Sustainability

We feel it is important that pet owners have the chance to make sustainable and responsible purchase decisions. Why? The textile industry is the second largest polluter in the world. In total, only agriculture uses more water. Furthermore, our industry is directly linked to several human rights violations, microplastic pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, rainforest destruction and excessive landfill waste.

Unfortunately, currently nearly all pet products are manufactured in high-polluting factories in Southeast Asia. These products carry a big carbon footprint as well as a heavy load from other environmental and social issues. We believe you want better. We believe you deserve better.

It is time for a change of heart.

Beana was born with the vision of creating a quality pet brand that promotes and enables environmental responsibility. We strive to offer products that are both exciting and inspirational by design as well as durable and sustainable by build, so that pet owners wouldn't have to make compromises in their purchase decisions.

Producing and buying apparel will always have an impact. We challenge ourselves (and you!) to make it as minimal as possible. Our to-do list seems never-ending, but step by step we are headed in the right direction. This is what we currently do to ensure our commitment to sustainability.

Local or nearby production

For the manufacturing of our products we utilize a 4-hour rule of thumb: all of our production must happen within a 4-hour travel distance radius from where we design our products. This means Beana products will always be manufactured locally or in nearby EU countries.

Currently our products are crafted in a small sewing shop in the middle of Estonia. The shop employs 10 local modistes and has a long history of producing high-quality and complex textile products.

By keeping production near, we are able to cut back over 95% on logistics emissions compared to having production in Asia. Essentially this means that you will save, on average, nearly 1000g of CO2 emissions per pet apparel piece when choosing Beana!

Long-lasting materials

Beana offers the most sustainable product range on the market – our collections include over 90% products made from sustainable, recycled materials yearly. By sustainable materials, we mean non-conventional, durable materials that have a lower impact on both nature and human health, such as recycled polyester and organic cotton.

We call our products sustainable when their composition includes a minimum of 50% of sustainable materials which is universally used as a standard in the textile industry. Furthermore, we emphasize durability when selecting fabrics for our products because product lifetime is another important parameter when aiming for an environmentally responsible offering.

Minimizing chemicals

Chemicals are needed in all kinds of textile products including ours – from the manufacturing of raw material to dyeing, printing, final look, and function. The challenge is to avoid the toxic ones that are harmful to the environment, animals and our health. Since our products are mainly used by pets, chemical management is a subject close to our hearts. We actively work to limit the use and waste of chemicals in all of our products. Already in the design phase, we eliminate a massive amount of harmful substances by choosing sustainably better materials with third party certifications (for example the ISO 9001:2000 standard). We also make systematically risk analyses and tests to assure all products comply with our requirements.

Our chemical restriction list is based on EU’s regulation REACH which we believe is fundamental in order to call a product and production safe and sustainable.

Responsible waste

Waste is an unavoidable part of the textile industry – for every collection, there will be waste including fabric, energy, chemicals and water. However, we strive to minimize this waste and recycle it whenever possible.

We use environmental standards that ask the suppliers to have policies such as water treatment plants and sustainable chemical management and do our best to optimize every batch of production. Instead of sourcing new fabric qualities for each season, the majority of our fabric qualities are repeated. We don't match prints with pattern pieces, bindings or cuffs, and we avoid using too many contrast materials and colors for smaller pieces of garments.

In our production we work hard to optimize fabric usage and minimize the amount of leftovers. However, excess fabric pieces are inevitable but we collect the waste materials from previous productions and plan to create new products with a new purpose from them. With this, we want to create a circular stream and eventually, close the loop.

Product shipping causes a lot of waste at the customers end. We have decided to use all plastic-free packaging when shipping our products and prefer recycled packaging materials whenever possible. We also want to encourage our customers to reuse for example our shipping packaging or for the very least we are more than happy to instruct you in recycling it.

Doing good

In addition to making responsible choices with our products and in our production, we want to further promote and inspire sustainability by doing good with our business. We believe businesses should lead the way in fighting climate change and protecting the environment, and we want to lead by example. This is why we direct 5% of our profits annually towards protecting animals and the planet.

We want pet owners to have the opportunity to make environmentally responsible choices and get a sense of giving back with their purchase decisions. By choosing Beana, pet owners show their support for an important cause and participate in making a change.

Our goal is to grow our business in order to use it as a vehicle for having significant impact in environmental issues. We want to welcome all our customers to join us in this movement and show your support for a greener future.

Guidelines for sustainability

Beana's commitment to environmental responsibility is driven by three guidelines.

1. Sustainable production in the EU. Beana products are produced in the EU and only by manufacturers with sustainability certifications. Currently, practically all pet products and clothing are manufactured in high-polluting factories in Southeast Asia.

2. High-quality, recycled materials. We only use high-quality, durable materials and recycled ones whenever possible, and plastic-free packaging.

3. Directing 5% of profits to charity. Beana donates 5% of profits to protecting animals and the planet.

By choosing Beana pet owners make an environmentally responsible decision and get to be a part of a community that helps create a greener future.