Sustainability

Here at Keep It Simple, we're a Life is Good company - which means we've got positive energy built right into our roots. From the ground up, we've focused on opportunities to ensure that our products, processes, and people policies reflect our optimistic origins.

Here's a quick look at a few of the many sustainability-oriented touches we've been integrating behind the scenes.

What's In A Keep It Simple Tee?

We’ve worked hard to build a t-shirt manufacturing process that fully reflects our respect for the planet and its people. When you wear a Keep It Simple tee, you can rest assured that we kept these values in mind through the product's entire lifecycle, starting with sustainably-grown cotton and finishing with a hangtag crafted from post-consumer recycled material.

Did you know that 10 million tons of discarded clothing fills our landfills every year? Our aim is to cut through the buy-use-throw cycle and get your customers a product they'll keep for good.

Leaving Things Better Than We Found Them

We've only got one world. At Keep It Simple, we've focused our efforts on reducing waste through every step of our manufacturing and shipping process, including:

  • Perfecting a Print on Demand process, which vastly reduces excess blank t-shirt inventory and wasteful over-printing of garments
  • Shifting our focus from plastisol ink to more environmentally-friendly water-based alternatives
  • Constructing our product hangtags out of 100% post-consumer recycled material
  • Shipping items without individually wrapping them in single-use plastic
  • Shipping packages using compostable mailing materials made from recycled poly and an eco-friendly additive that breaks down the plastic
  • Ensuring our packages are always resealable for reuse/returns/exchanges
  • Emphasizing the importance of sustainability with our manufacturing partners, including scrap recycling, alternative power sources, recycled/retreated water usage, and other waste reduction practices

A Tour of 'The Factory,' Our New Hampshire Printing & Fulfillment Facility

In 2024, we officially opened our state-of-the-art printing, logistics, and fulfillment facility in Hudson, New Hampshire: The Factory.

Building a fully-integrated operation from the ground up meant we could design every stage of production for optimal efficiency, quality, and sustainability. Along the way, we implemented key enhancements that align with our commitment to responsible production. A few of those sustainability-driven initiatives include:

  • High-Efficiency LED lighting
  • Low-flow faucets and low-flush fixtures
  • Efficient "On-Demand" water heating system
  • Destratification fans
  • Energy-efficient HVAC systems
  • Low E-Glass windows
  • A recycling program for product packaging

Our Printing Process

We're Keep It Simple. Printing tees is our bread & butter. That's why we only work with the best of the best when it comes to printing technology. Our remarkably efficient print-on-demand system utilizes the Kornit Atlas MAX printer, an industry leader in sustainability and environmental impact reduction.

male and female in keep in simple shirts

Compared to industry benchmarks, third-party measurements found that one print run by the Kornit Atlas MAX results in:

  • a 71.3% reduction in greenhouse gasses (equivalent to 4.5 miles driven by an average car)
  • a 96.4% reduction in water usage (equivalent to 21 days of drinking water for an average person)

Even the inks we print with are eco-friendly. Kornit's NeoPigment™ water-based inks are free of harmful chemicals, meeting the strictest industry standards.