Rifò turned 8 years old last November.
8 years of growth… But growth for what?
For 8 years, we have been trying to propose an ethical model of clothing production and consumption. For 8 years, we have been bringing people with us into the complex decisions around quality, sustainability, and pricing that come into play when choosing to produce clothes ethically, using materials that respect the planet. For 8 years, we have increasingly asked ourselves how it is possible to remain sustainable while also growing economically. And perhaps the real question is first of all: growth for what purpose?
For us, growth does not mean increasing dividends. The goal is not to get rich or engage in financial speculation. Our objectives are simply to stay on the market by offering a real sustainable alternative in fashion; to create a healthy work environment that takes into account a real living wage; and to try to raise awareness and spark change for the future.
Well, we have been questioning ourselves for 8 years. We don’t have definitive answers, but we do have reflections born from experience. So, to close out the year (and also to start the new one), we’d like to share them with the most curious readers who felt like clicking this link. Even during the holidays.
Why is it difficult to maintain a balance between environmental and economic sustainability?
If taken rigorously, “true” sustainability would have a brutal answer: to eliminate impact entirely, we would have to stop producing and stop consuming. Every new garment, even the most “virtuous” one, still requires energy, transportation, processing, and generates emissions and waste throughout the supply chain. The point is that this scenario is not compatible today with people’s needs or with economic and social stability: jobs, incomes, supply chains, skills, and territories.
That’s why, when we talk about balance between environmental and economic sustainability, we are accepting a fact: we are not aiming for absolute zero, but for a real and continuous reduction of impact, by cutting waste and overproduction, increasing durability and quality, encouraging repair, and shifting value from “more volume” to “more use.” It is a path of coherence: producing less, producing better, and above all consuming much less, but in a more conscious way.
In short: economic growth is necessary to exist, but what about the growth of our positive impact on the environment and society? Why is it almost never considered enough to measure the health of a company or even the economic performance of an entire region? Perhaps we should start focusing on this to generate real change.
How much can a sustainable brand grow?
Taking the idea of “balance” seriously, the growth and profitability of a sustainable brand should also have a physiological ceiling. Beyond a certain threshold, the logic changes: it’s no longer about covering real costs, paying the supply chain fairly, or ensuring stability and economic growth for employees, but about extracting value simply because the market allows it. This is the difference between an extractive logic and a regenerative logic.
For this reason, one of our main goals for 2026 is to provide customers with real, traceable information about the composition of our prices.
For every garment in our catalog, we want to answer the questions: How much of this price comes from production? How much from materials? What is Rifò’s margin? This is an important and demanding project in terms of traceability and data reliability, involving the entire Rifò team.
Is being sustainable a saving or an extra cost?
Being sustainable, for a brand, is generally an additional cost, but sometimes it can also be a saving, depending on the perspective.
On one hand, making coherent choices in suppliers, materials, and production means facing higher costs: artisans who work ethically and carefully manage their impact; traceable and certified materials; and even everyday purchases essential for any company’s operations and communication that avoid mass distribution. This is also why prices may be perceived as higher: they reflect real supply chain costs and coherence, not just a positioning choice.
On the other hand, sustainability also becomes a lever for efficiency when it translates into less waste: reducing overproduction and unsold stock, limiting forced discounts, and avoiding capital tied up in warehouses. Tools like pre-ordering and better sales forecasting help precisely with this: producing closer to real demand, with less stock and fewer after-the-fact corrections.
So how do we balance these two aspects? Unfortunately, the costs of production that remain coherent with sustainability values impact costs (and therefore sales and revenue) far more than the savings we can achieve by reducing waste and optimizing resources. A common myth we often have to counter is: “If it’s recycled, why does it cost so much?” The answer is simple: because recycling, like any production step, has both an environmental impact and an economic cost.
Maintaining balance to remain economically sustainable is not easy, but it is our mission. The only way to do it is to raise awareness, encouraging people to choose our alternative despite low-cost competition that does not care about the planet.
Our vision for 2026: less of a brand, more of a circular economy service
If the starting point of this article is that perfect sustainability would mean producing and consuming less (or nothing at all), then the direction for 2026 is natural: we don’t just want to “sell clothes,” but to reduce overall resource waste by offering smarter alternatives to continuous consumption.
In this vision, Rifò increasingly becomes a circular economy service: a system that helps people buy less and better through pre-ordering, use garments longer thanks to repair services, put items back into circulation through collection and resale, and keep impact and economic sustainability together without turning sustainability into an excuse for speculation. Because balance, for us, is not infinite growth: it is creating real value.