Snapshot

Since 2016:

• We've diverted 2,825kg of textiles waste from landfill.
• We’ve donated 177 blankets to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne.
• Numerous Australians have been exposed to closed-loop business practices thanks to the press we've received.
• We've crowdfunded $32,000 to help fund the research and development of using other businesses' textile waste to make more blankets.
• We’ve been awarded $15,000 in funding from Macquarie Group to continue development of textiles waste to resource products.
• We were awarded The Design Files' Sustainability Design Award in 2019.

Waste

All of our blankets are made with recycled textiles; some pre-consumer and some post-consumer waste. Pre-consumer waste is the textile waste associated with the manufacturing process – offcuts, overruns and deadstock yarn. Post-consumer waste is old garments that can’t be donated or re-worn (like holey woollen sweaters). 

But what happens to your blanket when you no longer want it? Well, we use the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s circular economy principles to determine the best second life for your blanket. So before we remanufacture old blankets, we find use for them in their current form. This means, we keep resources at their highest value for as long as possible and don’t use unnecessary resources like water and energy to remanufacture a blanket that still has life left in it.

So if you have a Seljak Brand blanket but no longer want it and it’s in good condition (no rips, holes or stains), Seljak Brand in Australia will launder it and donate it to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre for distribution to their members.

If it’s no longer fit for re-use and donating, we recycle it through one of our recycling partners. The blankets made in Lithuania get collected and sent in bulk back to the same mill they’re made. Here, they’re put back into the recycling process and shredded and made into a new yarn along with production offcuts. Our Australian-made blankets are sent to Upparel for onshore textiles recycling into new products, like their Flip Up couch for kids.

After your blanket has enjoyed a long, adventurous life, we'll collect it and send it to Australia or Europe to one of our fabric recycling facilities. Just contact us hi+seljak@jau.co.jp for details on how we recycle. This is how we close the loop.

Carbon neutrality

Seljak Brand are certified with the Carbon Reduction Institute's NoCO2 Carbon Neutral Program. Seljak Brand works with the Carbon Reduction Institute to quantify and offset our carbon footprint, and create an ongoing strategy for carbon neutrality. Every year, we conduct both an operational review (day-to-day running of the business) and a life cycle analysis of our products to get a complete picture of Seljak Brand’s impact and offset emissions across all aspects of our business.

Last financial year we emitted 7.12 tonnes of CO2e (tCO2e) from an operational perspective and 3.44 tCO2e based on blankets manufactured and sold.

A new wool blanket (with a weight of 1kg) has a carbon footprint of 45.5 kilograms of CO2 emissions (kgCO2-e). A recycled wool blanket of the same size (which is the equivalent of a Seljak Brand blanket) has a carbon footprint of 3.4kgCO2-e.^

Offsetting carbon emissions

We offset our carbon emissions through the Rimba Raya project in Indonesia, which conserves 65,000 hectares of peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan in Borneo. Originally slated for a palm oil plantation, Rimba Raya has avoided more than 130 million tonnes of carbon emissions, while creating meaningful job opportunities for the communities living in the area, and protecting the highly endangered orangutan population. 

But is carbon offsetting really helping global warming? Offsetting emissions while continuing business-as-usual is NOT going to respond adequately to the climate crisis. But it’s a step in the transition to a more sustainable and just world and encourages carbon emissions reduction industry-wide.

Sources:
^Resource use and greenhouse gas emissions from three wool production regions in Australia. Wiedemann, S.G., et al. 112, s.l. : Journal of Cleaner Production, 2016
^Barber, Andrew and Pellow, Glenys. LCA: New Zealand Merino Wool Total Energy Usage. 2006
^Cardoso, Albino Andre Moreira. Life Cycle Assessment of Two textile Products. 2013

Education

Seljak Brand exemplifies closed-loop systems and design through recycled blankets. As well as producing products, we engage individuals and organisations in conversations at talks, workshops and events about how we can better make and use things to reduce our impact on the environment and achieve sustainability outcomes. We align our work to the Sustainable Development Goal #12: Responsible Production and Consumption and #13 Climate Action.

Talks

Seljak Brand delivers inspiring, content-rich presentations and participates on panels to discuss closed loop design for products and systems, and textiles and fashion sustainability. We have spoken at conferences, universities, corporate offices and festivals to share the Seljak Brand story and explore ways to solve local and global challenges.