Love the planet
Putting children's well-being first means thinking about their future. As a baby clothing brand, we value responsibility for our planet. The fashion industry has a significant impact on both today's and tomorrow's world. We are committed to making improved choices every day and strive to reduce our negative impact on the environment one step at a time. By setting clear goals for the coming years, we are taking responsibility and working hard to make positive changes. By 2030, we want to reach our goals and establish new milestones. Together we can make a positive change for the world we want to pass on to our children.
OUR MISSION
“Love the Planet” is more than just a slogan, it's our mission. We go beyond offering affordable, sustainable baby clothing. Our goal is to actively contribute to changing the fast-fashion industry and ensuring that the production and consumption of clothing takes place without a negative impact on our planet.
OUR METHOD
Dirkje baby clothes are designed by our stylists and brought to life at our headquarters in Weert. During the whole process they keep an eye on the fact that the clothing meets all regulations and wishes. The clothing is produced India, this is where we established our own office in 2016. Here 7 employees work full-time, regularly visiting factories and performing all final inspections. This direct presence gives us control not only over the quality of our products, but also over the well-being of the production workers. We value fair working conditions and strive to have a positive impact on the lives of everyone involved in the production process.
OUR IMPACT
In everything we do, we strive to make a positive impact on both the people who wear our clothes and the world around us. Transparency and accountability are central to this, so that together we can take steps toward a fashion industry with an eco-conscious footprint.
Sustainable materials
We believe it is important to consider the well-being of babies and the planet when choosing the materials for our collections. For example, all our garments meet safety standards such as the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and we have released a Never Out of Stock collection made from organic cotton. The organic cotton in this collection meets the strict requirements of the Global Organic Textile Standard. Also, all of our clothing labels and price tags are made from responsible materials such as FSC-certified wood and recycled polyester.
Plastic consumption
We are actively working to reduce our plastic consumption, for example, we aim to eventually produce all our packaging from recycled materials. We are therefore proud to say that all of the packaging in our Never Out of Stock collection is made from recycled materials.
CO2 emissions
We believe it is important to reduce our CO2 emissions, one way we are doing this is by transitioning our car fleet to electric vehicles.
Transparency
We strive for transparency in both our production chains and our global partnerships, but also towards you as our customer. We want to be honest about our goals and difficulties on the road to sustainability.
Sustainable design
For us, quality, comfort and affordability are key. When making design choices, we emphasize timeless designs that do not last just one season. Appropriate to current fashion trends, but not trend-sensitive. Our color palettes are carefully curated, making items easy to mix and match. We strive for a wardrobe that can be worn for a long time and passed on to siblings.
OUR AMBITIONS
By setting concrete goals, we hope to do a little better every day. We aim to reach these goals by 2030 and would like to take you through what these goals are and how we are working toward them. Our long-term goals focus on greening our materials. We aim that by 2030:
- 20% of our fabrics come from recycled materials.
- 25% of our materials have the highest possible environmental standard.
- Our garments contain a maximum of 5% elastane.
- 20% of our collection consists of single materials, such as 100% cotton, 100% polyester or 100% viscose. This facilitates the recycling process compared to garments made up of a mix of fabrics.
Transparency plays an essential role in our sustainability ambitions. Therefore, we work with independent parties to verify and guarantee our sustainability claims. We aim for an increasing proportion of our collection to be certified to strict environmental standards, such as Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard). These certifications help us ensure the safety, sustainability and environmental friendliness of our materials.
OUR MANUFACTURERS
Choosing the most reliable factory partners is important to us for ensuring quality. We only work with manufacturers who meet strict requirements for working conditions, safety and sustainability. By building long-term relationships with our manufacturers, we ensure that our baby clothes are made under fair and responsible conditions. In addition, we are committed to transparency in the production chain so that we can confidently assure our customers that our clothes are produced in an ethical and sustainable manner.
Business Social Compliance Initiative
Our manufacturers have joined the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) to ensure that our baby clothes are made in responsible places. The initiative promotes the right to form a union, the creation of safe workplaces and the prevention of forced and child labor. These independent checks allow us to take steps, if necessary, to ensure that working conditions are in order and meet all official standards.
Sedex certificate
Our manufacturers are also Sedex certified. This is a globally recognized certificate that focuses on a social and ethical personnel policy, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. This means ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions and environmentally friendly production processes.
OUR TEAM
Our team is committed daily to exploring new opportunities and improving our sustainability efforts. If you have questions or suggestions to improve or accelerate our impact, please don't hesitate to email us at maurice@vangenniptextiles.com
