We calculated the carbon footprint of your schoolbag!

In 2021, we launched our major carbon footprint project. Our school bags have been made from recycled polyester for 5 years now, but we wanted to understand our environmental impact to know how we could improve further.

To achieve this, we enlisted the help of a specialist: La Belle Empreinte , which supports companies in their eco-responsible practices. The process unfolded in three stages:
1. Measuring our carbon footprint.
2. Comprehensive impact assessment.
3. Diagnosis and eco-design.

We analyzed with them the life cycle of all our products according to the French ADEME method and the European PEF method. This method also allows us to evaluate ourselves against the market average, which is an indicator for our buyers who are looking for more responsible products.

A product's lifecycle represents its journey from design to end-of-life. Each stage is carefully analyzed: we assess the environmental impact of material production, manufacturing, daily use by children, and even the product's end of life. This allows us to make informed decisions to minimize our carbon footprint at every step, without compromising style or quality. Our entire production chain participated in this process: material suppliers, component manufacturers, production workshops, logistics providers, carriers… and our entire team.

We reveal the analysis of our carbon footprint

We draw some interesting and even sometimes surprising lessons from this:

• 80 to 90% of the carbon footprint of our products (the difference depends on the type of product) is generated by the material and the finishing (printing, embroidery, …).
  
  
• Our products have a carbon footprint that is almost 40% lower than the market average for school bags and 35% lower for backpacks;
  
  
• La Belle Empreinte determined the carbon footprint of the "ideal schoolbag" and then compared it to our products. Our performance ranges from 75% "good" ( blue butterfly duffel bag ) to 93% "ideal" ( medium starry rainbow schoolbag ). We're quite proud of these figures!
  
  
• Transport represents only 2 to 4% of the carbon footprint of our products. Relocating manufacturing would therefore have no impact on our carbon footprint; on the contrary, we take care to ensure that the sourcing of all our materials and accessories is very local around our manufacturing workshops, which would be impossible to find in Europe (at least we haven't found it yet!).
  
  
• As we had already analyzed in a previous article " Recycled polyester: an eco-responsible solution? " , even if it seems counterintuitive, recycled polyester remains the best choice to optimize our eco-responsibility, even compared to other materials such as organic cotton (it takes 5 tons of water to produce 1kg of cotton) or Lyocell (fiber made from wood pulp).
  
  
  
  
  

  Conquering eco-design

  Starting in 2022, we began a Our eco-design approach for our products . We recruited William, a product designer, and entrusted him with this mission. Fabienne, our production manager, led the project with La Belle Empreinte and encouraged our suppliers and workshops to optimize our production process by integrating these eco-design constraints.

  For the new 2023 collection, designed in 2022, we primarily use recycled polyester for the manufacture of our school bags, representing 80% of their composition . Our room for improvement was relatively small unfortunately, since the material and printing represent 80% of the carbon footprint and the patterns and graphics of our school bags are the very DNA of our brand.

  We began by seeking to reduce the amount of fabric used, as well as the elements that complicate, or even prevent, recycling. All the fabrics and threads used in our school bags are made from recycled polyester that meets GRS standards.
  However, for certain elements such as the base, some tabs, and bias binding, we use imitation leather because of its appearance and durability (our children are real backpack torturers!). Unfortunately, these materials cannot be recycled due to their polyurethane coating.

  We are constantly evolving and plan to offer collections made entirely from 100% recycled materials soon. For the next collection, we have revised some designs to reduce the amount of fabric used.
  Our ultimate goal is to achieve a composition of 100% recycled polyester for our school bags to facilitate their recycling. Currently, the high cost of recycling is due to the dismantling process, which takes almost as long as manufacturing a school bag itself! That's also why every year we reinforce our school bags even further so they last longer. We know we'll sell fewer as a result (some of our school bags last more than 5 years!), but we do it with our children in mind!

  So, now you know all about our efforts to offer you better school bags , or rather, less harmful (let's not mince words!) to the planet. We'll continue to keep you updated on all our progress.

  Have a great holiday everyone and above all don't forget: use sunscreens that are safe for the oceans and corals!