Transport
We have a no-domestic-flights policy at our company – a relatively easy measure to take that does not affect our operations too greatly. We always inform our customers of the positive impact of transporting a product by sea rather than air when we ship goods from our production countries. When shipping by sea, our aim is always to only transport fully loaded containers. To lower emissions, we often adjust the loads we ship or accept slower deliveries.
Packaging
Naturally, our goal is to use as little packaging as possible. At the same time, it is important to us not to compromise on product quality or safety, which is why we are unable to entirely forego packaging. We work hard to make it as easy as possible for end users to correctly recycle our packaging materials. We clearly mark the different materials, for example, and avoid using packaging that consists of multiple materials, as this makes it harder to separate and recycle them.
Production
Most of our greenhouse gas emissions stem from our production. This is also the hardest area to calculate precise figures for. Currently, we produce our products in China, India, Pakistan, Turkey and Slovenia. While it may be difficult for us to affect, say, the type of energy our partners use in their factories, we do have the power to choose which partners we work with, opting, for example, to cooperate with those who use renewable energy. One of the reasons why we've strengthened our cooperation with our towel-manufacturing partner in India, for example, is because of their efforts to increase their use of renewable energy. We also hand-picked a partner with a well-developed waste-water treatment system to manufacture the details on our bags.
Projects
Vinga's No.1 focus is to reduce our emissions; this is the goal we will forever work hardest to achieve. In an ideal world, our emissions would obviously have been zero. As long as that target remains out of reach, we'll be investing in projects that either capture and store carbon or reduce emissions. One of those project was launched by one of our freight forwarders; it basically sets out to rewet drained peatlands, prevent the construction of dikes and plant vegetation that is good at sequestering carbon. Vinga has visited the wetlands the project focuses on, a stone's throw from our head office in Borås.
