At VALE, we do everything we can to act in a socially responsible way, whether it concerns the environment, the production conditions at our manufacturing partners, or the conditions we have created at our office and warehouse in Denmark.
With the ultimate goal of having Satisfied Customers and provide the best service possible, we aim for a healthy work environment with happy employees and reliable partners, being constantly trying to improve when it comes to our company's social actions.
In fact, VALE’s production process is operated under the ethical standard AMFORI Business Social Compliance Initiative, most known as BSCI®, which is a system that helps companies to gradually improve working conditions and social performance in their own supply chain through a common Code of Conduct.
In all our relationships we preserve a friendly and welcoming tone, as we believe that this behavior strengthens any collaboration between individuals and greatly increases our customer service, bringing joy to people who often live in a bitter world.
VALE is guided by strong internal values and long-term objectives.
Our success must also benefit the disabled community and impact those who make an extra effort to create quality of life for others in an often turbulent and harsh world. As soon as it is financially viable, we shall accomplish this through the establishment of a special fund which will have the following goals:
• to provide temporary initial financial support to new entrepreneurs getting started with their own businesses – namely, parents of disabled children who wish to work as self-employed but consequently lose their right to payment of lost earnings during the establishment period
• to build a handicap-friendly rental cottage with all aids including lift systems
Humanity and Sustainability are both part of VALE's DNA, working actively with the United Nations 17 SDGs - No. 8, 9 and 12.
Every year, 62 million tons of clothing are produced worldwide. The clothing industry is considered one of the most polluting in the world, and the production of clothing accounts for over 10 percent of the world's total emissions of CO2. That's even more CO2 than flights and shipping combined. VALE acts responsible and considers all aspects in the production chain to minimize our CO2 impact.
We work according to the principles of ‘Slow Fashion’ , which means that we produce limited quantities to avoid overproduction and higher-quality clothes in organic fabrics that will last longer, as well as we work focused to avoid waste. We will do this in the coming years through initiatives such as ’Upcycling’, ’Zero-waste’, ’Take-back system’ and ’Designers remix’.
We aim to:
• be an independent brand
• have a sustained development guided by the United Nations' 17 SDGs offering products with the best possible quality and manufactured in countries that respect the United Nations Human Rights (made in Europe), and especially do not compromise on working conditions, wages or product quality
• consider the possibility of finding employment for vulnerable people on the labor market when we have to make strategic choices regarding employees in the future
• reinvest profits on developing new ideas and new disability-friendly solutions
You can read more about the UN's 17 SDGs here:
→ 17 Global Goals
At VALE, we recognize that our business activities affect the natural environment in a number of ways.
We strive through continuing improvement to minimize the adverse effects on the environment and the earth’s natural resources, whilst safeguarding the health & safety of our employees.
All our manufacturing partners are certified with the best international standards in the industry, hence ensuring that they take positive actions to minimize both waste and the impact of their manufacturing processes on the surrounding environment throughout the entire production chain.
At VALE, we take Climate Action very seriously and aim to direct all our Collections towards a Zero-Waste Production. Zero-Waste fashion refers to items of clothing that generate little or no textile waste in their production. Our strategy for this aims to educate and encourage individual and corporate behavioral change, mainly by adjusting consumption patterns in our entire production chain.
The waste hierarchy consists of the three 'R's': REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE (in order of impact)
This means that it’s all about Reducing and Reusing new resources, creating a Circular System, and producing no trash or leftovers during the production stage. In other words, the reusage of already existing items is significantly better for our environment than to produce entirely new items from recycled or renewable resources.
Based on this, VALE has implemented several Pre-Consumer Zero-Waste actions to minimize waste during manufacture:
• Optimization of cutting patterns: we always digitally optimize our pattern cut processes in a way that results in minimal textile waste
• Smaller accessories: we normally use the remaining fabric leftovers from garment production (called the off-cuts) to produce other smaller accessories
• Packaging: all our packaging solutions are green, and our customers can choose the way their items are shipped between standard recycled paper boxes or our Reusable Packaging solution (RE-ZIP®), which allows to reduce CO2 emissions by 80%, decrease water consumption by 89% and reducing wood consumption by 93%.
From the Post-Consumer Zero-Waste point of view, VALE tries to eliminate the eventual waste that would normally be the end of the product use life of a garment with the following action:
• Second-Hand online market: all our customers will be able to resell their used garments on our Second-Hand Market in our webshop (still being developed...)
