Celebrating World Environment Day with Purpose
REDUCING OUR IMPACT
Today is World Environment Day, a time to reflect on the beauty of our planet and our responsibility to protect it.
At Merchants, we are dedicated to making a tangible difference through sustainable practices and transparent actions
Here’s how we’re leading the way through our initiatives:
100% CARBON NEUTRAL
DELIVERIES AND RETURNS
Since 2022, we’ve partnered with DHL and AUSPOST to offer carbon neutral shipping options to our customers, and tracking any excess carbon emissions to be offset through our carbon neutral certifications.
100% CARBON NEUTRAL
PACKAGING PROCESS
We manufacture a number of our packaging elements within Australia, choosing to partner with local printers to reduce our footprint. Additionally we have moved to shipping our overseas packaging elements to our HQ via SEA FREIGHT to further reduce our impact. Our packaging composition is 90% recyclable, and 10% biodegradable. Read our annual report to understand how our entire packaging solution is 100% carbon neutral, offset and audited through the Climate Active initiative.
100% CARBON NEUTRAL
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Our Carbon Neutral certification means that even our office spaces and warehouse emissions are offset through our carbon purchasing initiatives. This meant auditing and detailing ever single output in our office and warehouse—from the A/C kilowatts per hour all the way down to how our staff commute to work (walk, bike or drive). We even weighed our rubbish bins each week.
100% CARBON NEUTRAL
PRODUCT EMISSIONS
From sourcing materials to crafting our pieces, our entire production process is carbon neutral, backed by certifications. We track everything from the amount of cigarettes our Indonesian artisans smoke per day (no shit, this actually detailed in our annual report) to how much gas is used per hour in our casting process. This was only possible by our founder, Matt, choosing to live in Indonesia to manage and audit this process.
PARTNERSHIPS & 2023 ACHIEVEMENTS
We’ve collaborated with various brands to amplify our sustainability efforts.
In 2023, our partnerships helped us achieve a 20.92% reduction in Scope 3 Emissions for Raw Materials and a 22.94% decrease for Advertising Emissions, all credited to Recycled-sourced silver certification and analysis. Additionally, we’ve offset 100% of our carbon emissions by partnering with the Rimba Raya Biodiversity project. Moreover, we implemented the Supplier Code, Conflict Minerals, and Ethical Marketing Policies into our manufacturing processes, as outlined on our transparency page.
WHY THE RIMBA RAYA PROJECT?
Rimba Raya is a living example of an economically viable alternative to deforestation. Rimba Raya is located in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, and is one of the largest REDD+ peat swamp forest projects in the world, avoiding nearly 130 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
• Rimba Raya protects one of the most highly endangered ecosystems in the world.
• Rimba Raya develops livelihood programmes in surrounding villages (addressing all 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals) to provide education, employment and hope for the future.
• Rimba Raya provides a buffer zone between the palm oil industry and the Tanjung Puting National Park, home to one of the last remaining wild populations of orangutans on earth.
• Rimba Raya is an InfiniteEARTH Project.
OUR PACKAGING SOLUTION
THIS BAG SAVES
This Bag Saves is an impact framework designed to attack three critical environmental issues: circularity, atmospheric carbon, and ocean health. Every order is engineered to remove more carbon than is produced from the manufacturing and transportation of customer orders. This is done by restoring multiple blue carbon coastal ecosystems that have a positive impact on the oceans and life it supports.
SUGARFLEX MATERIAL
Sugarflex™ laminate is a carbon negative bio-plastic made from sugarcane. It is a fully recyclable mono-material and has similar functional characteristics to traditional plastics. Refusing to use virgin plastics, we integrated this material into our packaging solution to stop the oxidising process of silver, and protect our products through transit and storage.
BIODEGRADABLE POUCHES
As an industry standard for mailing pouches, we use compostable shipping pouches to protect our mailing boxes in transit. These pouches are bio-degradable through most home compostable solutions, however, we are learning that not many consumers have sufficient systems to compost them effectively, and unfortunately a large portion are just ending up in landfill. As such we are in the process of looking for alternative options to remove this from our packaging solution.
MYCELIUM PACKAGING
In a bid to continuously pioneer what it means to be sustainable, and lead the way for purpose driven eCommerce—we have been researching and exploring a number of new materials to integrate into our packaging solution. One of these materials we have been testing is Mycelium mailing boxes, a fungal based material that is literally grown in a matter of weeks to replace traditional cardboard mailing boxes. A world first to be used on a commercial scale. Currently we are running into roadblocks with importing and exporting this material due to it being a live organism. We’ll keep you updated on this progress, and let you know as soon as it’s live! If anyone can help us out here, give us a holla at hello@merchantsofthesun.com.au
RECYCLED STERLING SILVER
Since our inception, we have used 100% recycled .925 sterling silver, sourced from industrial offcuts and waste. From cradle to grave, the entire process of creating our silver jewellery is sustainable.
SUSTAINABLY SOURCED GOLD
We’re currently reviewing our gold refinery processes to ensure that our supply chain meets the highest ethical and environmental standards. Our gold supplier is Certified Climate Active, ensuring responsible sourcing. While our gold is sustainably sourced, we are working towards meticulously mapping our supply chain for full transparency.
ETHICAL GEMS
Our commitment to ethical sourcing extends to our precious stones. Sourced through our trusted metal supplier, we’re working towards mapping the full supply chain by 2027. Additionally, we’re actively pursuing Responsible Jewellery Council Certification, further solidifying our dedication to responsible practices.
CLOSE THE LOOP PROGRAM
Our close the loop program is our attempt at building a circular economy to keep our recycled sterling silver pieces from ending up in landfill. The goal is to keep our pieces in an endless loop of conception and creation, continuously melting down old pieces to make new ones.
To ensure we leave nothing behind, we are offering $40.00 in store credit for any pieces you wish to recycle. We will accept all Merchant’s jewellery that has been owned in a new, used or damaged condition outside of our Merchant’s warranty period of 12 months.
Whether you’ve outgrown a piece physically or let go of a piece emotionally, send your silver and gold back to the House of Merchants. We will then send all stock back to our production house to be melted down to reduce our sourcing amounts for future collections. We refuse to hoard materials and deplete the world of newness we cannot afford.
RECYCLED MERCHANTS RING = $40 STORE CREDIT
WATS NEXT FOR MERCHANTS?
B CORP CERTIFICATION
As a business it has been one of our earliest goals to be certified as a B Corporation.
Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Since early 2022 we have been going through the verification, audit and analysis process to achieve this gold standard of what it means to be a sustainable and ethical business. We are in the final stages of the auditing process and will hopefully be certified by the end of this quarter.
2024 GOALS
By June, our Miami offices will be powered 100% by GreenPower renewable energy.
Implementation of TerraCycle in our Miami Office to facilitate easier recycling of packaging.All applications are in final processing for BCorp certification.
Reducing our ring sizer output and investigating a recyclable variation.
Increasing uptake of our metal recycling Close the Loop Program.
Exploring solar energy to power our Indonesian warehouse.
By the end of 2024, we will have redesigned and implemented our recyclable packaging technology.
2025 GOALS
By June, we aim to have fully reviewed and mapped our gold supply chain for greater transparency.
Registering with the Responsible Jewellery Council.
2027 GOALS
-Achieving 100% waste-free operations across all production, retail, and transport areas.
