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Environmental Responsibility Sustainability Statement PO Box 382 | Berwick, ME 03901 (207) 358-WRAP “Peace at home; peace in the world.” Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Wrapsody, LLC was born from a love for my own children and of the closeness we found when I carried them. I try to approach business as I approach mothering: With fairness, compassion, and a loving touch. Social responsibility has always been central to the way I run Wrapsody. We are a small company, and the work we do is small work. Yet, we strive do our part to ensure that our business is the business of spreading joy -- through attention to doing business in the most ethical ways we can manage at each step of the way. We are continually listening to the babywearing community about the ways we can improve, and we work to implement changes as we learn more about our social and environmental responsibility. Environmental responsibility Our building Our office was designed to be ecologically sound. We started renovating our turn-of-century carriage house by insulating it with blown-in cellulose made from recycled newpapers in order to maximize energy efficiency. We finished by reclaiming the battered barn floor, and we have furnished our office primarily with reclaimed furniture. Our office Our office supplies from paper to labels are recycled whenever possible with a focus on high post- consumer content. Each workstation has a recycling center. We reuse our recycled-content cardboard boxes in-house several times before eventually recycling them, sometimes as mulch layers for friends. At each step, we seek to reduce our paper use and to reduce our biological footprint as a company. Our packaging Our artisan Bali line (Breeze and Hybrid) are packed in minimal packaging. Each carrier is wrapped in a reusable storage bag -- and our Hybrid bags are made from fabric remnants. The bags are then wrapped in a narrow paper sleeve for retail display. Inside each bag, our instructions are printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. Our Wrap DuO (previously the Water Wrap) is packaged in a carefully selected zippered bag made from hemp and PEVA plastic (a superior alternative to vinyl). The bags become reusable wet bags. The paper inserts in the packaging are made from recycled paper and printed with vegetable based inks. Sustainability Statement PO Box 382 | Berwick, ME 03901 (207) 358-WRAP Our products We place a high priority on making products from eco-friendly fibers. Our artisan Bali carriers are made from cotton and linen, and scraps are made into hats, hair scarves, and packaging bags. The dyes are certified to be safe for the environment. Our Wrap DuO (previously the Water Wrap) is not only made from fabric that is 100% recycled Repreve® (our original line was 55% recycled Repreve®), but also it is Oeko-Tex certified. Our packaging is reusable. Responsible manufacturing Fair labor practices We work closely with our manufacturers – especially our artisans in Bali – to ensure that they employ fair-trade working conditions, providing a safe environment, a fair wage, and fair hours. Additionally, their employees are always over the age of 15 – usually over 18. In-house, we pride ourselves in always paying more than minimum wage. Our salaries are, of course, modest – we are a tiny business – but we believe strongly in a living wage. Local and ethical manufacturing When possible, we look to local businesses to manufacture our products. When we first began working with our Balinese artisan, we purchased fabrics from them and had them manufactured in New England, as we are strongly committed to local manufacturing. However, after two runs of problems such as grossly mismatched thread, missing labels, and grease-stained wraps, we took up the offer of our Balinese vendor to also do the sewing there. Her work is impeccable – she is clearly not local, but her company is compassionate and wonderful, and though her children are grown now, I love supporting a single mother in her work, as she likewise supported me while I grew this company as a single mother myself. Our Wrap DuO (formerly Water Wrap) are manufactured strictly in New England. We originally worked with a cut-and-sew in the midwest who went out of business, and then we tried a reputable New England manufacturer who presented us with an entire run of wraps with holes cut into them and shoddy stitching. Happily, after a bit more searching, we found a fantastic family- owned business in Massachusetts to do our cutting and sewing. Now a single father, he has worked with us for several years with a close attention to detail. After he sews our New-England milled fabric, it goes to a dyeing and transferring house in New Hampshire, near our own home, for the labels to be applied, before we package them in-house into their eco-friendly packaging. Family-owned businesses As explained above, we are a family-owned, woman-owned business, and so supporting other family-owned businesses is a high priority for us. The manufacturers we work with also are operating family-owned companies, and this connection makes me happy – that sharing our Sustainability Statement PO Box 382 | Berwick, ME 03901 (207) 358-WRAP beautiful carriers with you also supports families working in Bali and in New England. In this way, we feel wrapping is truly a way to bring the whole world into the folds of a giant, wrapped-up hug. Ensuring attention to environment The fabric of our Wrap DuO (formerly the Water Wrap) is Oeko-Tex 100 certified. This means it is manufactured under strict safety and environmental requirements. Additionally, it has sun protection knit right into the fibers, meaning less need for chemical sunscreens when you use it (and a chemical-free proprietary process in the knitting means a chemical-free sun protection). When we began working with our Balinese artists, we were pleased that among the first things she mentioned to us was their focus on the environment, using only ISO-9001 certified dyes and processes that were kind to the environment. In fact, though the process proved to be cost- prohibitive to such a long cloth as our baby wraps, she also uses natural dyes in some of her manufacturing. Additionally, she has always focused on using her fabric scraps – the cuts of fabric that don't become part of a garment – in order to minimize waste. Community building Wrapsody supports community – both our local and the larger, global community. When people come together for information and support, great things happen. That's why we support La Leche League groups all over the country, as well as countless babywearing groups around the world, offering deep discounts on products for their lending libraries and giving away at least one free carrier a month to groups. To learn more about our discounts and donations policies, follow this link. Leaders in safety Baby Carrier Industry Alliance Wrapsody has always been strongly committed to safety. I founded the Baby Carrier Industry Alliance in 2010. In 2005, I had the great fortune of being invited to a mini-convention of the professionals in our budding industry. At Vesta Garcia's home in Texas, Rochelle Price, of SlingRings, began outlining her idea that a trade organization could be beneficial to our industry for a number of reasons. Though the idea came up several more times over the years, “the industry” wouldn't commit to anyone putting forth the idea, but I couldn't get it out of my head. Finally, after the passage of CPSIA, I decided the time for a united industry voice had come and gone – whether or not “the industry” would rally, I wanted to create a trade organization. Leaning heavily on many of those from that first 2005 meeting, like Rochelle Price, Kristen DeRocha, and Vesta Garcia, as well as other women in the industry who can't help but inspire all they touch, like Sustainability Statement PO Box 382 | Berwick, ME 03901 (207) 358-WRAP Susan Gmeiner, I squeezed my ginormous, 37.5-weeks-pregnant body into an airplane and flew to the babywearing conference in Idaho to rally others who might share this vision. The response was fantastic, and the accomplishments of the BCIA are too numerous to list here, but first and foremost, we are an organization committed to pursuing and teaching about regulatory compliance for manufacturers, creating high-quality carriers among our members, and sharing the abundant joy of babywearing with the general public and those in power. Attended ASTM from the first sling standards meeting In 2008, I got a phone call from Kristen, then of Hotslings, asking if it was possible for me to get to the first ASTM meeting focused on the creation of a sling standard. They had nobody to represent stretchy wraps. I had just torn my ACL skiing, but as it happened, my (then boyfriend) husband had time to drive me from Maine to Philadelphia. Clumsy, naïve, and on crutches, I joined my more experienced and better-spoken colleagues as we began the process of creating a sling standard. Wrapsody has benefited tremendously from what we learned at those meetings, and I think the “suits” also benefited hugely from US – showing up in our colorful clothes, often with babies in slings or wraps or meh dais, swaying by the wall at the meetings, flying in and out of Philadelphia all in one day and taking the train into Conshohocken from the airport. As I’m now the mother of five, I have had to stop attending the meetings until I can leave my children behind again, but I am proud to continue to share in that process through the BCIA.
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