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Save The Duck: Engaging with Suppliers and Employees for a Greater Positive Impact

The Italian B Corp stepped up its sustainability efforts by going beyond business as usual, both with internal and external stakeholders
©SAVE THE DUCK

About Save The Duck

 

Save The Duck, the 100% animal-free outerwear brand, caters to the global market and a growing target audience highly sensitive to environmental and animal welfare issues. The logo is a whistling duck, being carefree because it has been saved. Over its eleven-year history, Save The Duck has calculated that it has saved over 40 million ducks. Save The Duck garments are not only featherless but also 100% animal and cruelty-free and, therefore, do not use leather, fur, or any animal-derived raw materials.

 

  • Vision: Guiding people towards a regenerative and modern paradigm.
  • Mission: Being reliable and relevant to our people by creating timeless and innovative garments that embody and keep up with the needs and demands of our time.
  • Purpose: Creating products that are the ultimate life companion, designed to respect the Earth’s resources and safeguard its inhabitants.

A Committed Leadership

 

Save the Duck’s journey with the B Corp Certification started in 2018. The inspirational drive came directly from the CEO, Nicolas Bargi, who saw in this certification the opportunity to have insight into the organization to verify and validate the good practices they have consistently implemented. In becoming a B Corp, the company demonstrated that their commitment to creating positive social and environmental impact was well-targeted, as well as understanding the areas in which they had and still have room for improvement.

 

By joining this community of companies with similar values to theirs, Save the Duck has also uncovered new potential sources of enhancement that are constantly helping our Group generate more positive impacts.

 

The recertification process – by which a B Corp renews its certification every three years – represented a further moment of testing for the company, which helped them to ascertain whether the actions taken during the last three years had indeed been effective in increasing the benefits generated by the organization.

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Save the Duck ©

Joining the Efforts  

 

Every hundredth stitch results from an enormous and constant collaboration, co-creation, and improvement carried out by all Duckers over the years. Behind this result are the many actions, large and small, to grow our commitment to respect the environment, people, and animals. 

 

To improve their positive impact, among the many initiatives, Save The Duck increased by 8% the recycled fabrics used in its products compared to 2021 (now 28%) and busted the use of certified renewable energy in its facilities and those of its suppliers. 100% of the electricity used to stock the HQ, the offices, and the stores comes from certified renewable sources. Renewable Origin Guarantee Certificates cover purchasing electricity of Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers.

 

In 2022, Save the Duck saw an improvement from suppliers in their processes, and the company decided to engage them in their regenerative pathway. Some Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers started to self-produce electricity from renewable sources, such as solar panels, and manage and reuse 30-40% of wastewater in their wet processes. Unfortunately, not all the water used in production processes can be recovered. Save the Duck has committed to making it available to those who do not have it through their collaboration with the Sumba Foundation. This non-profit organization provides clean water access to over 30,000 people on Sumba Island, Indonesia. This collaboration enables Save The Duck to balance the 2022 water consumption associated with the production of its garments and related materials by providing water to the island villages.

It has been likewise fundamental to give solidity and value to their processes by drafting policies and procedures, to receive validation of the emission reduction targets by SBTi, and to obtain ISO 14064-1 certification for the GHG emissions inventory. 

 

Other essential novelties have been the introduction of a working-from-home formula and more flexible working hours. From the internal educational point of view, a Sustainability Committee and a Digital Academy entirely dedicated to ESG topics have been created. The committee is an internal corporate body that, at least monthly, supports the team and the CEO in analyzing sustainability issues relevant to the company. It focuses exclusively on ESG issues and comprises internal members representing all corporate departments. During the meetings, all members share projects and initiatives, and at the end of each meeting, a recap report is spread among all departments.

 

The Academy is an internal corporate website created to help sales agents and employees stay up-to-date on new sustainability projects and corporate achievements. Thanks to this tool, all partners and collaborators can expand and deepen their knowledge on the ESG topics promoted by the Company.

Nicolas Bargi, Founder & CEO at Save the Duck

We aim to be reliable and relevant to our people, creating timeless and innovative garments that embody and keep pace with the needs and demands of our time. We want to inspire our customers, partners and colleagues through our activity. In 2019 we were a pioneering B Corp in the fashion industry in Italy, now many others have joined the movement and are struggling with us to change and improve the fashion business.

– Nicolas Bargi, Founder & CEO at Save the Duck

Save the Duck continually draws inspiration from other remarkable B Corps with outstanding practices while excelling in various fields. Looking at these partners helped them to define a top priority for Save The Duck environmental accountability. To achieve and maintain the company’s engagements, including B Corp Certification, the whole team is dedicated to assessing the impact of Save The Duck’s value chain through robust data collection. The disclosure of this analysis empowers customers to make more sustainable choices by providing essential information about the environmental impact of the garments they buy. 

 

Moreover, it’s well known that the fashion system significantly impacts climate and biodiversity. At Save The Duck, the company wants to be at the forefront of pioneering efforts to promote science-based targets for nature. This goes beyond the focus on carbon targets set through SBTi and now aims to include biodiversity, water use, and land impact considerations.

Lessons Learned

 

#1

Be transparent and consistent with your path. Excellence is not always achieved. Admitting this is already a big step towards improvement. Don’t be afraid of showing your shortcomings or failures.

 

 

#2

Educate your stakeholders. Sharing with our internal and external stakeholders what we learned along our certification path helps us every day to convey our values and the goals we want to achieve.

 

 

#3

The value of community. Sharing expertise between B Corp companies is the real added value of this certification.

 

Visit Save the Duck’s B Corp public profile to learn more!

Resources

 

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