ETHICS & SUSTAINABILITY

Our Vision

All of our pieces are ethically made with our long term ethical clothing manufacturer, Yogi & Boo Clothing Manufacturer in Bali, Indonesia. You can find their website here: https://www.yogiandboo.com/

Our clothing manufacturer first established themselves in Kuta, Bali in 1987, and they still remain family run in the same location. They still even have some of their original employees from the 80's along with several long standing clients from the 80s and 90s which attests to their reputation as being Bali's most trusted clothing manufacturer.

One of the points of difference between Yogi & Boo and other Balinese clothing manufacturers is their ethical treatment of their team.

The owners, who are an Australian/Balinese family, have instilled unique employee entitlements that are otherwise unheard of in the Indonesian textile industry, such as superannuation and mutual fund benefits. 

The factory also has an outstanding reputation for paying all employees and suppliers on time, and the factory often consults with the Indonesian Government to help assist with improving policy regarding the textile industry and its people.

Yogi & Boo also include the following in their staff entitlements:

• Any member of staff that has held their position of 12 months is invited to their superannuation, health care & life insurance program with www.prudential.co.id
• Once a member, their employees receives private hospital cover, and a retirement fund begins accruing as well as full life insurance. The cost of this is completely subsidized by Yogi & Boo and to this date we are yet to discover another clothing factory in Bali to provide this for their workers however we hope for many more to come.
• All employees are provided 2 weeks full pay leave and infinite full pay sick leave and also three months fully paid maternity leave as standard procedure.
• The factory complies and exceeds all government salary & working hour laws (they only work 40 hours per week)
• Yogi & Boo offers no-interest micro-financing to all their team to help them reach their goals & dreams. Most seek finance to purchase sewing machines for their homes in order to increase their monthly pay packet

You can read more about the treatment of the people behind your pieces here: here: https://www.yogiandboo.com/ethical-clothing-manufacturer/

Take a tour of where our clothing is made

Our clothing manufacturer, Yogi & Boo, is renowned in Bali for being one of the cleanest factories on the island and we can personally attest to this after numerous site visits.

The factory is fully air conditioned inside for maximum employee comfort, and they also have a nice balance between natural window lighting and daylight LED lighting (no fluorescent bulbs).

The factory has also led the Balinese textile industry with respect to the use of antibacterial gel dispensers, mask use and hygiene practices in the factory so the team is both protected and also able to continue working to support their income.

During Covid19, the factory also kept all team members on or working from home with no interruption to their regular salary or employee entitlements.

Yogi & Boo also consistently donated food packages to all staff on top of their salary and provided monthly donations to the Solemen Indonesia charity to help underprivileged children and families with mental and health disabilities. https://solemen.org/

Take a little walking tour of Yogi & Boo here to see why they are our preferred choice of clothing manufacturer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBWR_ibCYgI&t=4s

Where do you print your fabrics?

 We print all of our fabrics digitally with Palm Printing Co Bali, https://www.palmprinting.co/

We will always choose to digitally print our fabrics as this is the most environmentally sustainable method of printing.

Digital fabric printing allows us to print the precise amount of fabric we need to complete an order and this prevents excess fabric wastage unlike many hand methods. It is also kind to our printing team as they are not exposed to dangerous conditions and chemicals that screen printing poses.

Digital fabric printing also involves no water use or wastage, either pre, during or post printing unlike screen printing which has had many dubious factories pouring their waste water into local Bali rivers: https://seminyaktimes.com/denpasar-closes-polluting-screen-printing-business-on-tukad-badung/

We care about the communities in which Hazel & Folk is produced. We will always choose the most sustainable methods of production for the environment, staff and our customers.

Oeko Tek Certified Inks 

 We digitally print all of our fabrics with high grade German inks that are Oeko Tex Eco Passport Certified Inks. 

ECO PASSPORT inks have been tested for harmful substances in critical concentrations as listed in the ECO PASSPORT standard. The label also gives transparent proof of which articles meet the criteria for ecologically responsible textile manufacture. Once per year, OEKO-TEX® updates the banned substances and limit values and expands them to include new scientific findings or statutory requirements.

To read more about the ECO PASSPORT fabric inks, please see:

https://www.oeko-tex.com/en/our-standards/eco-passport-by-oeko-tex

Sustainable mindset

We will always seek the most sustainable fabrics available to us for each collection and prefer to use 100% natural fibre fabrics where possible and when available.

We are committed to avoiding the use of plastic where possible and we only use coconut buttons for our pieces which are made from recycled coconut shells.

Do you use animal products in production?

We choose not to work with animal products such as leather, feathers, silk, fur of any kind (animal or synthetic), wool, cashmere, as we are committed to having a cruelty-free mindset in all of our products.

For accessories such as buttons, we source coconut buttons made from recycled coconut husks or buttons derived from crushed shell fragments found in sand.

Is my order packaged sustainably?

It sure is! Your order is wrapped in thick grade recycled crafts paper with swing tags made from recycled paper.  We will not pack your order in plastic wrapping or use poly based ribbons that will end up being thrown out.

If your order is shipped using Australia Post, we will send your order in a strong biodegradable mailer that is 100% home-compostable shipping mailer and made from 70-80% PBAT (a co-polymer that is completely compostable) and 20-30% PLA (which is another way of saying cornstarch) made by www.heropackaging.com. 

How do we minimise our carbon footprint?

 One of the most efficient ways we have reduced our carbon footprint is by shipping most of our pieces direct from our Bali studio as soon as they have been freshly finished by our tailors, instead of shipping large boxes of stock to the Gold Coast (Australia) studio to then unpack, re-pack and send to our customers worldwide.

This efficient system has not only saved carbon by omitting unnecessary double transport in flights and transport to deliver bulk stock, but it has also saved on copious amounts of packaging used to package bulk amounts of items.