SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
WE SEE IT THAT WAY...
New and more products will not do the trick. We will not “slip on a banana peel” to a solution that solves everything going on in the world. And how to defend being a designer of goods when the world doesn´t need more stuff?
Great words like sustainable, circular, ecologic, recycle & reuse feels hollowed out. Are they true? Are they enough? What do they really mean? How much in control are we? Is there corruption in the supply chain? Can we trust the fairtrade certifications, what do they mean? How can we change the infrastructure in other countries or change their way of creating a sustainable world?
These are the thoughts we struggle with and try to develop creative solutions to. We hope you see our effort!
We try to lift all “old habits” and question them! With this document, we try to be more transparent and show you our work. A summary of where we stand to make the smartest choices for the future. Please contact us for improvements, thoughts or other questions.
PRODUCTION
We believe that design can contribute to a happier world. And who does not want a happier world?
With this goal, we want to manufacture smartly and kindly so that we cause as little negative impact as possible on our planet. In this way, we can focus on spreading joy.
We stick to our beliefs to only work with natural, biodegradable, and long-lasting materials. We do our products by hand in a healthy manner, and only in the amounts needed. We make products that are strong and timeless to last for at least a lifetime. And when the product reaches the end of life, it can go back to nature.
Throughout the whole design process, our goal is to work as locally as possible, and produce less and smart packaging, simply to reduce the negative impact on our planet, but also to support craftsmanship in Sweden and around the world.
Handmade products are an important part of our production. Therefore we carefully choose manufacturers and partners that share our values to ensure that they care as much as we do. In other words, to produce with environmental and social responsibility. We strive for honest relationships, joy for your eyes, and products for the heart.
We only use 100% organic wool from New Zealand, as they have banned sheep mulesing. The wool is imported to Nepal from New Zealand. In the factory in Nepal, the wool is felted by hand according to our design and treated with AZO-free colors. In order to ensure high and consistent quality, all wool products are sent to the warehouse in Limhamn so we can check the materials and quality.
Some items are then assembled in our warehouse, adding wood, leather or natural rubber.
Most of our partners have Fairtrade , Sedex and ISO certifiactions and we are working with the remaining suppliers to work with this too.
WHERE WE SOURCE AND PRODUCE
SWEDEN
Leather, wood, raw wool, ceramics
PORTUGAL Cork
GERMANY Spelt
NEPAL
Wool, paper, Kapok
INDIA
Wool & hamp
NEW ZELAND
Raw wool
A NOTE TO THE “VEGAN”
We have been discussing wool, vegan and other aspects of using natural resources. incl. leather. We fully understand all aspects of the wool, the grey zone, and the necessity of discussing it all. We welcome emails and comments to improve.
We choose wool because we believe it is still a better alternative than cotton and also because sheep has been a part of our lives for 1000 years, including working with natural materials. They do much good and need shearing for their survival. But we are fully aware of the fine line between natural shearing and exploitation for production. We believe to trust in mule-free and ecological wool, to support the part of the industry that is making a difference.
NATURAL MATERIAL
100% WOOL AND AZO-FREE COLORS
MATERIAL
The choice of material is of course an important choice to achieving a sustainable and environmentally friendly product. By choosing natural, biodegradable and sustainable materials as well as traditional craft techniques, we work against mass consumption, helping to protect the planet. We prefer to invest in fewer, long-lasting products and only produce what we need.
So what do we choose? We choose wool only from farmers who clearly distance themselves from mulesing (animal cruelty) - we dye the wool with AZO-free colors, and use certified wood, FSC certified paper (if possible), recycled paper, and organic cotton. Also, we use Swedish leather, a supplier with the highest premium vegetable-tanned leather.
Materials we love to use:
• Wool - 100% natural, renewable and biodegradable
• Swedish wood - a long-lasting, versatile, and natural material
• Lokta paper - environmentally friendly, acid-free paper that is extremely durable
• Hemp - very lasting and doesn’t need to be grown with pesticides or poisons
• Swedish leather - high-quality leather products that last a lifetime, with great respect for our environment, and a sustainable future
• 100% cotton
• Kapok: natural and hypoallergenic, great for filling
Aveva wants to reintroduce the hand-felted wool into our homes and keep an old tradition alive while creating new products. Combinations and contrasts of wood, wool, and ceramics are a clear part of our brand. New materials always inspire and challenge us, and as long as they are natural and sustainable, we want to include them.
