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As you probably know, Mini Rodini tries to make products with as little impact on the people and planet as possible. They have summed up their work during 2016 in a yearly sustainability report and we are very proud to share the results with you.Highlights during 2016 was that 99 % of all products were what we called “better” (made of a minimum of 80% sustainable materials) and 100 % of all products that could be made organic, was organic. Additionally, 100 % of the plastic bags was degradable, degrading within approximately 5 years instead of approximately 100 years.
We all still have a long way to go but Mini Rodini sure tries as hard as they can to deepen the sustainability work even further.
THANK YOU, Mini Rodini !
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
by MINI RODINI
CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, is about the obligation of doing the very best we can for a business as ethical and representative as possible, including both environmental and social responsibility. It is implemented among our core values and policies from the very beginning and will always be Mini Rodini’s main focus.
Here you can learn more about our ongoing work with environmental, and social responsibility.
WHAT WE DO AND WHY
Mini Rodini carries one of the most sustainable ranges on the market with a product range that now consists over 99% sustainable materials yearly. With “sustainable materials” we mean materials that are non-conventional and has lower impact on both nature and human health, from raw material developments to production processes, final product and user phase. We are however consciously aware that every material, conventional or sustainable, has their own advantages and disadvantages in different perspectives.
Producing materials and products will always have an impact – the challenge is to minimize it as much as possible. This working way comes from consistent – and hard – work that starts in the very first stage of the production process; the design phase. It affects decisions in choosing the right supplier, building the product quality and technical construction and sourcing its materials. Mini Rodini always adjusts and improves the design of the products to make them last as long as possible, both aesthetically and quality-wise, leaving as little waste as possible. We have strong values and goals of doing the very best we can for the environment, animals and everyone that makes, handles or uses our products.
There are very many labels and ways to mark a product “sustainable” or “organic”. While others mark a product “sustainable” or “organic” even though it only consists of 5% organic or sustainable materials, we mark our products only when an average of minimum 80% of the composition is sustainable. We are involved in the whole process – from raw material to finished product – and we are always looking into new fibers and sustainable materials and innovations to make it even easier to produce sustainable and fair products.
HOW WE DO IT
Here’s what we’re doing to ensure that Mini Rodini’s products are produced eco-friendly under safe, fair and humane working conditions throughout the supply chain.
99% PRODUCTS IN SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS!
We are proud to say that, quite uniquely, our collections include over 99% products made in sustainable and eco-friendly materials yearly! Compared to larger competitors and other similar brands on the market that use around 25%, or less. Here you can read more about which materials we think are good enough to use.
LABELLING CONCEPT
We have developed an on-product labelling concept describing how and why the product is sustainably and fairly made. Found on each garment’s hangtag and in the product description in our webshop. To learn about this more in depth, one is always welcome to contact csr@minirodini.se
CHEMICAL MANAGEMENT
Chemicals are needed in all products we make. They are undoubtedly needed for several purposes in all kinds of textile products and accessories: everything from raw material production to dyeing, printing and final looks and functions. The challenge is to avoid the harmful and toxic ones, whom are unfortunately still normally used and spread out widely in the global textile industry since way back, and still exist in nature and living creatures including our bodies.
We actively work to limit the use of harmful chemicals in all of our products, for the sake of the environment, employees and suppliers in the value chain as well as for our consumers' health and safety. Click to read more about how we meet the chemical challenge in a proactive way.
MINIMAL WASTE
Textile production is in very many cases manual and dependent on human resources. Therefore there will always be waste materials including waste labour, waste energy, waste chemicals and wastewater every season. To take as much care as we can for these, we try to always optimise every batch of production. For every collection, many fabrics are repeats, prints are not matched with garment pattern pieces, bindings or cuffs and smaller pieces of garments are not made in contrast materials/colours too much. More importantly, we always use environmental standards that ask the suppliers to have policies for example for recycling water treatment plants and sustainable chemical sludge management.
Additionally, we also work with upcycling every season. This means we create new products out of waste materials from previous collections in new design and new value to save on natural resources, labour, water, chemicals and energy otherwise used in new productions.
PACKAGING
All details matter to us. For us, the choice of materials does not only apply to the main fabrics, but also all the trims, labelling and packing of a product. It is a big challenge as the textile supply chain is long and widely spread over many facilities, often for each process. A careful and persistent work is needed to make sure each step of the process is sustainable and fair upstream, but we always look for the best possible. Today, the very most of all these detail materials on our products are organic, recycled, from sustainable forestry or biodegradable.
Furthermore, the cartons from suppliers to our warehouse are also reused for our outgoing shipments to our stores and retailers.
TRANSPORTS
Our policy is to only use sea and truck transport for bulk production depending on its origin. Only on rare occasions we use sea/air or air transport to secure quality or to keep critical costumer deliveries instead of making partial shipments from our warehouse. Packing methods are optimized to fill every load and we ship goods from different suppliers together whenever possible.
For local courier freights between our warehouse, stores and head office, we use bicycle transportation in all cases possible.
CERTIFICATIONS & STANDARDS
To assure that our materials and processes are as sustainable and fair as we and our suppliers claim, we work with various different certifications, and standards covering materials, production processes and the employees in the factories we work with. We mainly work with GOTS, Fairtrade, Oeko-Tex, OCS, Bionic Finish Eco, GRS, FSC, SA-8000.
FAIR LABOUR
The textile supply chain is long and complex, with human resources needed at in generally each phase and facility, in particular the sewing phase. We don’t own any factories but partner with carefully chosen ones and share them together with several other brands. We source and elect the factories we work with consciously with sustainability and fair labour as key criteria and priority, and therefore work with facilities already certified with the well-known third party standards, for example Fairtrade and SA-8000.
