Sustainability

Our goal is to make our footprint as light as possible, but minimizing the impact as we create and manufacture products and therefore consume the planets resources is an ongoing journey with no shortcuts. Our long-term goal is for environmental sustainability to be integrated into every aspect of day-to-day work, we want to make products that favor people, animals and the planet from idea to finished product.

We are continuously taking small steps towards a lighter footprint by for example prioritizing recycled- and organic materials, choosing environmentally friendly treatments and working with certified suppliers. We have started the process of becoming GOTS certified in our goal to create a better, more sustainable way of producing our products and to pass on a healthy, living planet for coming generations.

We work closely with a few but selected suppliers, they are trusted partners who share our vision and commitment. We work with in total 11 suppliers in Portugal, India and Pakistan for Home Textiles and Italy, China and India for childrenswear. Manufacturing countries and factories are chosen based on the product’s fabric or category, Portugal for example has a long tradition of working with bedding but not with nursery products, which we therefore produce in India. The majority of our childrenswear are produced in China due to their high technical skills that can produce pieces that require complex finishes such as outerwear.

Our suppliers are audited according to standards that ensure proper working conditions such as GOTS, Amfori BCSI and Sedex. Currently out of our textile suppliers, 6 out of 9 are GOTS certified (länk till https://global-standard.org/the-standard), which is the leading textile processing standard for organic fibres, including ecological and social criterias. 8 out of 9 textile suppliers are OEKO-Tex 100 Certified (https://www.oeko-tex.com/en/our-standards/oeko-tex-standard-100) 11 out of 11 suppliers are audited by Amfori BSCI or Sedex that ensures proper working conditions.

We work actively to make better material choices for every collection and to use more preferred materials such as organic- and recycled materials as well as environmentally friendly treatments and finishes. We always strive to make high quality products that have a long lifespan that can be handed down or sold to be used again which is in its own way a sustainable way of thinking. We also prioritize to work with non-blended yarns, as non-blended yarns can be recycled and re-created into new yarns when the products lifespan has reached its end.

Some preferred materials used in our current collections are:
• Organic cotton produced without the use of synthetic chemicals or genetically modified organisms.
• Recycled polyester and polyamide sourced from plastic waste
• Recycled wool sourced from post-consumer yarn

Garbo&Friends is committed to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner to protect consumers, workers and the environment. We follow requirements for chemical management in line with current national and EU legislation, including the REACH legislation.

We work in partnership with Intertek and SGS to test our products and materials in accordance to standards set for durability, safety and chemical content set by legislating authorities.

All suppliers need to adhere to and follow our Quality Manual made by UL that states our standards and legislated standards regarding everything from seams, buttons, materials and chemicals.