Environment

WE ONLY HAVE ONE PLANET, LET’S LOOK AFTER IT

We are shifting to supplying world standard ethical products and working on becoming carbon neutral

RECYCLING FOR NATURE

EXCHANGE A USED 100% COTTON TEE INSTORE FOR A $10 DISCOUNT OFF A NEW PURCHASE AT TIME OF DROP OFF.

Drop off only available at our Auckland Queen St & Quay St stores. Coming to more stores soon!

They will be returned to Head Office and recycled or repurposed

(you must make a purchase at time of drop off, no credit or gift voucher given)

CARBON EMISSIONS

Our aim is to be carbon neutral by 2024.

We’ve started by estimating our carbon emissions using a national emission calculator and talking to Toitu who provide a Carbon Certification Program.

The next step is to engage with Toitu to measure and identify how to minimise and offset our carbon emissions.

WAREHOUSE

POWER

The warehouse and screen printing room is run in a manner to minimise the use of power and waste.

ONLINE ORDERS - PACKAGING

All online orders are now sent using compostable courier bags. Any fragile items are wrapped using packing materials we receive in from suppliers that we keep for repurposing.

DISTRIBUTION - PACKAGING

We send all product from head office to our stores in cardboard boxes we receive from suppliers. These are then collected from our stores for recycling.

WASTE

We used to have a large rubbish skip and a separate cardboard bin filled and collected every month. We worked on reducing and separating all our waste and are pleased to say that both the skip and bin are now gone permanently. 

• Cardboard – reuse for distribution
• Hard plastics – recycle using City Council bin provided for recycling
• Soft plastics – recycle at local supermarket through the Soft Plastic Recycling scheme
• Organics – put in the City Council provided bin for organics
• General – put in the City Council provided bin for general waste – we are constantly trying to reduce what goes in this bin.

MERINO FABRIC OFFCUTS

We have recently stopped making our own merino accessories. When we finished, we had a lot of merino fabric offcuts which we obviously didn’t want to send to landfill. After some google searching we found an NZ organisation called Offcut who turn scraps into caps. They make hats using offcut fabrics destined for the dump and plant a tree with every cap sold. They happily accepted our merino offcuts and picked them up recently, filling the back of a van. We’re told these will be turned in to caps early in 2023.

OLD SCREEN INKS

We had a stack (over 3 shelving units full) of old inks we no longer used which were destined for landfill. After a few phone calls we found a new home for them and donated them to Canterbury University School of Art to be used as part of their new screen printing course. We also donated some old silk screens.

OLD SHOP FITTINGS

Global Culture has adopted a policy of recycling as many shop fittings as possible and it was great to be invited to the opening of the Beckford Pharmacy in St Martins, Christchurch to see where some of them had found a new home. The pharmacy is a true wellness centre, with 75% of the fit out completed using recycled products. Global Culture was proud to see our fittings become part of this new life, totally in tune with our B Corp principles.

Other fixtures or fittings from shops or the warehouse are always on sold to be used again.