Taking responsibility for our children’s future
The planet is warming way too fast and we are concerned about our children’s future. We also recognize the contradiction between our industry, which is driven by fast consumption, and the concept of sustainability. So, instead of identifying as a sustainable brand, we want to show you how we aim at becoming the most responsible version of ourselves. Every day we work on making better choices to minimize our environmental impact. We can’t do everything at once, but we can promise to always strive for being better.
Responsible production
Our goal is that by 2026, every product in our assortment will be produced according to one or several of our 4 Production Principles. We make improvements every new season and got a lot of work ahead of us. Today in 2023, we are at 63%.
Principle 1: Recycled materials
We are passionate about materials. Both from a consumer perspective with a focus on high functionality, but also as a way of making our fast-paced industry more sustainable. Being conscious of the choices we make and working consistently to find more sustainable options is very important to us. For this reason, we turn to recycled materials.
Today, 43% of the polyester we use is recycled. We work toward reaching 80% in 2026 and after that, we will continue to phase-out non-recycled polyester entirely.
Principle 2: Plant-based materials
We are actively introducing the use of natural plant-based fibres in our products and the most recent examples are products launched in 2020. So far, we have mostly used bamboo and corn. The upside to using these types of fibres is that they are resilient yet biodegradable, compostable and renewable – partly replacing plastic that is a hazardous waste.
These isn’t yet a solution to make durable products in solely plant-based materials. Therefore, we must use a mix of bamboo and traditional plastic. While doing so, we always work on phasing plastic out and phasing plant-based in. Today, 15% of our products are made in traditional plastic, and 43% of these are made in plant-based composite material. Our ultimate goal is to replace all traditional plastic with plant-based or recycled alternatives.
Principle 3: Upcycling
Upcycling is our way of supporting our consumers to consume less by prolonging the lifetime of each product. The longer you use a product, the lower its environmental impact gets. You can find great tips on how to upcycle your products from Elodie here.
Our creative design team is committed to adding smart features and designs in order to give the products multiple areas of usage.
Principle 4: Made to last
Babies and toddlers are not exactly the most careful consumer groups out there. Things are often tested to the limit of their capacity. So, creating quality products is pretty much necessary if you want to be successful in this business. Apart from the security aspect, ensuring high durability is also extremely important for consuming products responsibly. By prolonging the lifetime and usage of each product, you’ll lower its environmental impact significantly.
Durable for 3 children
For this reason, we at Elodie are committed to high quality. Since we develop most of our products from scratch, we can control every aspect of it, rather than relying on readymade components. By 2026, our goal is that 75% of our products are durable enough to be used for a minimum of three children. The remaining 25% are products for hygienic articles for daily use.
Second Hand
At Elodie, we create products that last for many years and that may be used by more than one child. For us sustainability is primarily about responsible material choices and smart design, to reduce consumption and production of new goods. We want to encourage awareness and more recycling in the children's industry. There are many good alternatives online when you want to find a new home for your Elodie products. Get more information here.
Doing business with responsible partners
If you’re constantly shifting producers and manufacturing sites, there is almost no way to build the trust and transparency needed to be sure everything is being done as agreed. At Elodie, we value the relationships we have with our producers more than anything else.
We have a Code Of Conduct that each supplier must sign before 2025. This contract ensures that our suppliers treat their employees and workspaces by ethical means and follow standard regulations for safety and health.
We always look for partners that can trace it’s production as far as possible, and that uses one or more of the many international standards available. Read more about the standards, markings and certificates we look for and use here.
Transportation
At Elodie, a big part of our business is reliant on solid logistics and transportation. As an estimated 90% of our production is based in Asia we are aware that this comes with great responsibility for how we choose to transport our produced goods. Therefore, we have a very strict policy to transport to lower the emissions as much as possible:
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We have a tight continuous dialogue with both our suppliers and our forwarders to ensure that we always optimize and use up all the space in our shipping containers.
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We choose to work with well renowned nominated carriers to ensure we always get full traceability of our shipments and can have access to data regarding our emissions.
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We avoid airfreights as these carry with them the biggest emissions. Our limit for air freight is set to a maximum of 2% per year.
Member of STICA
Elodie is an active member of STICA, the Swedish Textile Initiative for Climate Action.
“The United Nations recently launched the Climate Action in Fashion Initiative, where signatories have agreed to reduce their GHG emissions by at least 30% by 2030. Here in Sweden, our government has set a goal to be climate neutral by 2050. To help achieve these goals, leading Swedish actors operating in the apparel and textiles industry are launching this new initiative. Its aim is to support apparel and textiles organizations as well as the entire Swedish apparel and textile industry to reduce our climate impacts while strengthening our global competitiveness. Ultimately, we want to ensure Sweden does more than its share by becoming the first climate positive apparel and textiles industry in the world well before 2050. We believe this is the only way to ensure we will solve the climate crisis.”