Sustainability
From local initiatives to systematic changes in our factory, we’re committed to creating sustainable practices throughout our supply chain.
From our inception, we have partnered with Auskin Group to manufacture our product range. The relationship runs over 35 years, in fact Ben’s dad, Robert, helped set up this factory back in 1997 and we hold a small shareholding in this business. They are the only manufacturing partner we have, so the relationship is very important to us and we have a vested interest in their performance.
Like us, Auskin are on a journey to create more sustainable practices throughout the supply chain.
Recent achievements for AUSKIN
Water:
• In the past 5 years, they have achieved an impressive annual decrease of 15% in water use. They remain committed to further improvements.
• The installation of a new water treatment plant has been instrumental in helping them exceed regulatory requirements.
• Approximately 70% of the water used is either reused or recycled.
Energy Reduction:
• The factory utilises revolutionary Auto-Tanning technology, which contributes to the reduction of chemicals, water, energy and COD emissions (Chemical Oxygen Demand). COD is the amount of dissolved oxygen that must be present in water to oxidise chemical organic materials like petroleum. COD is used to gauge the impact that the organic materials will have on the oxygen levels of receiving waters. With the use of this revolutionary technology, they have reduced COD emissions by 10%.
• In 2017 they decommissioned their coal boiler and transitioned to natural gas. This switch has resulted in a substantial reduction in carbon emissions.
• They use environmentally friendly energy alternatives, such as solar power, to decarbonise the production processes. The solar panels efficiently heat up to 2,000,000 litres (approximately 530,000 gallons) of water per week. The tannery is located in the North of China (just north of the Great Wall), where sunshine is abundant.
• They have implemented innovative systems where heat generated from drying rooms is captured to produce hot water. In turn, the resulting cold air is repurposed for employee air conditioning, ensuring efficient utilisation of energy outputs.
• They have installed advanced conveyors and equipment that not only streamline the processes but also reduce the need for forklift usage. This saves energy but also contributes to a lower carbon footprint.
Minimising the Chemical Impact:
• New enzyme technology is used to reduce the use of detergents and surfactants by 30%.
• Chemical recycling through the advanced Auto Tan technology enables an annual reduction of 15% use of chemicals.
• With low levels of safe chemicals, Auskin are able to achieve the OEKO-TEX LEATHER STANDARD for the safety of products in close contact with human skin.
• Salt is recovered from the curing process and recycled into the tanning process, resulting in a 95% reduction in salt purchased.
• The production process used for W&D’s product range is completely chrome free.
Carbon Footprint Reduction:
• We ship raw materials and finished products by sea. By doing so, we reduce the amount of CO2 emissions associated with air freight. To put it into perspective, airfreighting 1,000 kilograms of goods on average emits 500 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre, whereas shipping them by sea on a modern container vessel emits only 15 grams per kilometre. Sea freight is also a more cost-effective option which means more sustainable margin for the business and less cost to pass through to the customer.
Recycling:
• Bio-waste is sold for conversion into fertiliser or biofuel.
• Grease recovered from the dry-clean plant is sold as biofuel.
• Waste materials with chemical content undergo strict compliance measures, with government-supervised waste transfer approval processes.
• They sell or recycle wooden pallets, empty drums and containers, plastic, and cardboard waste.
• Wool clippings are sold to the industrial or textile industry, while trimmings from raw skins are recovered for wool production. Any excess trimmings from finished skins are further processed through resale or repurposed.
• Whenever possible, they use damaged skins and skin offcuts to craft products like our seat covers, making sure nothing is unnecessarily wasted. By implementing these initiatives, we’re committed to minimising waste and sticking to our philosophy to provide safe sheepskin products, of the highest quality, produced with the lowest possible impact on the environment.
Our Wilson and Dorset initiatives
As a team we are always working to embody our shared ethos.
We care about the environment, that is why we take a byproduct, potentially destined for landfill, and turn it into beautiful products we can cherish for a lifetime.
We completed our first BCORP assessment with an overall Impact Score of 33.3 which showed we had a lot of room for improvement. Areas around governance and environment are key spaces needing our attention.
We have an action plan which has been on the backburner while we have navigated the challenging economic environment. Our little team just couldn’t quite stretch that far.
We are excited to be in a position to tackle some of this action plan in 2025 and look forward to sharing an update when we retake our assessment.
Here are some things we have been working on in the meantime:
- In November 2022 we removed all synthetic fibres from our stone sets, footstools and cushions and replaced it with New Zealand Wisewool wool fill.
- In April 2023 we started an employment pilot for people in our local community with intellectual disability. In August 2023 we transitioned this team to permanent employees. Read more about this program in our Blueprint.
And we have a number of little practises in place:
- We share rides if we’re going to the same place (often piling into our warehouse van!).
- We use re-usable cups for our coffees (in fact the team made their own coffee cups in a collab with one of our product suppliers).
- We recycle everything we can with our amazing local Wastebusters team.
- We are really excited about tackling the big issue around product packaging.
