Production and responsibility
We like to think that we have some of the highest standards required to join our network of suppliers, to protect both the environment and every person involved in the manufacturing and transport of our products. Here is a summary of how we assure best-practice standards throughout our supply chains.
Supply chain verification
Like most brands and companies, we rely on many suppliers in different countries to make our product series. We start with verifying the owners of the suppliers we use, and our suppliers' web of subcontractors. The suppliers assembling our finished product, are often just one out of several layers of the supply chain involved in the process.
In order to verify the safety, rights and wellbeing of the workers throughout our supply chains, we rely heavily on rigorous certification programmes, as well as on-site visits, either by ourselves or by trusted third-parties.
Amfori, a Belgium-based organization, has a certification programme called BSCI®. It is regarded as one of the most rigorous certification programmes for supply chains and manufacturing. It goes deep into the suppliers' employee contracts and wellbeing, and measures everything from decent working hours, salaries compared to the local market standards, policies to prevent child labour, special protection for young workers, parental leave rights, the rights of freedom of association & unions, and collective bargaining.
We require this certification for all our commercial suppliers and their sub-suppliers; All the way down to the production of the raw materials. We also require an overall BSCI® score A/B (from A-E), to join our network of suppliers. Further, we require the ISO:9001 certification, for good manufacturing procedures and on-site safety measures, as well as the ISO:14001 for environmental management systems. A few of our suppliers are also B Corp® Certified (https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/).
Non-profit suppliers
When it comes to our non-commercial suppliers, such as Anubhuti Social Foundation in India, one of our suppliers, we don't require all those certifications mentioned above. These are small foundations that don't have the financial capacity to pay for extensive certification programmes, often costing USD 6-10K per year and above. When a suppliers' overall goal is non-commercial, they usually care less about cutting costs at the expense of the environment or its workers.
They have socio-environmental initiatives as their main goal, such as women empowerment in non-urban areas, or the employment of visually impaired people, and they don't focus as much on rigid profit margins and financial growth. Our non-profit suppliers provide salaries that are 15% higher than the market standards in their respective regions, as well as a maximum workload of 8.5 hours per day. They provide extensive parental leave terms and opportunities for workers to adapt and develop their employment positions as they grow and gain experience. They often serve as leading stars to how manufacturing can be done in a holistic manner, while still being efficient and maintaining the product quality.
B Corporation®
We are a certified B Corporation, and the most important part of this certification, that takes over 10 months to complete, is for someone else to go through and verify our internal procedures and suppliers, so that you know that what we say is confirmed by an independent party.
For us at Concept Zero it is crucial that the manufacturing is carried out responsibly, both in terms of the environment and labour safety. That’s why we try our best to be open and transparent about what we do.
Production regions
In Europe our manufacturers are based in Italy, the UK, Sweden and Denmark. In Asia, they are based in China, India and Sri Lanka.
EUROPE
Sweden: Malmö
Denmark: Copenhagen and Allinge (Bornholm)
The UK: Bristol and Glasgow
Italy: Padua
ASIA
China: Guangdong and Ningbo
India: Kandai Gaon (Uttarakhand) and Pune
Sri Lanka: Katunayake