Environmental and Ethical Policy

Crystalla Lingerie aims to run its business in the most ethical and environmentally sound manner possible.

Our Environmental Ethos.

Our mission as a company is to be committed to the environment, producing products that are as good for the world in which we live as they are for our customers. We can prove that with a clear environmental conscience we are able to minimise our environmental impact and still produce superb quality products.

Together, with you the client as our partners, our product packaging epitomises the environmental ideal. We encourage you to re-use the beautiful silver box, recycle the postage boxes and invoices [which are both already recycled], compost the protective polybag [carefully constructed from biothene].

Our beautiful lingerie is made in the only last remaining lingerie production house in the UK where all other lingerie manufacturers are now based in the Far East. The majority of our materials are also manufactured in the UK and where necessary Europe so our carbon footprint is significantly minimised.

How is this achieved?

Office

Lights, computers, monitors and printers are turned off whenever possible.
By using on-line selling, we reduce our reliance on a work force and subsequently there are dramatic reductions on energy and resource consumption.
By selling on-line we minimise delivery to our stockists saving fuel.
Where possible we use email to communicate rather than fax, phone or letter.
We work from home as much as possible – this means there are fewer commutes to work, currently saving up to 50 litres of petrol per week, whilst also reducing the need for additional lighting and heating.
Our working practises take into consideration all aspects of green living, making sure we reuse/ reduce/recycle everything from long life light bulbs and fast boil kettles to fair trade tea bags and coffee.

Stationary

We use recycled stationary & invoices and recycle all our paper waste.
We use recycled printer cartridges and recycle our used cartridges.
Our publicity material is produced using non toxic vegetable inks and recycled paper using companies that are at the forefront of the green industry.

Products

We use the only British manufacturer of lingerie so business and work stays within the UK.
Where possible we source our materials from within the UK to keep transportation to a minimum.

Packaging

We minimise packaging and where possible we use recycled and recyclable packaging materials including biodegradable plastic bags.
We have made efforts to source multiple packaging items from select suppliers meaning we are able to make one large order for multiple products significantly reducing the environmental impact of transportation and delivery.
In the rare instance where we have been unable to source our packaging from non recycled materials, we have urged our suppliers to begin the process of change to source and produce environmentally sound products.
We urge our clients to re-use our silver presentation boxes and have made the decision not to overtly ‘Crystalla –ise’ them so they can be successfully reused.

Our Ethical Ethos.

As a business we do our best to ensure we are not knowingly supporting un-ethical practices.

How is this achieved?

Where our materials are not manufactured in the EU, we have researched the working practises of our suppliers and received independently audited evidence of their ethical practises.
We visit most of our suppliers and see their working conditions and practices.
We have taken steps to research the sourcing of crystals and tumbling processes and we have made sure that we source our beautiful stones from areas where finances are put back into the education and living conditions of the workers.
Our crystals are sourced “…mostly from individuals. Work goes to uncapitalised individuals who extract crystals as their sole source of income, in areas where no other sources of income are available. Extraction is by hand and is an ideal small industry providing much needed employment.”