At noissue, sustainability begins at conception. We’ve always prioritized a circular model for packaging when we design noissue Products, and we do this by using materials that are compostable, recycled, and/or reusable.
As well as this, our custom, made-to-order model, localizing our supply chains, and how we support our people and community all contribute to noissue being on a journey to sustainable by design.
We are also committed to finding better ways of doing things. This year, we developed our sustainability framework that considers our impacts, as well as where we can minimize single-use-packaging.
Sustainability to us means thinking for the long term, having robust systems, and constantly innovating and rethinking how we do things. As a core pillar of noissue, we’ve summarized how our products, platform, and people form a holistic view of our sustainability goals, and how we’re progressing towards this. Although our ambitions in some areas are ahead of where we are now, we are committed to continuous improvement.
Check out our progress in these areas below.
Our Platform
Sustainability being involved in the design process is proven to reduce negative impacts on the environment. In the book Wasted, author Katie Treggiden states that up to 80 percent of a product’s environmental impact happens at the design stage.
noissue has taken steps to reduce waste at the design stage and ensure we are not contributing to overproduction and are only producing what's needed. We do this through:
1. Low minimum quantity orders (MOQs)
We ensure our customers don't order more than they need by offering low minimum quantity orders. It’s part of our purpose to make sustainable packaging accessible to businesses of all sizes.
2. Made-to-order (custom) products and our platform
Our made-to-order business model ensures we only bring products into production when there is demand. In other words, manufacturing will only begin once an order is received, rather than mass-producing which helps to reduce waste.
3. Strong partnerships with our manufacturers, whom we work closely with to fulfill stock and custom products
Our products
Designed for circularity
Our products are designed for circularity, meaning they can be reused, recycled or composted. We will continue to strive towards circularity and closing the loop.
Using recycled content to extend the life of materials
We use recycled materials such as certified recycled paper and plastic in our packaging. This can reduce environmental impacts through reducing landfill, emissions, and reliance on raw materials.
Upholding standards with social and environmental certifications
We use certifications like FSC and GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) which help ensure social and environmental standards are upheld.
Using education to extend the life of our products
We communicate with customers to encourage extending the life of our products and reusing where possible, which means less overall waste and environmental impact.
We’ve also created content (articles and videos) and FAQs in our Knowledge center on what customers and their recipients can do with our packaging once it has come to its end of life.
Our supply chain
Supplier code of conduct
We’re proud to work with suppliers around the world in a variety of locations. We’ve implemented a supplier code of conduct which is one way we’re supporting health, safety and wellbeing in our supply chain.
Eliminating unnecessary virgin packaging and plastic
Reducing single-use virgin plastic has been part of our DNA since the beginning. We are working on ensuring that we continue to eliminate single-use virgin plastic. For example, our products are wrapped in compostable plastic if they need to be wrapped for protection.
Localizing our supply chain
We are working on products being sent from the most local manufacturer to every market, which can help reduce our carbon footprint.
Increasing renewable and clean energy
We have recently onboarded three supply partners using energy from either fully or partially renewable sources or clean energy and will continue to strive to increase renewable energy across our supply chain.
Our people and community
Our carbon footprint
We’re working on offsetting carbon from our deliveries. Offsets will be certified to high standards such as the Gold standard and support a range of climate initiatives.
Wellbeing, diversity, inclusion, equity, performance
We have a team from a variety of backgrounds who are located across 11 countries. We’ve done an audit of where we stand and have work underway to continue to build out data on how we’re supporting diversity and inclusion. We’ve got a good starting point: 66% of our team lead and manager roles are filled by women and we have a zero gender pay gap. We've also introduced wellness leave across all markets.
Community, culture and education
We use our online publication The Wrap and our marketing efforts to educate our various communities on running a sustainable business. We also released a new podcast, Conscious Commerce, which hosts conversations centered around the theme, ‘sustainability doesn’t have to be a scary word in business’.
This year, we’ve taken strides to build our internal culture of sustainability by using more channels to communicate about our strategy and releasing benefits in line with our sustainability values. We’re excited to continue building on this!
Our communication, mission and sustainability strategy
We’ve been sharing more about our sustainability strategy, products and business and will continue to build on this and explore reporting to leading sustainability standards like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
Sustainability requires holistic thinking. As you can see, it touches every part of the business: the people, business model and products.
Looking ahead, we will continue to apply circular economy thinking to how we create, distribute and market our products.
We’re excited to collect more data on how we’re supporting global issues and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to packaging sustainably, but we have thoughtfully designed noissue’s products in a way that upholds their functionality and design capabilities while reducing their overall environmental impact.
We are committed to helping our customers package their goods responsibly and reducing their waste, while supporting them on their sustainability journey beyond packaging. Stay tuned for our sustainability report for a more detailed view on all areas we’ve covered and our future aspirations.