Sustainability
Aurifil's Stakeholders
The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development
Implemented projects
Plastic Bank
We are proud to announce our partnership with the Plastic Bank, a social enterprise headquartered in Canada which aims to clean up plastic waste from our oceans while providing valuable opportunities for people living in poverty.
Sewists and embroiderers use millions of yards of thread every year to create quilts, garments, accessories, and other works of art. As most weights of Aurifil thread are wound on a plastic spool, this usage generates a high level of excess plastic. While we encourage traditional recycling and creative repurposing of spools and cones, we also know that something more needs to be done.
We’ve seen the devastation in our oceans, growing year after year and understand that such a high level of destruction will ultimately have an irreversible effect. We feel strongly about creating a lasting and positive impact on our earth and environment and as such, we’ve taken action.
Our partnership with and support of the Plastic Bank will allow us to offset our average yearly plastic production rate of 8000kg. This means that our involvement will support the collection and clearing of 8000kg of plastic from our oceans in areas of Haiti, Indonesia, The Philippines, and Brazil. These efforts render Aurifil Plastic Neutral and we are excited to both give back to our earth while helping to create and promote positive work opportunities for people living in those key areas.
The Plastic Bank creates social and environmental impact in areas with high levels of poverty and plastic pollution by turning plastic waste into a currency. It is a platform for the world to gather together to STOP Ocean plastic and alleviate poverty through a global recycling ecosystem. The Plastic Bank acts as a convenience store for the world’s poor that accepts plastic waste as a currency. This recycling ecosystem is sustained through the sale and use of Social Plastic® by some of the world’s largest organizations. Over 1 million supporters have asked brands to support The Plastic Bank and Social Plastic®. In addition to using recycled Social Plastic®, both individuals and companies have the ability to offset their own plastic footprint by going Plastic Neutral. This is how we unite the world to reduce global poverty while making plastic too valuable to enter our oceans.
We are honored and humbled to count ourselves among those influential companies and we are proud to be setting a new standard for sustainability in the embroidery and textile industry.
Safe Work
Aurifil is proud to fully adopt and go further the DVR : Document for the Evaluation of Risks (“Documento di Valutazione dei Rischi“), in the interests of preventing accidents at work and occupational illnesses, DVR is a system of precautionary measures.
The new legal regime specifies that the employer is required to eliminate the risks present in the workplace in the light of existing technical knowledge and, where this is not possible, to reduce them to a minimum.
The main provisions are related to the organization of thorough procedures to improve health and safety. The employer is required, in particular, to organize within the enterprise a protective and preventive service responsible for identifying risk factors and for their elimination or reduction to a minimum.
The Decree also contains a number of stipulations on medical screening, establishing the person of a doctor responsible for the regular assessment and certification of employees’ physical fitness to perform the tasks assigned to them. Another of its important provisions concerns the election or appointment of a workforce representative on matters of health and safety who enjoys particular information and consultation rights.
In addition, the employer is under an obligation to provide employees with all general information on the risks present in the workplace and specific information on the risks associated with performance of the tasks assigned to individuals.
Lastly, employees must receive adequate health and safety training specific to their own particular job at the time of their recruitment, in the event of a transfer or change of job, and in the event of the introduction of new work equipment or any new technology. There is also provision for special and appropriate training for safety representatives.
Aurifil drafts and updates a formal Document for the Evaluation of Risks (“Documento di Valutazione dei Rischi“), under the direct liability of the employer.
Our Risk Assessment Document (DVR) has the following contents:
Report on Risk Assessment: containing details of all the risks to health and safety during work. This analysis is usually divided according to several risk factors, such as: workplace, machinery, equipment, chemical, physical and biological, organizational and management issues, etc..
The analysis is preceded by information on the organizational chart and business. Should also indicate the criteria used for risk assessment.
A statement of the measures of prevention and protection implemented in order to eliminate the above risks identified, or if it is not possible to completely eliminate them, reduce the risk to an “acceptable” level.
Identification of procedures for the implementation of security measures;
Indication of the Service Manager for the Prevention (Responsabile del Servizio per la Prevenzione e Protezione), of the Protection of Workers’ Safety Representative (Rappresentante dei Lavoratori per la Sicurezza) and the Company’s Doctor (Medico Competente);
List of personal protective equipment (DPI), which are protective clothing for workers to wear the personal protective equipment.
Program of the measures it considers necessary to ensure the improvement of safety standards over time, which means all those measures to be taken to improve levels of safety over time (maintenance, inspections, information activities and training of workers etc…) Identifying the tasks that expose workers to specific risks.
