Our Values

Our Journey to Build a Sustainable Fashion

Sustainable fashion goals at RIMMBA in Bali, are deeply rooted in Regenerative Economy Principles.

Our commitments — social, environmental and economic — aim to have a positive impact. We support community well-being, use resources thoughtfully, and protect the planet's health, so future generations inherit a healthier world. Ultimately, this is how we approach sustainable fashion in Bali: we make choices that create value at every step of our business.

RIMMBA's Values:

Sustainable Fashion in Bali

RIMMBA's Brand Code of Ethics

Shared Economic Prosperity

Lifecycle & Zero-Waste

A Non Toxic Environment

Water Re-Use

Traceable Supply Chain

Carbon Footprint

Our Packaging and Tags

Educating to Inspire

Policy on Animals

1. RIMMBA's Brand Code of Ethics for our Workers and Partners

• We are committed to creating a healthy and supportive work environment.

• We provide safe working conditions, living wages, and fair compensation to all employees and partners.

• We believe happy, healthy team members are essential to producing thoughtful, high quality garments. At our atelier, we provide nourishing meals and a respectful environment rooted in creativity and care.

• We are dedicated to offering opportunities for personal and professional growth across our supply chain.

• To ensure accountability, we work with a Bali-based sustainability partner to audit social and workplace conditions at our atelier and at our production partners’ facilities. As a result, our Code of Ethics is kept in practice at every step.

2. Shared Economic Prosperity and Honouring Artisan Heritage

To ensure responsible, long lasting clothes, RIMMBA partners with a diverse network of local artisans — dyers, weavers, tailors — each contributing generations of knowledge. Community building is at the heart of our work, therefore we support shared purpose and pride in craft.

We partner with skilled Balinese artisans who represent long traditions and techniques. By valuing this expertise, we celebrate and help preserve Bali’s rich artisan heritage.

Beyond our atelier in central Ubud, RIMMBA actively engages with remote villages such as Tejakula (North Bali) and Desa Tenganan (East Bali). These collaborations with village initiatives, cooperatives and small local realities help communities and bring distinct cultural richness into our designs.

• RIMMBA partners with a local non profit to revive the cotton textile industry — from regenerative agriculture to weaving, indigo dyeing, and batik. This supports 100% Balinese-made products and helps revive traditional techniques.
• As an active member of Jiwa Garden, RIMMBA supports education and sustainable practices that inspire others to adopt more responsible approaches.

3. Lifecycle & Zero-Waste Practice

RIMMBA offers an alternative to fast fashion. We design garments to be timeless and cherished for many years. Therefore, we choose durable, sustainable, and biodegradable fabrics and use careful construction so pieces endure both wear and time.

Textile waste is a global crisis — an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste are created each year, and only about 12% is recycled. This waste pollutes ecosystems and communities. At RIMMBA, we reduce waste through mindful design and creative reuse.

Pre-loved or surplus clothing should never end up in landfill. Our pieces are crafted from renewable fabrics and built to last. We repair, re-dye, and repurpose items so they remain loved and useful.

How do we do this? RIMMBA repairs dresses, accepts pieces for redyeing, and repurposes cut-offs. We also combine fabric scraps (linen, cotton, silk) to create new textiles and then over-dye them — for example, indigo over dyeing raw scrap panels creates new material that becomes the base for accessories and smaller clothings.

Our metrics: RIMMBA eliminates nearly 100% of fabric waste by using about 98% of textiles through careful pattern planning and creative reuse. We also create smaller garments and accessories — halter tops, crop tops, and silk scrunchies — from offcuts, thereby maximizing resource use.

4. RIMMBA’s Commitment to a Non-Toxic Environment

We use botanical dyes and 100% natural fabrics as a cornerstone of our non-toxic approach. RIMMBA sources local botanics and collaborates with dye houses in remote communities — for example, a dye house in North Bali and a recent community project in East Bali.

We use certified organic cotton, traceable linen and mulberry silk. Our dyes, bio-mordants and salt mordants are all chosen to be natural and non-toxic; even our threads are selected for biodegradability so finished garments can return safely to the earth.

• Chemical textile dyeing and finishing release hazardous pollutants into waterways, devastating ecosystems and affecting human health. Textile dyeing contributes significantly to industrial water pollution globally.
• Indonesia faces challenges with industrial wastewater regulation. For example, the Citarum River’s pollution highlights the urgent need for cleaner textile practices that protect local communities and water resources.

By sourcing botanicals locally, we reduce reliance on synthetic dyes that harm waterways. Moreover, we use bio-mordants and refined techniques to improve dye fixation, reduce water use, and extend the life of color in our garments.

5. RIMMBA Water Re-Use

Bali experiences water scarcity in many areas, so treating water as precious is a priority for us. Our small-scale, made-to-order model allows us to dye in small batches, on an as-needed basis.

Because we do not use toxic chemicals, we can reuse wastewater safely in our gardens. Also, we consult water management experts as we design regenerative systems. As we scale, we plan to build a constructed wetland / wastewater garden, in order to treat and reuse process water responsibly.

6. RIMMBA’s Journey Toward a Traceable Supply Chain

RIMMBA garments are made from cotton, silk and linen — all natural fibers. We do not use petrochemical synthetics or semi-synthetic blends. Our supply chain currently follows these stages:

• Farm (field)
• Textile mill
• Supplier (international or Indonesian)
• RIMMBA atelier for inventory, planning, and botanical dyeing
• Partner dye house (where appropriate)
• RIMMBA atelier for cutting, sewing, waste management, quality control, packing and shipping

We are actively seeking certified regenerative textiles directly from producers. Our current fibers include:

100% organic cotton

Sourced from certified suppliers in the USA to ensure organic growing practices and fair labor.

100% linen

Sourced directly from mills in Portugal.

100% mulberry silk

We source genuine mulberry silk satin and chiffon; while certified regenerative silk is not widely available yet, we are pursuing partnerships (for example with Bombyx) to transition toward regeneratively produced silk.

We believe regenerative agriculture is the future of sustainable fashion, and we are committed to playing an active role in advancing standards and sourcing.

Several leading brands are exploring regenerative textiles; as certified regenerative materials become available, we will prioritize these sources so our garments both delight and contribute to ecological health.

• We support organizations such as the Savory Institute and the Regenerative Organic Alliance, who develop robust regenerative certification standards for textiles.

7. Carbon Footprint

As a small-scale maker, our current energy footprint is modest. We have established an energy baseline for atelier electricity and water pumping, and we track it over time. This way we ensure that RIMMBA complies to sustainable fashion practices in Bali.

• We avoid energy-intensive processes where possible: hand-washing and line-drying reduce energy use.
• Our largest emissions come from transporting fabrics from international mills and shipping finished garments abroad.
• To reduce footprint as we scale, we plan to partner with local distributors and make fewer, larger shipments rather than many small ones.

Additionally, we continue to support Jiwa Garden and other partners who promote regenerative agriculture and sustainable community practice.

8. Our Packaging and Tags

We choose organic cotton bags, recycled paper tags, low-impact dyes and natural plant twine to minimize packaging waste and ensure recyclability and biodegradability.

9. Educating to Inspire Change

• We believe shifting consumer mindsets to a more sustainable fashion begins with education and inspiration.
• RIMMBA openly shares our sustainability journey, botanical dye experiments and production processes across social channels. Please visit our Instagram to join the conversation — we welcome questions and direct messages.
• We offer hands-on workshops upon request; these are arranged privately and detailed on our workshops page.