At Golden Bear, we are committed to reducing our impact on the planet.
With focus on four pillars of sustainability, we will help children to play today and protect tomorrow.

Carbon Footprint

 

Carbon footprint

Golden Bear is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions.
Great strides have already been made to reduce CO2 emissions at our UK headquarters with the installation of LED lighting and replacement of gas burners and the installation of solar panels. Further plans in place for 2021 include replacement gas-fired heaters and installation of electric car charging points.

• ISO 14001 Environmental Management accreditation
will be in place by April 2021.
• Currently analysing carbon offset schemes with a view
to offsetting CO2 emissions in a three-stage approach;
UK operation, shipment and haulage, and finally, manufacture.

Product

• All of the stuffing used in our soft toys is made from recycled PET bottles. Over the past two years, this equates to over 10m plastic bottles or 300 tonnes of plastic recycled.

• We are actively exploring ways to reduce using a mix of ABS, PP, and PVC in our plastic product to enable improved recyclability at the end of life.

• Staged plan to convert all of the plush range to recycled polyester over the next two years, beginning with our Hey Duggee range from July 2021. There are numerous benefits to using recycled
polyester over virgin polyester;

- Using more recycled polyester reduces our dependence on petroleum as the raw material for our fabric needs.
- Diverting PET bottles for this process reduces landfill, and thus less soil contamination, air and water pollution.
- The process of converting PET into recycled polyester requires much less energy than in the case of normal polyester. Estimates of between 33 and 53% less energy.
- Fabric created from recycled polyester can, theoretically, be recycled again and again with no degradation of quality. This provides the opportunity for a fabric manufacturer to become a closed-loop economy whereby polyester can forever be reused and recycled.

Product
Packaging

 

Packaging

• In 2020 we have removed all plastic ties used in our plush packaging, this equates to over 3m pieces of small plastic removed!

• We are conducting an ongoing process to remove as much excess packing material as possible and also analysing where PET plastic used in product packaging can be replaced with card. All of Golden Bears packaging materials are widely recycled.

• The majority of the paper used in our packaging is from recycled content. It is our aim to move all of our packaging to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified recycled ‘Mix’ content in 2022.

• From AW21, Golden Bear will be improving communication on our packaging by partnering with the Valpak recycling guide as well as employing OPRL (On-Pack Recycling Labels) on all of our packaging.

 
 

Recycling

• Golden Bear UK operate as a zero to landfill site – 100% of our waste goes to an MRF site where it is separated into recyclable waste streams and the little that is left over gets shredded and sold as RDF (refuse-derived fuel).

• From AW21, we will be partnering with the Valpak recycling guide as well as employing OPRL (On-Pack Recycling Labels) on all of our packaging. This will help to guide our customers on how to sustainably dispose of their Golden Bear product after use.

• We are actively exploring ways to reduce using a mix of ABS, PP, and PVC in our plastic product to enable improved recyclability at the end of life.

recycling
Carbon Footprint

Carbon footprint

Golden Bear is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions.
Great strides have already been made to reduce CO2 emissions at our UK headquarters with the installation of LED lighting and replacement of gas burners. Further plans in place for 2021 include installation of solar panels, replacement gas-fired heaters and installation of electric car charging points.

• ISO 14001 Environmental Management accreditation
will be in place by April 2021.
• Currently analysing carbon offset schemes with a view
to offsetting CO2 emissions in a three-stage approach;
UK operation, shipment and haulage, and finally, manufacture.

Product

Product

• All of the stuffing used in our soft toys is made from recycled PET bottles. Over the past two years, this equates to over 10m plastic bottles or 300 tonnes of plastic recycled.

• We are actively exploring ways to reduce using a mix of ABS, PP, and PVC in our plastic product to enable improved recyclability at the end of life.

• Staged plan to convert all of the plush range to recycled polyester over the next two years, beginning with our Hey Duggee range from July 2021. There are numerous benefits to using recycled
polyester over virgin polyester;

- Using more recycled polyester reduces our dependence on petroleum as the raw material for our fabric needs.
- Diverting PET bottles for this process reduces landfill, and thus less soil contamination, air and water pollution.
- The process of converting PET into recycled polyester requires much less energy than in the case of normal polyester. Estimates of between 33 and 53% less energy.
- Fabric created from recycled polyester can, theoretically, be recycled again and again with no degradation of quality. This provides the opportunity for a fabric manufacturer to become a closed-loop economy whereby polyester can forever be reused and recycled.

Packaging

Packaging

• In 2020 we have removed all plastic ties used in our plush packaging, this equates to over 3m pieces of small plastic removed!

• We are conducting an ongoing process to remove as much excess packing material as possible and also analysing where PET plastic used in product packaging can be replaced with card. All of Golden Bears packaging materials are widely recycled.

• The majority of the paper used in our packaging is from recycled content. It is our aim to move all of our packaging to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified recycled ‘Mix’ content in 2022.

• From AW21, Golden Bear will be improving communication on our packaging by partnering with the Valpak recycling guide as well as employing OPRL (On-Pack Recycling Labels) on all of our packaging.

recycling

Recycling

• Golden Bear UK operate as a zero to landfill site – 100% of our waste goes to an MRF site where it is separated into recyclable waste streams and the little that is left over gets shredded and sold as RDF (refuse-derived fuel).

• From AW21, we will be partnering with the Valpak recycling guide as well as employing OPRL (On-Pack Recycling Labels) on all of our packaging. This will help to guide our customers on how to sustainably dispose of their Golden Bear product after use.

• We are actively exploring ways to reduce using a mix of ABS, PP, and PVC in our plastic product to enable improved recyclability at the end of life.

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