Oekotex
Aurifil threads are Oeko-Tex certified. Oeko-Tex certification relates to how a product is processed, including things like dyes and finishes used. It means that our threads are certified free of harmful chemicals and are completely safe for human use. Or… in sewing terms, you and your loved ones can wrap yourselves in those lovingly stitched textiles without worry!
STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® is one of the world's best-known labels for textiles tested for harmful substances. It stands for customer confidence and high product safety.
If a textile article carries the STANDARD 100 label, you can be certain that every component of this article has been tested for harmful substances and that the article therefore is harmless in human ecological terms. The test is conducted by independent OEKO-TEX® partner institutes on the basis of extensive OEKO-TEX® criteria.
In the test they take into account numerous regulated and non-regulated substances, which may be harmful to human health. In many cases the limit values for the STANDARD 100 go beyond national and international requirements.
Recycled Plastic
From 2020, Aurifil started to use Recycled Plastic as thread holder for our spools and cones. of cotton threads. Recycling plastic products also keeps them out of landfills. Recycling one ton of plastic saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
A product that manages to be modular, versatile and able to adapt, is a product that manages to take full advantage of the potential offered by the Circular Economy, and modularity, versatility and adaptability are to be privileged in a world in uncertain and fast evolution.
In a circular economy the main objective is to derive the greatest possible value from resources, products, components and materials to generate a system that allows long life, optimal reuse, reconditioning, rework and recycling.
A circular economy is a continuous positive development cycle that preserves and improves natural capital, optimizes resource yields and minimizes system risks by managing finished stocks and renewable flows.
FSC Compliant
At Aurifil for our Colour Cards and all the kind of cardboard boxes we allow only suppliers with a FSC certification, it ensures that the FSC labeled product comes from a forest and supply chain both responsibly managed.
FSC's Principles and Criteria set out the global requirements for responsible forest management. There are ten principles that any forest operation must adhere to before it can receive FSC forest management certification. These principles cover a broad range of issues, from maintaining high conservation values to community relations and workers’ rights, as well as monitoring the environmental and social impacts of the forest management.
BCI
Aurifil is a member of Better Cotton Initiative, a non-profit organisation that involves the global cotton industry with the aim of implementing a network of responsible suppliers across the globe.
The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is a global not-for-profit organisation and the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world. BCI exists to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future.
The Better Cotton Standard System is a holistic approach to sustainable cotton production which covers all three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social and economic.
The system is designed to ensure the exchange of good practices, and to encourage the scaling up of collective action to establish Better Cotton as a sustainable mainstream commodity.
The Better Cotton Principles and Criteria uphold the following seven principles:
Minimise the harmful impact of crop protection practices
Promote water stewardship
Care for the health of the soil
Enhance biodiversity and use land responsibly
Care for and preserve fibre quality
Promote decent work
Operate an effective management system
Reach
Aurifil products are manufactured according with REACH regulation and we deal only with suppliers holding a reach declaration.
REACH is a regulation of the European Union, adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry. It also promotes alternative methods for the hazard assessment of substances in order to reduce the number of tests on animals.
In principle, REACH applies to all chemical substances; not only those used in industrial processes but also in our day-to-day lives, for example in cleaning products, paints as well as in articles such as clothes, furniture and electrical appliances. Therefore, the regulation has an impact on most companies across the EU.
REACH places the burden of proof on companies. To comply with the regulation, companies must identify and manage the risks linked to the substances they manufacture and market in the EU.
REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. It entered into force on 1 June 2007.
REACH establishes procedures for collecting and assessing information on the properties and hazards of substances.
REACH impacts on a wide range of companies across many sectors, even those who may not think of themselves as being involved with chemicals. Most companies use chemicals, sometimes even without realising it, therefore you need to check your obligations if you handle any chemicals in your industrial or professional activity.
Waste Disposal
Waste management at Aurifil is managed at a municipal level in accordance with national legislation.
The collection of waste at Aurifil can happen in two ways. The first is curbside , where the garbage truck picks up the trash from individual bins. The second is a central collection, where workers have to place their not recyclable garbage at a central drop off area. At Aurifil proudly applying the strictest attention to recycling we reduced the need to empty the centralized casse first from 6 months to a year and now once every two years.
In order to reduce and optimise the amount of garbage produced, we also implemented for our rest area :
- coffe glasses had been switched from plastic into cardboard
- bottles, are now bio bottles, so they can be disposed into the food waste
- fresh water is offered from drinking fountain where employees can fill their own water bottles decreasing the need for glasses and bottles.
- coffe's spoons and the glasses are now bio, so they can be disposed into the food waste