Dear Stakeholders
Our continued investment in sustainability has made Saga Furs the leader of our industry in this field. We believe a strong approach to corporate responsibility helps us build reputation and stakeholder transparency, secure product quality and business performance, and to minimise risk.
This year, we’ve taken another industry-defining step forward in corporate responsibility with the launch of a new sustainability programme in the form of a single Corporate Responsibility platform for setting targets, driving performance and reporting more systematically on progress, the programme builds on our past achievements while helping us better respond to challenges and opportunities.
The Responsible Choice
As the only fur seller in the industry with a supplier certification and auditing programme on the environment and animal health and welfare, Saga Furs is already known as ‘The Responsible Choice’. That’s why we see the issue of farm certification as one of our competitive advantages.
Over the past 12 months we’ve expanded our practice on two major fronts:
1. We’ve continued to expand our certification process in countries across Europe, as well as begun auditing new potential farm suppliers in the US.
2. For the first time in history, during the 2016-2017 season, we’ll be proud to offer lots of 100% certified mink. We’ve been working closely with mink farmers over a number of years to upgrade and improve their operations to comply with our quality requirements.
At industry level, in addition to Saga Furs’ existing animal health and welfare programme, the company is co-funding the European Welfur initiative, which was launched from the beginning of year 2017. Under the new Welfur guidelines, based on scientific animal research, an annual audit process for all our supplier farms must occur at different times of the year to reflect each of the three different farm working seasons. Although Welfur will be challenging to implement, we’re committed to 100% success, and in doing so, push the boundaries on industry animal welfare standards.
Transparency from farm to fashion house
Traceability is another responsibility issue where Saga Furs leads the industry. Over the past years, we’ve been developing RFID tracing technology that would allow consumers at the point of purchase to scan and trace fur back through the entire supply chain. Following successful internal testing, we’re getting ready to launch our first larger customer level test, and expect to be able to report on this in the coming months.
Full traceability is important for quality assurance and something our big brand customers see as a logical next step in customer transparency from farm to fashion house.
Low-carbon energy and technology
Against the backdrop of the Paris Convention on Climate Change, which came into effect at the end of year 2016 we’ve been reviewing our internal processes and practices in an effort to reduce their environmental burden. We’ll have a lot more to report on progress across a range of operational channels, including our new commitment to going paperless.
In green power, Saga Furs is also happy to announce that, as of 2016, our head-office in Vantaa, Finland, operates entirely on zero net carbon energy!
Pertti Fallenius