Being a small brand in todays world is incredibly complex. On one hand we have freedom like never before to be in charge of our lifestyles, and on the other hand, with this freedom comes great responsibility.
As a brand, we are not just about making desirable items - we are focused on ensuring they are made fairly, sustainably and responsibly and the people making them are looked after fairly and responsibly too. We believe that for anyone making a product to sell today, this has to be a focus as important as the product itself. We all carry a duty to look after our planet.
We are a brand that believes strongly in good, timeless design and we do not create product to fit into seasons. We do not believe that making product for short selling periods is good for anyone in the supply chain, nor is it good for our customer and the worst of all is the impact it has on the environment. We are an antidote to fast and throwaway.
Our makers take great pride in learning every single minute detail of every item in the collection - from the smallest printed binding and button to every hand cut patch and stitch sewn. To simply move on to the next thing and discontinue what we have just managed to learn would be not only incredibly wasteful, but extremely unethical.
Patchworking is a slow craft as anyone who has ever tried it would know - so after almost ten years of running the business we have discovered the best ways to work around customer demand and also the demands of our environment. Many of our quilts go into pre-orders for several reasons - working this way we can reduce waste - we can steer productivity towards items that are most wanted rather than making huge numbers of everything and ending up with dead stock. Quilts are large and puffy, and storage space for a small brand like ours comes at a high price and we simply would feel awful having our beautiful quilts sitting in cold warehouse shelves rather than in the comfort of your homes - so we try not to have too much stock at any one time.
We consolidate shipments coming to us - this means even though a line is ready to ship from our maker in India, we will wait until we have more product ready to ship at the same time. We continue to reduce the number of shipments coming in each year in order to reduce pollution. This is of course much better for the planet, but does mean we need to ask for our customers to remain patient; their goods are being made and good things take time.
At Projektityyny, we work with a factory in India whom we have known personally for nearly two decades now. We have had the priviledge to see them take their first steps into home textiles about the same time we started venturing into it too
Together we can make sure we are growing the right way.
Our factory holds ‘an eco- factory ceritificate’ and is committed to zero landfill. This goes for all waste generated at the factory including fabric, packaging, office items, food etc.
Our factory reduces water consumption by re-using their rinse water and actively harvesting rain water.
Our factory has an ETP treatment plant (an effluent treatment plant for water discharge) All water used is treated neutral before release back into sewers.
Our factory holds a ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) certificate and OEKO TEX Standard100 certification - a certification by a non government environmental organisation that no hazardous substances and chemicals are used in the manufacturing of their textiles. It ensures that textiles, from raw materials to finished products, are free from a wide range of potentially harmful chemicals and substances. The certification is an internationally recognized benchmark for textile safety, promoting consumer protection and responsible manufacturing
The linen we use carries European Flax® certification, a rigorously audited certification that not only attests to the sourcing of the flax, but the sustainable care for the environment and people involved in the production. All flax is naturally and mechanically processed without chemicals
Our factory holds FSC certification, provided by the Forest Stewardship Council, is a system that ensures forests are managed according to strict environmental, social, and economic standards. It verifies that products with the FSC label come from responsibly managed forests.
Our factory is a SEDEX socially and ethically approved factory. Sedex is one of the world's largest collaborative platforms (for Buyers, suppliers and auditors) for sharing responsible sourcing data on supply chains, used by more than 55000 members who all have full visibility to audit reports offering them full transparency.
Our factory follows a strict, jointly agreed code of conduct with its employees which underlines all working practices, maximum working hours, living wage, minimum worker age, safety of conditions etc. This factory and the people working on our product have been instrumental in helping us become who we are today!
We take sustainability incredibly seriously and strive to learn more, do more and change for the better each day.
We hope you will keep our textiles in your homes for many years to come.
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Lots of love,
Nora