Responsibility

Over the last few years, we've transformed many of our business practices in order to become the most responsible version of ourselves. In the name of transparency, here are some of the changes we've made and new projects we’re proud to have initiated:

WORKING WITH ENVIRONMENTALLY-CERTIFIED LEATHER

We are passionate about transitioning to using ethically-sourced and sustainable leathers exclusively. We revere these leathers for their premium quality, longevity, circularity and supply chain transparency.

These leathers are premium hides tanned under gold-rated environmental protocols, then dyed through so that they age gracefully. They are mainly sourced from Italy and Korea.

While it will take time to completely transition to environmentally-certified leather across our range, we are committed to using these leathers moving forward. We're proud that 90% of our Oasis collection is constructed from Leather Working Group (LWG) certified leather.

The Leather Working Group (LWG) is a multi-stakeholder group dedicated to pushing for environmental best practice throughout the leather supply chain.

Founding members include brands such as Adidas, Clarks, Nike, Ikea, New Balance and Timberland, together with key leather manufacturing companies from around the world. When properly cared for, our bags are designed to stand the test of time, which ultimately means less waste sent to landfill.

Next on our list is moving to organic certified cotton for all interior linings and stitching of our bags. Watch this space.

CREATING AN OCEAN PLASTICS CAPSULE COLLECTION

As a brand deeply connected to our home on the coast, we care about clean oceans and are passionate about the resource-recovery efforts to retrieve ocean waste. After twelve months of research and development, we partnered with Swiss eco partner #tide to create a capsule collection of watches from 100% recycled ocean plastic.

As The Horse founder Scott Hawkes explains, "Repurposing ocean plastic has set a new bar for responsible design and has really challenged conventions in material sourcing. Simply put, we're making more responsible choices, so it's easier for you to make them too".

This product has a purpose and, at the same time, exemplifies our focus on simple, intentional design. We've also reimagined our watch box to ensure it's also fully recyclable, swapping out the EVA fill for a cardboard insert.

REIMAGINING OUR PACKAGING

As a company, we're increasingly interested in using innovative, low-impact materials. Our first goal is to transition all of our packaging to be 100% recyclable.

The postage satchels we now use are made from 80% post-consumer waste. We learnt that recycled plastic generates 50% less water pollutants than paper, uses four times less energy to manufacture and 20 times less water to produce, all whilst stopping new plastic from entering our environment. It is also 100% recyclable using the infrastructure in place with Woolworths and Coles, supported by Redcycle. We encourage you to collect your soft plastics and take them to one of the 2,000+ stores in Australia and New Zealand with a Redcycle drop off, to give our already recycled products another life.

Our marketing material is printed on carbon neutral ecoStar paper stock that is 100% recycled post-consumer. Other changes include moving to paperless invoicing, bringing back the humble hand stamp (instead of producing stickers), sourcing paper tape and moving away from plastic.

As a company, we're always looking for ways to increase our operations' sustainability and reduce our environmental footprint. We will continue to update this page as we make progress.

CARBON NEUTRAL FREIGHT

Shipping is an activity of the business in which we can make significant reductions, so we choose to work with freight partners who offer carbon-neutral delivery services.

We use the following postal services to send our orders:

Domestic: Australia Post - Carbon neutral parcel delivery - Australia Post (auspost.com.au)

International: Go Green climate neutral service where emissions are offset through climate protection projects. Offset Emissions | DHL | Australia