Reporting on Responsibility

The trend of sustainability is catching on and making sense for both companies and consumers. We want our customers to be able to meet their target consumers’ rising standards. It becomes clear to us as well as our customers that change is of the essence. The past year, when the pandemic sparked a global crisis, many aspects of life changed but the climate agenda did not. Nor did it at Sourzing.

To us, the obligation of change means responsible production. We need to prevent waste, reduce our carbon footprint, recycle our materials and design products for reuse, turning our consuming habits circular – this is Sourzing’s Sustainability Goals.

I’m Sustainable!

We were intrigued by rising demands for sustainability and our curiosity led us to take a long, hard look at how we work in Sourzing. Our mission is and has always been to be a trusted adviser to all our partners and clients. Transparent practices and informed choices are how we interpret that mission, so as a sensible consequence, we recognized that we needed outside eyes to help us catalogue our work with sustainability.

I’m Sustainable! - This statement will ring a bell to some of you – it was printed on the box we sent out last year, showcasing one example of how luxury packaging designed with responsibility in mind could look.

At Sourzing, we are always looking into new options of how innovative materials can be combined with the best possible quality and functionality in mind. Moving towards designing with repurposed, recycled or biodegradable materials for a sustainable packaging solution is an ideal way for us to reduce waste and contribute towards circular consumption.

The feedback and response we received on the campaign was overwhelming, and it showed us that not only is there a demand for sustainable solutions in packaging design, there is also a desire to know more about sustainable options.

Actions speak louder than words… 

…but until you put them into writing, who will know? With +10 years now passed, Sourzing’s story is now taking a more sustainable turn. Our strategy and vision have always been very clear to all of us, working with it on a daily basis - the narrative of how we conduct our business. We designated a job for those who would bring perspective on sustainability, data analysis and communication practices.

Teamed up with Lead the Talent, a program which pools freshly trained academic job seekers in a corporate outreach scheme, we recruited three candidates as our new and dedicated CSR Specialist Team. During the past three months, they have combined their respective areas of expertise with an outsider’s perspective: They have mapped out our supply chain, analyzed our company culture and examined our sustainability efforts. They have left no stone or early power point presentation unturned. Our entire business strategy has been under the microscope focused on one end goal: Writing our responsibility story.

Green Writing

Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility, or in short, the CSR report, has taken center stage of corporate communication. The ethical consumer of 2021 expects from a company to be aware of the impact, their product has on people and the planet. The way to demonstrate this varies from business to business, and the market is flooded with buzzwords and fluffy descriptions. Standards are missing from the conversation, and consumers are left confused with the rhetoric, and suspicious when it comes to the words we use when we talk about how to change our consumption: Environmentally friendly, 100 % recycled or “a more eco/green choice” are some of them, and what most of us prioritize, but most of us are not sure when in fact, this is what we get.

"…a very crucial priority is to establish a common understanding of the terms associated with sustainability. We need to decode the buzz words and confusion."

At Sourzing, our work with CSR has set out from the honest observation that we are no climate-hero; producing packaging and furniture is not going to save the planet. We know this and do not believe in saying otherwise. This is also what enables us to focus our attention into the effort of making sure that whatever we produce is based on a qualified decision process. We want our partners to be informed on the possibilities of designing with repurposed, recycled and biodegradable materials, and we know how they function. We want to qualify every step of a solution in terms of carbon footprint, forest stewardship, water resources and circular material choice. We are on track of implementing a Life Cycle Assessment tool, which will provide us with the necessary data to do exactly this.

Responsible and transparent business practices will always be the sustainable choice!

Working on a CSR report in this perspective, it has become clear to us that a very crucial priority is to establish a common understanding of the terms associated with sustainability. We need to decode the buzz words and confusion. What does it mean, for instance, when a product is claimed to be “more sustainable”? Compared to what? And why can another be claimed to be “eco-friendly"? These are questions our partners receive from their own customers and bring to us. For our consultation to be sound, we need to have a baseline ourselves.

It is this capacity our report will work - as the natural next step of our journey.

Once published, the report will define and demonstrate how Sourzing’s sustainability journey is on the way to become integrated in our story; we are growing and learning  - not to be green, but ever more responsible.



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