Sustainability
Our sustainability journey
It’s 2012 and Notabag is born in a Frankfurt apartment.
One year later the EU will publish their first proposal to cut down the use of lightweight plastic bags. By 2020 the rumbling undercurrent of experts and activists ringing the alarm on climate change will have grown to a veritable tidal wave of public protest.
Thousands of companies will be jumping on the sustainability bandwagon, realizing that customers are putting money where their mouth is and looking to reduce their impact on the planet.
By design Notabag was always meant to reduce waste, but to us sustainability goes beyond that. We care that you, our customers, care about where your products come from and their impact on the environment. That’s why we’ve decided to communicate with more transparency on our approach towards sustainability.
How we produce
One of our biggest challenges was to balance an affordable price tag with sustainable practices. When we started looking into production practices our partner, Sam, suggested collaborating with a small family-run factory in Guangdong province, China.
The production team there ensures ethical working conditions with a living wage, fair working hours, holidays and nutritious meals. They also look at the female-male ratio, applying corrective discrimination and intentionally making management opportunities available to women.
We have maintained a close relationship since 2016, and a second factory opened to accommodate our increasing orders. In this time, and especially during the recent crisis, we have been careful to spread our orders out so as to keep people employed.
Many of the people making Notabags have been doing so for over four years. Their expertise is valuable in reducing waste as they know the product well, and can optimize fabric cuts and maximize the recycling of faulty models.
Our founder, Adnan, has visited the factories in person and the teams stay in touch on a daily basis. All this gives us complete transparency over how our products are made and the working conditions of the people making them.
Giving back
To us, sustainability is about creating virtuous circles and giving back is part of that: as a member of the 1% for the Planet network, we commit 1% of our annual sales to environmental nonprofits.
Our promise to you
By choosing sustainable products, you, our customers, are contributing to a more sustainable world. And we care that you care, so we promise to keep it real and provide you with more transparency about our products and production process.
Got a question? Give us a shout on Instagram @thenotabag or send us an email info@notabag.com