Sustainability In Our Factories

Sustainability in our Factories

We are making sustainability, the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance, at the core of our design platform, our packaging processes, and our manufacturing methods. Most importantly, we ensure that the suppliers who make our product follow our guidelines and standards for better working conditions.

We trace and monitor our entire supply chain, and begin from where our raw materials come from to how our leather products are made. 

 

 

By working closely with our factories in central and southern India, we ensure full transparency and accuracy throughout our supply chain and for everyone involved in the making of a Stitch & Hide product.

By carrying out the SA8000 audit, a leading social certification for factories and organisations across the globe, we are able to ensure safe and healthy working conditions in our factory. The certification measures the fair treatment of workers assessing labour standards, worker rights, workplace conditions and management systems are socially acceptable.

We also ensure our factories are REACH or LWG compliant. These regulations are adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from any risks posed by chemicals in the workplace.

 

 

We are proud to be Fair Trade. We support better working conditions and improved terms of trade through our entire supply chain India. The standards include protection of workers’ rights and the protection of children, environmental preservation and a commitment to support the local communities.

 

 

All our pieces are handcrafted using premium, full grain Vegetable Tanned leather accredited by gold-rated Leather Working Group tanneries (LWG) every 2 years.

The LWG promotes transparency within the leather manufacturing industry by encouraging a continual improvement to best practice, focusing on aligning environmental priorities and working on providing guidance and support for continued improvement.

Our factories are audited on a continual basis. The audit allows us to trace where the raw leather material comes from, ensures the tanning and manufacturing procedures are of the best practices and that our manufacturing actions are causing minimal environmental impact.

Unlike Chrome Tanning, which is widely used in the industry, we use only Vegetable tanned leathers. This process takes its name from the raw materials used in the tanning and is the most traditional tanning process. It uses organic natural tannins obtained from different part of plants including woods, barks, fruits, fruit pods and leaves and plant-based extracts amongst others. The leather is soaked in these natural dyes for days for strength and to absorb the earthy colour. The process allows the leather to age naturally with a unique look and buttery softness which only adds to its beauty and character.

 

 

Using an advanced wastewater treatment technology called ZLD (zero waste discharge), our factory purifies and recycles all wastewater, leaving zero discharge at the end of the treatment cycle.

 

 

Our factories are currently working on implementing solar power. This renewable energy source eliminates direct greenhouse gas emission by utilizing the sunlight (which we will never run out of) rather than burning fossil fuels.

 

 

We are on a constant journey to improve our environmental initiatives, sustainable procedures and practices within our supply chain. There is only one planet earth, so we are doing our best in everything we do, to protect the environment and all the people who help make our leather products.