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PRODUCT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

At IDEAL OF SWEDEN, we strive to deliver the highest quality in all that we do. We regularly update our products inspired by current trends and influencers to reimagine the future through sustainable design. Our approach to product development has always been linked with innovative form and functionality, for that reason, our end goals are to have reliable and durable products.

We know that the choices that our design and product development teams make when considering, prototyping and finally producing a product have direct environmental and social impacts on our planet. The design stage is the perfect opportunity to find unique and creative ways to create more sustainable and circular goods. Our goal is to continuously challenge ourselves and seek for the best fitting tools and techniques that our product development team can employ to create products in ways that vigorously reduce the adverse effects on people and the planet.At IDEAL OF SWEDEN, we strive to deliver the highest quality in all that we do. We regularly update our products inspired by current trends and influencers to reimagine the future through sustainable design. Our approach to product development has always been linked with innovative form and functionality, for that reason, our end goals are to have reliable and durable products.

We know that the choices that our design and product development teams make when considering, prototyping and finally producing a product have direct environmental and social impacts on our planet. The design stage is the perfect opportunity to find unique and creative ways to create more sustainable and circular goods. Our goal is to continuously challenge ourselves and seek for the best fitting tools and techniques that our product development team can employ to create products in ways that vigorously reduce the adverse effects on people and the planet.

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING

Responsible sourcing is a critical function of our business with a growing importance to our stakeholders, including investors and customers. Our purchasing team is working in line with the IDEAL OF SWEDEN Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Policy principles and makes sure that our suppliers adhere to strict social and environmental responsibility standards, and the raw materials purchased fulfil the necessary quality and safety specifications. The map highlights the origins of our material resources and the location of our manufacturing sites. Likewise, we are continuously working towards the improvement of the traceability of raw materials both from the perspective of environmental safety and social responsibility. In our procurement of materials process, we also have great consideration for the ethical principles and standards. For example, we are 100% against animal cruelty, so all of our leather-like products are made of a durable premium PU material identical in appearance to real leather. We strongly believe that ingredient transparency is one of the first steps towards achieving complete supply chain transparency; hence we have decided to be completely honest about all our product material components.

RESPONSIBLE MANUFACTURING

As a company with a presence on a global scale, we believe that it is our responsibility to protect the ecosystems in which we conduct our business. From embracing innovative materials and, producing high-quality products to ensuring on-time delivery, we continually reflect on the ways that our operations might impact the environment, human health, and human rights.

HUMAN RIGHTS

It is our responsibility as a business to respect human rights and diminish all related risks throughout our whole value chain, undertake commitments and follow the guidelines as described in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Currently our approach to human rights management is based on identifying human rights-related risks and the application of our due diligence to all geographies and relevant processes of our value chain. Within the next 3 years we aim to significantly enhance our human rights management approach through an improved due diligence, in-depth training of our employees, and improved incident management approach.
"WE MUST LEARN HOW TO RESTORE TO NATURE THE WEALTH THAT WE BORROW FROM IT"
– BARRY COMMONER

LOCAL LOGISTICS

Seen that most of our products are sold through e-commerce sales channels, we as a company bear a huge responsibility in terms of providing low-carbon delivery solutions. We are continuously working towards the efficiency improvement of the last-mile deliveries. We have partnered up with some of the best service providers in many geographies that help us improve the operational efficiency of in-country parcel delivery. Together we address our sustainability goals through consolidation of shipments that are going to places in close proximity and by selecting the shipping modes that minimise the negative impact on the planet. We have already made great advancements in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands where we have partnered up with courier services that constantly offset their carbon emissions, use electric vehicles or alternative fuel vans for longer distance in-country deliveries and transport parcels on foot, by e-bike or through non-emissive and shared delivery systems in urban centres. We want to provide our customers with the best delivery experience without compromising the Earth system. As part of our sustainability commitment, we are actively working to find carbon-neutral distribution solutions worldwide.
PARCELS

During the past year, we have enormously improved the sustainability parameters of our parcels by improving two focus areas: packaging and transportation efficiency.

IDEAL OF SWEDEN has contributed to waste minimisation by increasing the amount of recycled material components in our parcel packaging for a wide range of our product assortment. Furthermore, we have teamed up with a packaging supply partner that has the technology that enables them to produce the optimal package size suited for our product, so as to reduce an addition to weight of each individual parcel.

In our central warehouses in Sweden and the Netherlands, we operate with one of the most sustainable packing machines in the industry. The machine has an automatic carton packaging system capable of creating dynamic cardboard boxes from a continuous fanfold corrugated. Such machines help IDEAL OF SWEDEN pack each order in a sustainable manner, by using a minimum amount of corrugated material, avoid using plastic materials and ensuring that shipped parcels take up minimum space in the transport network.

We have placed on-pack recycling labels that help our customers identify how to correctly dispose of the recyclable material in their area. Moreover, we are leveraging sustainable customer behaviours through the reuse of packaging material in the e-commerce returns process by directing them to our website to fill in the return information, to initiate the return and print out a .pdf label on a home printer or at the post office, depending on their country of residence. This method significantly reduces the amount of single-use packaging as well as paper waste because most of the packaging and pre-printed labels simply end up in the waste bin.

PRODUCT USE-PHASE

Longevity is one of the primary considerations in developing our product range, from the choice of raw materials to manufacturers, and product actual use. IDEAL OF SWEDEN has a selection of products that can be mixed and matched so that our customers can update the look of their already owned products and by so extend the use-phase of their already previously purchased items. On our website, https://idealofsweden.com/care-guide, we also provide a product care-guide for our customers, in so we hope to inspire our customers to extend the product use and reduce the impact of disposal.
PRODUCT DISPOSAL

As reported by the World Bank, without urgent action, global waste might increase by 70% on current levels by 2050. Our ambition is to establish good waste management systems that are essential to building a circular economy. We have a long and complicated way to go; nevertheless, we aspire to find more environmentally and socially responsible ways to reduce operational and consumer waste.

IDEAL OF SWEDEN is in accordance with the EU WEEE Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (2002/96/EC) and registers with national authorities in accordance with the requirements of Sweden and Germany. All of the products that are subject to the WEEE Directive fulfill the WEEE marking requirements.

In cases when our products don’t fulfill our quality and safety requirements, as well as unsold and returned items, our approach is to find the best recycling opportunities for the goods in order to predominantly avoid incineration.

We also encourage our customers to contact their local municipalities for details on how their cities handle the proper disposal of various material products and packaging.

ANIMAL-FREE AND ETHICAL

As a company that is aware of the current state-of-the-art of the planet, we know it is essential that we are committed to sustainability. Therefore, we take our responsibility to ensure no harm is inflicted during the development and use of our products to both people and animals. One of the non-negotiable values that we as a brand stand behind is not using any materials derived from the body of an animal. Instead, we choose to use a variety of high-quality animal- and cruelty-free material alternatives to create our products. By using artificial materials such as PU and polyester, we not only ensure that we actively opt-out of animal cruelty, make our products vegan lifestyle compatible, and also avoid the toxic manufacturing environments associated with genuine leather. That is also why we perform quality control tests to ensure that all products meet the relevant safety standards and our customer’s wishes. We continuously explore new eco-friendly material opportunities and strive to push our own and our supplier boundaries to achieve our sustainability goals.