SUSTAINABLE
CIRCULAR
NATURAL

 
 
 
 
Owner & maker Tamzin Hawkins

Owner & maker Tamzin Hawkins

 

Sustainable and circular systems are at the heart of everything we do at White Label. The words mean different things to different people, but in the context of our business they simply mean we always push to design and produce our products with as little impact on the natural systems of the world as possible. Our practice focuses on the entire lifecycle of a product and currently covers:

 

Made to order

  • Only supplying demand

  • Better yields

  • Less waste

  • No dead stock


Product Stewardship

  • Bring your product back and have it repaired with us

  • If it’s looking tired and it just needs a refresh, we can over-dye it

  • At the end of the products lifecycle we have a ‘buy back’ option on in exchange for a discounted rate off your next uniform. They are then deconstructed and made into a completely new product. If this isn’t possible (thread bare) they are shredded and recycled into felted material or composted


Materials

  • Working with local fabric suppliers

  • Predominantly natural fibres (cotton, wool, linen, leather, recycled rubber)

  • NZ made fabrics when possible

  • 100% no polyester

  • Working with the Sustainable Business Network to develop systems capable of recycling our products back to their raw materials


Makers

  • Self employed, independent machinists sprinkled throughout Aotearoa. Most of them are women who have been made redundant from factory jobs, who set their own rates and have flexible working hours


Supporting local businesses

  • Cutters, Presses, Fuser, Hardware suppliers, Thread suppliers, Fabric suppliers, Die makers, Dyers, Pattern makers, Digitisers, Marker makers, Trims and button suppliers, Cotton and webbings, Leather suppliers, Couriers


Dying

  • We support the last dye house in Aotearoa, using GOTS approved dyes


Waste Minimisation

  • Design for waste minimisation, fabric sizes dictating design (not the other way around)

  • Our cutters separate paper and fabric offcuts, larger fabric pieces are saved for other uses and the paper is recycled or composted

  • Any small, unusable fabric scraps are shredded and used in a range of felted products, recycled, or composted


Sea Freight

  • All material bought in from overseas are shipped on sea rather than air, which is slower, but uses less emissions than air freight


Packaging

  • Recycled packaging, which may have some drawings from our 19 month old Nikau on them:) Not the prettiest but we often get multiple uses out of both our paper packaging and plastic fabric role packing

 
 
 
Raw waffle toweling before dying

Raw waffle toweling before dying

 
 

We are constantly growing and evolving our systems as we learn more, and we’re excited to be working with the Sustainable Business Network to help push us toward more mindful systems, and link us into the people that can help make our ideas a reality. We will continue to update this area and our social media with the latest happenings in our sustainable and circular journey.