Sustainability
As a small business, sustainability means a lot to us. We do our best here at Alf to make lots of little changes to ensure the business becomes more environmentally and socially conscious.
A few of these changes include, working with our suppliers to reduce the soft plastics used in our shipments by 60%, participating in a cardboard recycling program, replacing our office lights to low energy LEDs, minimising use of paper and printing for our labels and using a cloud-based filing system for paperwork.
When it comes to our products there are numerous ways we work towards offering you a more sustainable life.
We are so proud to say our bags are not a product of fast fashion – and you, our Alf Community, often tell us your bags have served you through motherhood for 1,2 or even 3 babies and have then become your go-to work or overnight bag.
The introduction of the Everything Bag was around the time our national plastic bag use regulations came into place and now there are thousands (almost 3,000) of parents who use an Alf reusable bag which help save the world from decomposing one less plastic bag for the next 500-1000 years.
Even our materials are sustainable. Our leather is a by-product of the farming and agricultural industry and is considered sustainable because the animals are not raised for the express purpose of using their leather for another purpose.
We know genuine leather isn’t for everyone – however we love leather and know many of you do too.
In 2020, we made the decision to move our dispatching to the east coast for a more sustainable shipping solution, given the majority of our Australian customer base is on the east coast. The move led to a large reduction in our carbon footprint, with Alf bags travelling less kilometres in their life from their creation in the PRC, lowering emissions and wait times for you.
A few additional ways we're prioritising sustainability:
- Alongside contributing proceeds from every sale, we repurpose and donate pre-loved bags to at-risk women through our Alf Exchange program
- Participate in a soft plastics recycling program
- Introduction of the Alf X Frank Green reusable coffee cups to encourage customers to reduce their use of disposable cups
- Alf team members are provided reusable crockery, cutlery and coffee cups to use when buying takeaway meals & drinks to reduce use of disposable takeaway containers
- Office location was chosen to allow as many staff members as possible to utilise public transport and bike riding to work
- Meetings conducted via Zoom/Teams where possible in order to reduce staff travel
We are so proud of our efforts so far but looking to the future we will continue to do everything we can to be sustainable.