Sustainability & Ethics

Sourcing and suppliers

Our journey starts with our choice of fabric...

After uncovering operations producing Rpet fabric from virgin plastic (i.e making plastic bottles‚ then recycling them before they had ever had a use!)‚ we had to satisfy ourselves that we had a fully traceable recycled raw material. We found and now purchase our Rpet yarn from Unifi Inc, a company very publicly leading the way globally in the production of a traceable and certified authentic Rpet. The fibre that we use is called Repreve. This is independently certified (by SSC) as being 100% recycled. Furthermore, the unique U Trust™ Verification system ensures that Repreve fibers are made certifiably sustainable. Each and every fiber has a proprietary signature called Fiberprint™. This ensures that we can always verify that Repreve is in our products and in the right amounts. 

It is important to us to have a totally transparent supply chain, ensuring suppliers environmental and socioeconomic beliefs are in keeping with our own. Therefore, we decided to build a relationship with a vertically integrated textile company whose values were aligned with ours. This means that the Repreve fibre is woven by them, finished and printed by them and our own designed products are all handmade in their facilities in Nanjing. We have personally visited all of their facilities, including the plant where the Repreve fibre is made. Alongside this, the facilities have been audited by an independent company 

We have a checklist in place for our suppliers, which lists our policies with respect to environmental and labour standards.  Any supplier will need to agree to work within these boundaries.

We have a commitment to follow best practice within the industry wherever possible. The textile industry is one of the longest and most complicated industrial chains in the manufacturing industry. It is a fragmented and heterogeneous sector and so Best Practice is not always clear, however there are guideline documents drawn up within Europe.

We contribute to and learn from organisations such as The RITE Group. This is an industry association dedicated to Reducing the Impact of Textiles on the Environment. They provide a forum for different sectors of the textile industry to share views and best practice and facilitate discussions between industry, retail, academia, media, scientists, designers and government.

We wish to promote the use of eco-friendly textiles. Wherever practicable we will purchase goods and services that have been certified by a recognised ethical organisation.

Environment

We are commited to being resposible and respecting the environment and as such have the following things to say:

It is our founding principle to create beautiful products with minimal environmental impact‚ produced with an ethical and progressive approach towards people. We drive a fully electric car (Nissan Leaf) and our office (and home) electricity is on a fully green tariff. We use minimal product packaging‚ we ship our bulk orders rather than air freight and have chosen to work with like minded companies. We are conscientious about the smaller things; insulation‚ low-energy lighting‚ recycling‚ skype rather than travel‚ no stand-bys...

By choosing a vertical supply chain, as well as allowing full transparency‚ it also limits inter supply-chain transportation.

Rpet (waste plastic) has a 50% lower carbon footprint than organic cotton and uses 70% less energy than virgin polyester production. 1Kg of Rpet keeps 60 bottles out of landfill.

We have designed our packaging to be minimal, and indeed our packaging is designed to be used as part of the product itself, staying with the product during it's lifecycle.

Furthermore, all waste fabric (pre consumer waste) is re-used, either to make some of our accessory products, which have been designed to be able to utilise some of the offcuts, or is collected by our manufacturer and sent off to be utilised for other products such as stuffing for car seats.

Labour standards

We expect that working conditions and working practices should be equal to the standards that we expect here within our own working environments. At the least, this should mean:

• No child labour
• No physical or mental abuse
• Fair wages and benefits
• Fair working hours
• Labour contracts
• Compliant disciplinary procedures
• Compliance with Health and Safety policies
• Laws and Employment standards are followed

The Chinese government recognised a number of years ago that overhauling labour standards would lead to increased trade with Western markets.  New labour laws were introduced in 2008, and these are considered by many commentators to be more progressive than US laws, with greater protection for employees.

The team that we work with are periodically audited for compliance against the new Chinese labour laws, with audits carried out by an independent international agency (most recently, Intertek Testing Services based in California, USA). This production facility was found to be fully compliant with the facilities Code of Conduct and Applicable Labor Laws and no concerns were raised in any of the areas.

Workplace health & safety in the facility are up to standard and fully compliant with legal requirements.

At Wrag Wrap we deal directly with our manufacturer, there are no middle men. Many eco-friendly companies say that they practise fair trade, but when you research the products they sell, you will find that the products are made by other companies. The companies on the internet are only on-selling. When you further research the original companies you find that there is no mention of the environment, sustainability or anything green related. It is difficult for a company to say with any real confidence that they are practising fair trade with fair wages when they are receiving the information third hand.

We will visit our suppliers as often as is economically viable to monitor and provide updates in areas where new developments have been made.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions or suggestions please contact us, we strive for continuous improvement and total transparency, by sending us an e-mail to moreinfo@wragwrap.com