Each year, 400 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced, with under 10% being recycled.
The rest often ends up in the oceans, where it breaks down into microplastics that contaminate marine life, disrupt delicate ecosystems, and even find their way into our food and water.
Our brands all have unique needs when it comes to packaging for their products, so we’re incorporating a tailored solution for each brand to help reduce our reliance on plastics.
The one where we learned about unintended consequences
Rachel has been tackling plastic packaging for years. A few years back, they opted for compostable packaging to make it easy for customers to compost at home.
While it answered our needs for a lower impact material, it biodegraded faster than expected—we want it to biodegrade quickly, but not before they make it to our customers.
This unexpected twist taught us that finding the perfect balance requires ongoing adjustments and learning. We’ve since replaced our packaging with biogenic polymer.
This plant based polymer bag is made with the waste product from the agri-food supply chain, this contributes to a circular economy in addition to absorbing more CO2 during its production process than it emits.
Reducing our reliance on plastic is is a process that’s evolving over time.
As demand for alternative packaging grows, we’re seeing a flood of innovative products that can help us reach our goals.
But finding the perfect fit means experimenting, learning, and adapting along the way.
Globally, over two billion tonnes of municipal solid waste are produced each year.
If packed we packed it in standard shipping containers and lined it up, this waste would circle the Earth’s equator 25 times, or travel to the moon and back.
Managing this waste releases CO2, greenhouse gases, and methane from decomposing organic matter, all of which contribute to climate change.
To mitigate these effects, we need innovative solutions and changes in how we handle waste.
Our brands use a variety of materials in production, which naturally creates some waste. But we don’t see it as waste, we see it as potential. We're teaming up with our brands and suppliers to turn each other's byproducts into new, innovative products.
The one where we learned we’re stronger together
Our brands Ergonofis and Kana have partnered to resolve their production waste.
When making their desks, Ergonofis has some excess wood that is created during production. However, they’re closing the loop by using this wood as feedstock for Kana’s new cutting boards.
By working together we are able to come with innovative solutions we may not have been able to solve alone.
Rose Boreal started tackling its production waste from the beginning. They led the way in our approach and recaptured their production waste for their own packaging as well as creating their second chances line of accessories.
Now, Rose Boreal’s packaging is made from textile cuts created during the production of their activewear, which not only reduces their waste, but also their reliance on plastic packaging.
Tackling production waste means closing the loop and creating a circular economy.
By integrating waste back into our production cycles, we aim to minimize our environmental footprint.
This means working closely with our suppliers and partners to find the best solutions; experimenting, learning, and adapting along the way.
The climate is throwing a record-breaking party, and it’s not the kind we want to attend.
Extreme weather is now our new normal, and the IPCC warns it’s only the beginning. Last year, CO2 and greenhouse gases hit new highs, making it clear that things are getting serious.
We as a planet need to collectively step up our game and lower our emissions.
We're actively working on reducing our carbon emissions through abatement measures. However, these initiatives take time to implement due to their complexity.
In the meantime, we’re offsetting our carbon to help reduce our footprint while we work on implementing longer-term carbon reduction initiatives.
Everything we do emits carbon, otherwise known as greenhouse-gas emissions. Carbon emissions are broken down into three categories, referred to as Scopes.
Reducing emissions in all three scopes is essential to minimize our environmental impact and protect the planet for future generations. It's a big task, but every reduction makes a difference.
It all starts with conducting a Carbon inventory each year, to get an idea of how much carbon we emitted. We then need to offset that same amount.
We wanted to ensure that we were investing in projects that would actually make a lasting impact. We also wanted to ensure that we were offsetting carbon where we were actually emitting.
That’s why we’ve decided to partner with VCS and Solutions Will.
By using a location-based offset strategy, we invest in projects that are located in the communities where we are emitting.
This means we invest in offset projects in Canada, the United States, and China ensuring our efforts have a tangible impact on reducing carbon emissions in the areas we are emitting.
This strategy aligns with our wish to be responsible for every ton of carbon we are emitting. The communities we are impacting should also be the ones we support through offsets, until we can stop emitting carbon altogether.
SolutionsWill
To tackle our local emissions, we’ve teamed up with SolutionsWill. Their work centres on waste removal and green energy transition, helping to improve local communities throughout North America.
VCS
For our international emissions, we’ve selected VCS-certified offsets from the Chinese Wind Farm Project in Hebei.
VCS is renowned for its strict standards and support for advanced technology. Given that part of our supply chain is in China, this local partnership helps us effectively address our carbon footprint.
