Our environment is facing a range of challenges that the fashion industry needs to tackle. Everyone from manufacturers, to brands and consumers has a role to play in this. Sandqvist is focusing on four areas where we think we can make a positive impact: climate change, chemicals, biodiversity and water issues.

Chemicals are used in the manufacturing of all textile products. To minimize the impact that these chemicals can have on the environment, we have strict requirements on what chemicals can be used in the production process. Our requirements are in line with best practices within the textile industry and legislation in our sales countries, in and outside the EU.

Our fabrics and weaves in organic cotton are only treated with substances and dyes approved for organic materials. Where possible, the synthetic material we use is certified regarding chemical content. In addition to this, we also perform risk based chemical testing on our products.

A major contribution to our carbon footprint is the transport of our goods. Our goal is to minimise climate impact from transport, by choosing the most environmentally-friendly transport options where possible.

In 2019 and onwards, the efforts to shift production to sea freight has continued. The long-term goal is to eliminate all air freight for production orders. As this might require changing some of our suppliers, Sandqvist will not be able to switch all production to sea, however our main mode of transport is at seas.

The textile and leather industries are big contributors to the pollution of water worldwide, however Sandqvist is set on minimising our water impact. We can do this by strictly controlling the chemicals used throughout our supply chain, making sure chemical management of our suppliers is in keeping with best practices and that water is conserved at all steps of production.

The cornerstones of our water work are our chemical policy, the use of organic cotton and Leather Working Group rating of our tanneries.