Building long-term and strongly trusted business relationships with our suppliers, profitable for both parties, is within our top priorities. Part of this is to build compliance within our Code of Conduct to share our mutual responsibility of fair labour and safe working environment in the factories. To do this, we arrange third party audits that are relevant to all our suppliers equally. The audits will always be made by an independent third party. They are both made by annual routine and regulations from the certifications our factories have, and, arranged by our own initiative and audit partner. Our audits are always announced, openly discussed and followed up together with the supplier and third party auditor to gain best possible improvement plan together onward.
FAIR WEAR FOUNDATION
Mini Rodini is a member of Fair Wear Foundation since January 2016. Fair Wear Foundation is an independent organization led by trade unions, business associations and NGOs, aiming to improve the working conditions within the global textile industry. As members of Fair Wear Foundation, we share and implement mutual ethical requirements of the Code of Labour Practice in the supply chain. Fair Wear Foundation independently checks the conformity of this by social monitoring audits and verifies how we remediate and improve the labour conditions together with our supplying partners. Annual reporting of these efforts are made transparently by us as well as Fair Wear Foundation.
UPCYCLING
In textile production there will always be waste materials, energy, water and chemicals. Upcycling is a working way we follow for a relatively large amount of our waste. It means the waste materials are used to create new products with new value and purpose. This makes us take responsibility of the resources we have already used and minimize our waste to landfill. All our upcycled products are marked with our ”upcycle” hangtag.
ANIMAL WELFARE
Mini Rodini loves animals and because of both animal welfare reasons and also harmful chemical risk, we avoid the following materials until they are to us eventually proven to do better: Leather, exotic skins, suede, fur, down, feathers, angora wool, and conventional silk. Instead, we use these alternative as well as sustainable and fair materials.
WHAT YOU BUY MATTERS!
The textile industry is very complex, embracing chemical, water and energy use, with great impact on the environment and the people working with the products. We see it as our obligation to take responsibility to minimise this impact, preserve and protect it as much as we possibly can. We work actively to reduce each product’s environmental impact and make them worthy of existence. We believe that working sustainably, and with high quality and great design, fosters durability. Firstly, by choosing the most sustainable materials, methods and logistics. But also in creating a worthwhile value and strength that expands the lifetime of the products. And by choosing sustainably, fairly and ethically produced products over conventional, you do too.
Also, when looking at the total lifetime of a product, it is proved that the user phase has a very large influence on the environment, so how you take care of the product is very important. To best care for your garments in a sustainable way and to make them last even longer, please see our garment care.
WORKING WITH CHEMICALS
Chemicals are needed and used in each and every kind of product we make. They are undoubtedly needed for several purposes in all kinds of textile products and accessories: everything from raw material production to dyeing, printing and final looks and functions. The challenge is to avoid the harmful and toxic ones, whom are unfortunately still normally used and spread out widely in the global textile industry since way back, and still exist in nature and living creatures including our bodies. We are aware of how chemicals are used in the growing as well as the production process, and acknowledge the burden these place on both the environment and people involved in the process. We actively work to minimise the usage and waste of chemicals and limit the use of harmful chemicals in all of our products. We do this for the sake of the environment, employees and suppliers in the value chain as well as for our customers' health and safety and we are constantly evaluating our environmental impact and how to do even better.
MATERIALS
Already in the design phase we choose the sustainable materials over the conventional whenever we can and we are front-runners on the market when it comes to amount of sustainable products in a broad assortment of jersey, denim, outerwear, shoes, home textiles and everything in-between. All the to us sustainable materials we use are certified and controlled by independent chemical restriction lists and minimizes the risk of using harmful substances. However, our own existing chemical management is the base control and also more strict.
RESTRICTION LIST
Mini Rodini has a list of prohibited and limit value substances that all suppliers must sign and comply with. The list is based on EU’s chemical regulation REACH and also include actively added substances and more strict limit values per substance than REACH, because we believe it is needed to actually call a product and production environmentally and safe.
CHEMICAL GROUP – SWEREA
To stay up-to-date and proactive with the latest news concerning chemicals, Mini Rodini is a member of the Chemical Group at Swerea. This is a network for training and dialogue with experts and other brands in the industry on how to monitor best possible risk assessment and compliance.
GOTS – GLOBAL ORGANIC TEXTILE STANDARD
The GOTS standard have strict rules about chemical use throughout the whole production process. GOTS also include some more strict chemical regulations compared to REACH, such as nanoparticles, waste in aquaculture and biodegradability. Today, over 70% of Mini Rodini’s products are GOTS-certified yearly.
OEKO-TEX® 100 STANDARD
The Oeko-Tex® 100 Standard is a certification where the raw material and product are tested not to contain any chemicals harmful for human health and/or the environment or illegal substances. For the products that are not more than 70-95% organic fibers and possible to have GOTS certified, it’s good for us to use other possible certifications, like Oeko-Tex® 100 Standard.
LABORATORY CONTROLS
Laboratory tests are made by a third party for each new season. Both locally in the production country and after delivery from our warehouse in Sweden. Especially on products that demand more chemicals in the production, such as synthetic heavy-duty outerwear and shoes.
LOCAL LAWS/RESTRICTIONS
Local laws and restrictions regarding use of chemical substances must be complied with in the whole production process. This is clearly stated in our Code of Conduct which all our partners must sign and comply with.
SUSTAINABILITY REPORTS
We collect all our sustainability achievements in a sustainability report every year. To show interested parties our current sustainability progresses and challenges and its goals for the future.
Our sustainability report for 2016 can be downloaded via this link.
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Mini Rodini is a Stockholm based children’s wear brand for all kids 0–11 years. Founded in 2006 as a tribute to all children and their imagination and sense that everything is possible.
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