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Sustainability

The Babyshop Group (BSG) comprising of Babyshop.com, Lekmer.se, Alexandalexa.com and Melijoe.com, as well as our Flagship store in Sweden. BSG is today a leading global omnichannel retailer with an annual turnover exceeding €100 million. Leading the way within fashion technology with a modern tech stack, BSG also has a self-automated AutoStore warehouse solution containing 130,000 boxes and 120 robots, and as of June 2020, all run on renewable energy. At present BSG has office in Stockholm and our workforce consists of over 50 nationalities where 70% are women.

BSG is a company with a high entrepreneurial spirit that is passionate about creating the best buying experience for parents under our Corporate Core Values (Lead Not Follow, Own it, Simplify and One Family). The Group started with a single domain, Babyshop.se, and two entrepreneurs in 2006.

We at Babyshop always strive to improve our internal processes and we’re especially keen on projects which support us in reducing additional waste.

Our ambition remains to be open for new ways of working if we see opportunities for improvements and possibilities to simplify.

A good example of this is our new Project Paperless, where we have replaced the physical paper customer sales invoice, packing list and the return label with digital documents, available for print out if needed.

To avoid that these paper documents risk to go directly into the bin, creating additional waste for our customers and, let’s be honest – additional costs for us, we have decided to digitalize them. In this way, we still ensure that the customer receive all important documents, but instead via their inbox, while no additional waste is created, and all info remains available digitally in case of need.

Babyshop is FSC® certified since 2021. The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) is a global, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of responsible forest management worldwide. FSC® defines standards based on agreed principles for responsible forest stewardship that are supported by environmental, social, and economic stakeholders. To learn more, visit www.fsc.org. Look for our FSC®-certified products.

Here you will find our sustainability reports.

2020 Sustainability report

2019 Sustainability report

BSG has decided to work towards the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) https://sdgs.un.org/goals. The internal Agenda2030 group; including managers representing the warehouse, tech, sustainability, people, marketing, and retail, have collectively agreed upon suitable goals for BSG where they believe BSG can make a difference.

BSG's main sustainability initiatives have been built to match the groups chosen UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Report section

Topic

Sustainable purchasing

Sustainable purchases Material assessment Reduce chemical impact Product safety and compliance

Suppliers

Increase transparency Sustainable production

Sustainable operations

Reduce emissions B2C transports and returns Reuse and recycle Packaging Sustainable tech-solutions

People

Healthy employee Working conditions Diversity and equality

Social engagement

Education for everyone Charitable initiatives

Yes, we have requirements for both social and environmental sustainability for all suppliers. The suppliers have to commit to our chemical contract regarding EU chemical legislation and comply with EU product safety legislation, they also have to follow our quality and safety guidelines and provide information about their sustainability efforts.

When it comes to our own brands, we have an even bigger influence and more power to create change since we have direct contact with the factories. We also have a code of conduct that all supplying factories need to follow in our own production. We are also doing visits at the factories and conducting audits with 3rd party companies to ensure compliance.

Regarding our external brand suppliers, we share the responsibility of making sustainable changes and continuously work to inspire and push them to make sustainable demands and decisions further down the supply chain.

We are also members of amfori BSCI, which is a world leading organization with the aim to ensure open, ethical and sustainable trade. It is of highest priority that the products sold through our channels comes from a production where there is no child labor, forced labor and that the workers have fair working conditions. We are looking to increase our sustainable assortment and will therefore steer our purchases towards brands that can provide those products and type of production.

Yes, we do! To take a stand against materials and substances that BSG wants to exit or reduce the use of, we have clearly communicated them to all our suppliers in both contracts and company information. Here are some examples: PVC Babyshop Group is phasing out all PVC from our products and are working towards offering only PVC-free products in the near future. However, three item types are accepted: balls, dolls and inflatable swimming products/pools. When a product contains PVC, the softener (CAS-number and name) used, must be reported to BSG. Fluorocarbons From 2020, BSG is not purchasing any more products that have been treated with fluorocarbon coatings (PFAS, PFOA, PFOS, PFC etc). Fluorocarbons are usually added to make functional wear and shoes water and dirt repellent. BSG’s own production is 100% fluorocarbon free. Fur-free BSG has a fur free policy that states that they should be 100% free from products made from fur, angora or mohair. Wool and down is accepted if it has a Responsible Wool Standard certification, a Responsible Down Standard certification or that the vendor in any other way has shown the details of their production with proof that they are only using ethical and responsible suppliers as part of the supply chain. SVHC-substances BSG are phasing out products that contain any type of SVHC-substance (substances of very high concern) according to REACH.

75% of Babyshop Group’s products fit in the Warehouse automation which is powered by 120 electric motor robots. Our orders from the auto storage are packed into carton boxes or bags. The boxes are managed by a fully automated system where the goods are packed in recyclable cartons that optimizes the size of the box to the content so that little to no extra air needs to be shipped with the boxes. Since we changed to the optimized boxes, the size of the boxes has decreased on average by 25%. This reduction leads to lower emissions and less cost. The paper, both in bags and box are made from 70-100% recycled material and is 100% recyclable. Another benefit with fitting the box size to the goods, is that there is no use for extra padding to keep the products from moving around in the box during shipping. If possible, an order is packed into a bag. At the end of 2020 BSG transitioned from plastic into paper bags and are only shipping in paper bags from 2021 and forward. The benefit of the paper bag is to reduce the use of single use plastic and plastic waste. The items that are outside of our automatic storage are usually shipped in their product package box or repacked at the warehouse so that the item is not damaged during shipment.

Our 43,000 m2 warehouse is located in the center of Sweden, just south of Jönköping.

No, our returns are handled in our warehouse by BSG employees. We are proud to have a fairly low return rate of 9% to be compared with adult fashion which has between 40 - 60%. Though, we are constantly overlooking how we can improve the information to our customers to lower the return rate yearly.

Gender neutrality and diversity has always been neutral for the Group founded by two entrepreneurs, a man and woman.

Since first measured in 2019, the group had over 50 nationalities in the business!

From 2021 the group has a female CEO and a board with a majority of women. BSG has had a female chair since 2018.

When applying the sustainable development Goal 5. Gender Equality, the company decided to have the ambition of not having any gender representing more than 60% within the company. This applies to the board, the management team, managers, team setups, departments etc. We believe that equality and diversity is a recipe for success!

Did you know that a child goes through about 17 sizes of clothing between the ages 0 - 16?! That is a lot of clothes! Therefore we have put together a list that might help you become a more responsible online shopper - click here to read more.