GOTS
Although the products of Natur-elle are made of certified organic cotton fabrics, the GOTS-label is not always attached to it. The main reason is that not all our sewing ateliers are GOTS certified yet.
Our collections which are produced in a certified sewing atelier will wear the GOTS-label (f.e. the Colore bed sheets and baby cloths). All our other collections are provided with our own label, which indicates that the product is made from certified organic cotton fabrics and produced in Europe.
Rank a Brand
Since December 2009 you can find Natur-elle at the website of Rank a Brand. Rank a Brand evaluates the green and fair policy which brands publishing by themselves on their websites using a clear questionnaire. Brands who are not open and clear of their own policy will not earn any points, brands who justify themselves in public however do earn points. Smooth marketing talk is evaluated negatively, good substantiated information positively. The themes on which brands are being assessed are: working conditions, environment and climate.
Our score is 'green', which means that Rank a Brand judges us as a transparant, fair and green company!
CO2 Voetprint
Natur-elle strives for designing, producing and selling her products with as less as possible energy en CO2 emmissions.
According to calculations made on www.klimaatneutraal.nl was the CO2 footprint of Natur-elle 1,28 in 2009. By working as mentioned below, our CO2 emissions will decrease. Our target is to reduce and/or compensate every year on our emissions, so that Natur-elle in 2012 will have a CO2 footprint which has decreased with minimal 20%.
Here you will find an overview of the most important activities concerning the reduction of CO2. Improvements which are implemented after 2009 are indicated with the year number behind it.
Cradle-to-Cradle
Cradle to Cradle is a new view on sustainable design. In short they say that all used materials after their life in one product, can be useful in a new product. Moreover there should be no quality loss and all residuals should be reused or be climate neutral. This life cycle is than complete.... and waste is food.
Natur-elle is being charmed of this approach and tries next to a sustainable business also to design and produce her products according this principle. Which means that we are using our costly commodities, organic cotton, in a very economical way.
We are collecting all our fabric waste, which is being produced during the cutting and sewing process of our products. We do not throw this away but we are separating it in smaller and bigger pieces of fabrics so that it can be useful for the production of new products. The smaller pieces are ideal as filling of cushions and baby toys. The bigger pieces of fabric can be sewed together so that new colourful fabrics are being created. And these fabrics can be used again for making other new products.