High-fashion designer Stella McCartney is focusing on sustainability in fashion, through using natural resources for their materials and processing methods for a smaller carbon footprint.

The fashion house is focusing on conserving materials to prevent waste, including using re-engineered or post-consumer cashmere, Re.Verso. Cashmere is one of the most expensive fabrics, due to the high environmental impact through processing the fabric.

With the Re.Verso process old cashmere scraps are organized by color and fiber, with testing to ensure quality and chemical safety. This type of cashmere is also Global Recycling Standard certified so the material is ensured recycling processing that can be traced and verified.

Their viscose or rayon materials come from trees, with McCartney ensuring ethical sources of material from forests in Sweden that uses sustainable means for management and sourcing. This prevents sourcing of materials from endangered or protected lands.

The cotton fabrics come from organic-certified farming methods that prevent over-using water and pesticides. Cotton crops are highly water-intensive and to process on pair of jeans requires over 20,000 liters of water through production. Farms that are organic-certified for cotton also provides ethical working conditions.

They also boast their collection is vegetarian, meaning they use no animal bi-products for their collection. They offer faux furs and leather materials. They also offer a vegetarian silk through ethical treatment of silk worms and letting the silkworms progress into moths naturally. The silk is collected once the silkworms transform into moths.

Stella McCartney is co-sponsoring PETA for the Biodesign Challenge, with the creation of animal-free wool. They currently use ethically sourced wool to ensure ethical treatment of animals and the environment.

This high-fashion designer is setting an example for the fashion industry that clothing can be made through ethical means and materials. Check out the video above to learn more about the sustainable collection.