Suvon Green
Suvon Green is a Suvon Corp. commitment where we aim to take direct action in the betterment of our world through being eco-friendly, supporting the UNDP Sustainable Development Goals and making a difference for millenniums to come.
The Shopify Planet Commitment
In partnership with Shopify, we have joined the Shopify Planet movement in order to make sure that we DOUBLE our efforts of carbon-neutrality to the point where we cover 200% of the carbon footprint we produce instead of only 100%. This happens due to our manufacturing procedures and processes you can find out more below.
As part of our Shopify Planet Commitment, for every order we receive, the following carbon off-setting takes place:
Suvon.org UNDP SDG Commitment
Suvon.org is a Suvon Corp. project and Suvon is committed in the creation of a new world that is safer, better, greener, more efficient and productive through the global bridging of innovation. In relation to that, we support the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Out of the 17 Goals, we currently target 12 of them. For more information, you can check out our page here.Manufacturing Commitment
In order to maintain our Suvon Green Commitment, the following are measures we have taken into practice:
- For Direct-To-Garment (DTG) products, we use Oeko-Tex™ certified inks known as Kornit Water-based and NeoPigment with an AATCC rating of four.
- For Sublimation products we use Oeko-Tex™ certified inks known as Mimaki Dye Sublimation Ink Sb411 and Sawgrass SubliJet HD for some we use MYSUBLI-E Sublimation Transfer Ink.
- Oeko-Tex™ certified means they can safely be used for children’s clothing as well as for the reduction of environmental waste.
- Our items that are labeled as eco-friendly are produced with at least 70% organic or recycled materials as well as such material blends. In terms of eco-materials, currently we include (but not limited to) recycled polyester, organic cotton, recycled nylon, recycled cotton in addition to fabric blends of organic cotton and recycled polyester.
- In addition, all of our items are free of animal products and our items made in connection with Stanley/Stella are PETA-Approved Vegan.
- With partnership with Native, we have created the ability for our customers to have the option to contribute to the offset of all CO₂ emissions created in association to their order. Through this, the average emissions that are involved in the entire process from manufacturing, fulfillment, shipping and quality care are offset and any profits from the selection of carbon neutral shipping goes to the funding of projects around the world that target the reduction of carbon emissions.
- On average of 81% of the orders that come through end up being within the same region where a fulfillment center is located at. Having centers placed strategically close to our customers allows for great economic and environmental benefits. This is done through the creation for potentially more efficient shipping times with reduced shipping costs, as well as reducing CO₂ emissions produced during transportation. In addition, various items from different orders are often shipped together should they happen to be within the same region reducing costs on our clients as well as supports eco-concious global logistics.
- As oppose to traditional retailers (whom source items in bulk through mass manufacturing to save costs), our items are manufactured only when an order is active (avoid overproduction). While 92M tons of textile gets thrown out and burnt when unsold per year, our Print on Demand (PoD) waste is typically items that get damaged while printing (consistent with the current industry standard rate). In order to minimize waste on our end, all orders go through a 3-step quality check before shipping.
- We chose to not use screen printing due to the grand amount of plastisol ink (these are usually not biodegradable) and water that it uses; we prefer to stick to DTG printing instead.
- Unfortunately, the full elimination of plastic from our packaging is yet a milestone that has not been reached. In light, posters are now sent in triangular boxes (eliminating plastic end caps), implemented the use of poly mailers with included recycling instructions on them (our eco-poly mailers consist of a minimum of 30% recycled plastic that is used for in-house apparel orders) and we added paper mailers for orders in North Carolina for phone cases.
- On the exciting side, as of May 2021, our packaging now is made of Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) plastics. This is a type of plastic that is made from items people would have recycled every day such as bottles and plastic bags (specifically the PCR plastics we used are made from wrapping films and shopping bags and used for all of our apparel orders that are shipped from our in-house facilities). Each fulfillment location however has a different amount of PCR in packaging with a minimum of 50% for the outside of our white or grey poly mailer bags and a minimum of 30% for the inside of our clear bags that we use for multi-item shipments. Fun information, using PCR packaging would protect the items being shipped identically to how brand-new plastic bags would as well as they look almost identical to one another. However, PCR packaging reduces the impact that plastic has on our environment and planet.
It is true that there can still be much more we can do to reduce our footprint and we will continue in finding as many ways as we can to achieve a greener world!