Once the timber is harvested, it can be converted into soft tencel fibers. This process takes place in Lenzing’s production factories. Their innovative, award-winning process requires three times less water than the production of comparable fibers, like viscose. The water that is used for production is reused as much as possible. Lenzing stated that, as their Tencel Lyocell production increased, their water use decreased significantly.

Closing The Chemical Loop

Besides water, Lenzing also uses the organic solvent called NMMO to turn the wood into fiber. This solvent is not harmful to the environment. Still, in the production process more than 99 % of this solvent is recovered and used again. Thus , the production of Tencel Lyocell is an almost closed loop process! And even better, almost 90% of the solvents is procured regionally, which means the suppliers are well known and regularly assessed.

Award Winning Process

In 2002, the company won the European Technology Award for Sustainable Development. Since then, both the Tencel Lyocell fabric as Lenzing itself have won even more sustainability awards, have the highest status in multiple independent assessments, and are viewed as true sustainability frontrunners. Read all about it here.

Production process GOTS Certified Organic Cotton

Organic Cotton From Turkey

Wij gebruiken GOTS-gecertificeerd, biologisch katoen voor onze gehele eerste wintercollectie. Deze stoffen zijn gemaakt van de beste Turkse katoenvezels. Turkije staat bekend om haar katoenproductie, en is met name geroemd voor de hoge kwaliteit. Dit is te merken als je de stof vast hebt: de heerlijk zachte en soepele vezel is niet te vergelijken met normaal katoen! Het fijne aan deze stof is dat het nooit Europa verlaten heeft tijdens het productieproces, en het dus echt lokaal geproduceerd is, van vezel tot eindproduct.

Full GOTS Certification

Alle katoen is volledig GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) gecertificeerd: van allereerste vezel, tot de uiteindelijke stof. Een GOTS certificatie houdt in dat er door een derde partij (dus niet de producent of de klant, maar een onafhankelijke organisatie) uitgebreid controleert op hoge standaarden wat betreft biologische én ethische productie. Dit zorgt ervoor dat GOTS gecertificeerde stoffen per definitie veel duurzamer en eerlijker geproduceerd zijn dan conventionele stoffen. Het biologisch maken van de katoenproductie zelf heeft al een enorme positieve impact, vanwege veel minder watergebruik, het verbod op chemicaliën en de daarom verbeterde werkomstandigheden, en het verbod op het gebruik van GMO’s (zie onder). Echter zorgt deze certificatie voor nog veel meer! Wat vaak wordt vergeten is dat bijvoorbeeld ook het verfproces vaak een enorme impact kan hebben. Aangezien ook deze stap streng wordt gecontroleerd door GOTS, worden ook hier veel stappen gezet, van minder watergebruik tot het verbod op schadelijke chemicaliën. Zo wordt dus in élke stap van het productieproces de hoogste standaard nageleefd, en kan de duurzaamheid van deze stof worden gegarandeerd!

Water Use

GOTS gecertificeerde katoenproductie heeft gemiddeld 71% minder water nodig dan conventionele productie. Het overgrote deel van het gebruikte water is regenwater, wat voor een natuurlijke irrigatie zorgt.

Workers Conditions

Omdat er geen pesticiden worden gebruikt in de biologische katoenteelt zijn de werkomstandigheden ook vele malen beter. Waar katoenboeren (én hun omgeving) normaal gesproken veel in aanraking komen met schadelijke pesticiden, worden er in dit geval enkel biologische en natuurlijke bestrijdingsmiddelen gebruikt. Dit is veel gezonder voor de mensen in deze industrie, en hun directe omgeving!

No GMO Use

In de GOTS katoenteelt worden geen genetisch gemodificeerde zaden (GMOs) gebruikt.

Ethical Production

Made In Holland

Our whole collection is made in Holland. This way we make sure all of our items are ethically produced and have great quality. Our supplier has over 30 years of experience making clothes, and therefore have lots of know-how concerning fabric, design, sizing, and much more. Thus, we can guarantee our fashion is not only very sustainable, but also ethical, of high quality, and made with a beautiful and smart design!

Stock & Shipping

As the bigger part of our (short) production chain is situated in the Netherlands, we can easily adjust our stock,. We always start with small amounts in a new collection, and order more when demand is high. This way we prevent overproduction and can rapidly adjust to our clients’ wishes. For orders in Holland we guarantee same day shipment when ordered before 16:00, which often means it is delivered only one or two days after. Everything is shipped with tracking by PostNL.

A Fair Price

We order all of our fabric and fashion pieces for a fair price, enabling living wages for all workers in the production process. The pieces are also sold for a fair price to you, as they are calculated with a margin as small as possible. We calculate the price by summing up production cost, shipping cost, stock management, marketing & administration cost.

Fashion: End Of Life

The fabric we use for every single item is 100% biodegradable. Yet, this does not mean at all the clothing reaches its end of life soon; on the contrary! Tencel is a stronger, more durable fabric than for example cotton, and therefore can last very long. Still, when your item cannot be used anymore, it is easy to take care of the garment: the fabric is compostable, and Lenzing is working on recycling the fabric.You can always send our items back to us when they have reached their end. We think that, as we produced the item, we are responsible for its end of life as well. Therefore, we will try to give it a second life, either by giving it away, re-using the fabric for other purposes, or finding a harmless recycling method.