Sustainability

CREATING OPPORTUNITY – ETHICAL PRODUCTION – SLOW FASHION

Our jewellery is produced in India – creating valuable work opportunities in a region torn by conflict and disruption. All jewellery pieces are handcrafed with care by an artisan community. The workshop is a family-owned business and workers are treated and paid ethically and fair. Materials that are used are high-quality and natural and where possible recycled.

Our swimwear and surfwear collection is produced in Cape Town, South Africa by a local, female-owned studio. Our swimwear collection has been a major project for them, providing valuable work in a country where employment opportunities are scarce. We personally have very close relationships with them, going by the studio almost on a weekly basis to check in on production and ensuring ethical conditions are guaranteed.

Our approach to fashion is slow – pieces are produced with care, high-quality materials, are timeless and meant to last long.

Tulua Verde is highly commited to follow high sustainability and ethical standards. It’s an attempt to do things differently, not settling for compromises. We try our best in every aspect, yet we cannot be perfect. However, we try our best to get as close to that as possible ; )

SMALL-SCALE PRODUCTION

We value quality over quantity. It's important to us that we won't run into overstock issues. We therefore prefer to produce only limited amounts to avoid any possible excess and to also make it a more unique experience for our wearers – the likelihood is big that you won't find anyone else wearing the same necklace or bikini  next to you ;)

MATERIALS

For our jewellery we decided to only go with the highest quality materials: real gold and silver. Currently, these are not yet recycled as for our small quantities we can't as easily get access from our manufacturer as order quantity requirements are too high. Yet, as we grow as a company, so will our (financial) capacities. However, precious metals like gold and silver are infinitely recyclable as they don't lose any of their chemical or physical properties in the recycling process as many other metals do. 

For our swimwear collection we use VITA PL fabric – an eco-sustainable polyester techno-fabric with high technical performance. It is made from 100% regenerated polyester thread from pre and post-consumer waste. It is ideal for chlorine-resistant swimwear, is sunscreen and oil-resistant and offers UV protection, and has great shape retention  – meaning that it won't wear out quickly and is made to last.

PACKAGING

Packaging – Less is more. We think that packaging mostly just creates unnecessary waste – therefore our ethos is to strip down our products to minimum packaging. Still, we can’t erase packaging completely and therefore work with organic and recyclable materials for our necessary packaging. We use organic cotton certified pouches and FSC® cerfitied cardboard boxes produced in Europe.

FSC^® certified is a guaranty that all used materials only stem from FSC^® certified forests – where only those trees are cut down that can also be reproduced by the forest and where the flora and fauna are treated responsibly. More about FSC^®: www.fsc.org

For our swimwear we use organic cotton bags and paper bags made from grass paper. Sustainability for us is not a mere marketing tactic – it's a lifestyle hence we want to make every aspect of our business as sustainable as possible. 

GIVING BACK

Even though as a slow fashion operator our margins are small, we are currently looking into partnering with a suitable non-profit to donate parts of our revenue. Our margins are already quite small to make our prices as fair and accesible as possible. However, we are exploring future opportunites. We will keep you up to date on our progress. For now we have a beautiful project where 50% of all proceeds of the MONA necklace will go to Mona and her village in Lombok.