PROJECTS
Swedish wool project
Every year tons of Swedish wool get burned or thrown away. This didn’t make any sense to us, so we started a Swedish wool project to take part in changing that. Birds are creative and smart makers, and who knows better where & how they want to live than themselves? Wellknown is that birds love wool, but it can be hard for them to find. The Do It Yourself birdhouse will help them in their creative process to build a warm and protective home. Just simply hang out their material on a branch and wait for it to be used. After this first project, we started is to use more swedish wool for stuffing some of our products. Like this we already use 200-300 kg swedish wool per year.
Recycle more
Both in the design process and in other areas we started to explore possibilities to make products with recycled material. First of all, we build a stand in 2022 with only recycled wood, screws, plants, and all material used before at fairs.
Carbon footprint
We still have a long way to go to calculate all the details. But as we started to reduce the amount of goods taken to the fairs, that is a start. Is wool better than wood or cotton, what energy do all our partners use? No doubt we need to have more expertise in this but for sure it is better to have a natural long-lasting product than a plastic one!
CIRCULAR ECONOMY - HOW WE START
DESIGN FOR CLARITY PRODUCTION & DISTRUBUTION USE
/ Extended life
We make products to last for a lifetime, so when the product reaches the end of life it can go back to nature. It’s important for us to manage the earth’s resources and minimize waste.
/ Personalization
We love projects and personalize products for a specific customer. Like this, we increase the life of the products.
/ Energy
We want to manufacture smartly and kindly so that we cause as little negative impact as possible on our planet. A systematic approach to minimizing resources and energy is to produce only the amounts needed. We also strive to produce less and smart packaging and minimize the use of plastic.
/ Digitalization
We started to make our catalog digital, instead of printing it. This means there is one less printed catalog in the world. It also means no boxes, no envelopes, and no shipping.
/ Craftsmanship & sustainability
This has always been in the heart of everything we do. We only craft what is needed, this means no mass production, we only produce as much as we need and always use natural materials.
/ Maintenance
Our goal is that our last for a long time. Maintenance of do so, that’s why for us to provide with care info on take care of them. tips on our website to maintain and care products.
/ Share or rent
This has not been small items.
/ Extended life
Read our care info life.
our products will time. our products will why it is important our products on how to best them. We also share website on how care for our been a topic for such
RECYCLING & REUSE SOURCING MATERIALS
/ Take back
Since all our products are made of natural materials, it means they will go back to nature when they are consumed or broken.
/ Redesign
For fairs, we always try to reuse the material from other fairs, to minimize material and spills.
/ Reuse
We started to reuse incoming packaging as packing and protection material for outgoing products.
info for extended
/ Recycled
Every year tons of Swedish wool are burned or thrown away. This didn’t make sense to us, so we started the Swedish wool project to take part in changing that.
/ Traceability
Since we do not buy whole containers of raw wool from New Zealand it is impossible for us to trace the material. But we know we get the wool from ecological farms and also from a country where muling is forbidden.
We work on solutions to be able to trace all products better. Last but not least we visit our suppliers and work with longterm relations in order to reduce the risk of doing things wrong.
SAY HELLO
HEAD OFFICE
AVEVA DESIGN AB
Ekonomigatan 4
SE-216 13 Limhamn
Sweden
www.aveva-design.se contact@aveva-design.se
Instagram: @avevadesign
Pinterest: @avevadesign
LOCAL CONTACTS / AGENTS
BELGIUM & LUXEMBOURG
Studio L+A
Olivia Govaerts olivia@studiola.be www.studiola.be
+32 471 82 24 10
FRANCE
Björka design
Isac Knafo isac@bjorka-design.com
+33 1 53 30 41 80
ITALY
CeD Rappresentanze / Concetti e design
Gianluca Cecconi info@concettiedesign.it +39 55 733 1262
NORWAY
SOL Tekstil Askjem Agenturer
Hans Georg Askjem post@soltekstil.no
+47 40 41 29 89