Sustainably Sapphire

If you’re reading this, and we’re happy you are, we’ve deliberately inserted today’s date, 15 February 2024 This is to ensure we do not rest on our laurels, continue our sustainability journey and meet our targets for next year 30th January 2025. Please click on the “Looking Forward” tab to see the progress we have made.

As you have noted, the Sapphire business is supported by 6 complimentary services. Not limited to a single sector means we have an almost limitless array of opportunities to improve sustainable business practices and not just for ourselves but for you, the brands we service too.

It made sense to start with the most impactful changes first. Some were easy. Some not. Some unexpected and yet all have provided interesting revelations along the way.

Below then follows a list of changes implemented already and a few short reviews of our favourites. For more details, please don’t hesitate to call us directly.

The journey so far: our 3 favourite successes

We have played a defining role in one of our partner’s (a large South African Retailer) sustainability journey:

• By updating their thermal paper quality of till rolls to BPA-free and reducing the paper weight from 55gsm to 46gsm, we achieved R2.2m annual savings, along with reducing the Bisphenol-A associated health risks. This resulted in an annual reduction of 28.5 tons of virgin paper reducing carbon emissions, water usage and limited the waste stream. Further to this, the transport carbon footprint is likewise reduced by 28.5 tons of freight, both by import (sea) and local distribution (road).
• We have successfully transitioned our Retailer partner from virgin plastic (recyclable) to 90% PCW (post-consumer-waste), well ahead of the Government prescribed schedule. The Government mandates are that the PCW content must match 75% by 2025 and 100% by 2027. Since the inception of the PCW programme an estimated 803 tonnes of PCW has been removed from the environment and that has avoided the same tonnage of virgin plastic from entering the environment. And as the next stage, we are already developing sustainably sourced woven bags to move our client out of even the post-consumer-waste arena completely.
• o Sapphire produces over 500 000 uniform and PPE items per annum for our contracted partner programmes. A large portion of the fabric utilized is a polyester cotton blend imported from China as it is not produced locally. We mandated our suppliers to use only recycled plastics in the formation of the polyester filaments. Thus far an excess of 15% of all imported poly blends are made from this new technology. The units of plastic waste are so large they are beyond measure.

In addition to our recent efforts, we continue with:

Further to the above we have made the following progress to supply an ever more earth conscious manufacturing service for our Partners and Clients

• 100% of all bespoke manufactured uniforms where made in RSA in 2023
• We have two large uniform programmes that are supplied with 100% local content t-shirts. i.e from yarn, to knitting, dying, cutting and t-shirt manufacture; every element is 100% local
• We have 3 large uniform programmes that have made the change away from single plastic clothing sleeves to bio-zip lock bags
• We have supplied our first repeat orders for 100% RPET tote bags (post-consumer waste)
• Our upcycling services have been extended to include Astron Energy as we continue to divert everything we can away from landfill
• The Clothing Fix job creation programme continues to grow and through-put is forecast at R1million this year. Monies that would otherwise have gone to imported goods and cross border third parties
• Fabric sourcing extends to local manufacture where possible, specifically targeting CMIA (Cotton Made in Africa). Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, or PFAS have been removed from our local dye houses for uniforms
• We are working on making a change from plastic clothing sleeves to bio zip lock bags (for clothing packaging) that are reusable and are perfect for children’s wet towels, lunches, etc)
• We continue our support of The Clothing Bank donations and reduce both of our waste to landfill statistics.
• We have further reduced our fabric waste in our supply chain by implementing digital lay markers.
• We will continue our upcycling services (repurposing old branding) for Capitec Bank, McDonalds SA and others
• We will continue as a strategic partner to The Clothing Fix in the production of locally made products from disadvantaged communities

We are looking forward to partnering with you.