On June 1st, Iberia released its new uniforms designed by Teresa Helbig, which are already worn by its cabin crew and Madrid airport employees.
In parallel to this premiere, the company launched a project together with Envera, the non-profit Association of Iberia Employees and Parents of People with Disabilities, to give a second life to the garments of the previous model.
The project has a double environmental and social aspect: on the one hand, it is based on the circular economy that optimizes the use of materials and products, applying the rules of reduce, reuse and recycle; and, on the other hand, it will serve to employ people with disabilities from Envera. On average, each worker had 14 items of clothing and accessories, which represents more than 50 tons of textile products.
The first two tons of these garments have already been collected and classified so that they can be donated or transformed into other materials.
80% of the garments from Iberia’s previous uniform will have a second life through charitable donations that contribute to improving the lives of vulnerable people and refugees. Specifically, they will go to social projects in Spain run by the Red Cross, Cáritas Diocesana, CEAR, Mensajeros de la Paz, Fundación Hospital San José, Mundo Justo and Fundación Atenea; and international development cooperation programs run by AUDE, Equipo Vicente del Bosque de Senegal, Hombre Nuevo Tierra Nueva, Voluntarios por África, Humana Fundación Pueblo para Pueblo and the Iberia employees’ NGO Mano a mano.
The other 20% that cannot be reused will be transformed through recycling processes into other materials, and those that are discarded will be used for energy recovery as fuel.
Along these lines, Iberia’s airport business, Iberia Airport Services, is also carrying out a sustainable initiative to recycle its red polo shirts, which, being made entirely from cotton, can be fully recycled. The yarn will be processed in local workshops and labor integration workshops where they will create new polo shirts for Iberia’s own Airport staff.
