The shift to working from home due to COVID-19 has enabled Trust to grow faster than ever. But growth does not come without environmental impact. Therefore, Trust is on a mission to deliver more sustainable products and packaging. The company’s ‘Impact report 2020-2021’ provides an impression of Trust’s journey to making fair digital accessories the new norm: Fair for people. Fair for the planet. At fair prices.
“We are acutely aware of our role in the growing e-waste problem and the energy-intensive production of electronic products. Sustainability is not achieved overnight. It is a continuous effort, one undertaken every day. While we are making progress, we have only taken the first steps in our sustainability efforts. We are engaging and collaborating with retail, industry, and manufacturing partners to make clever changes in production, operations, and our product range.”
- Rogier Volmer, CEO of Trust International B.V.
ESG in heart of the organisation
The report shows that ESG has been embedded as a main pillar in Trust’s overall company strategy. It has also incorporated ESG into its purpose, vision, and mission statements. Trust acknowledges it is a part of an industry that must undergo massive transformation to achieve the goals set in the Paris Climate Agreement. In 2020-2021, the ESG baseline was set. Trust focused on obtaining insights into where it stood and where it could improve.
In doing so, Trust:
- Began investigating life cycle analyses (LCA) to identify the elements on which it can reduce the CO2 footprint of its products (sourcing, production, product-in-use, and end-of-life).
- Conducted a materiality assessment with the stakeholders, the analysis of which helps ensure that the company is focusing on the areas in which it can have the most meaningful impact, as well as the areas of greatest interest to stakeholders.
- Started a process of measuring the impact, both positive and negative, that the company – as well as its value chain operations – has on society.
Goals based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
To maximise impact, priorities had to be set. Trust has done this by selecting three SDG impact goals on which it can make the largest immediate impact:
- Trust has the ambition to be circular in 2040. Trust believes in the need for a circular economy, in which discarded products are collected and recycled into raw materials to produce new products. Its efforts are focused on:
- Removing where it can
- Reducing where it cannot
- Recycling what is left
These efforts resulted in an average plastic reduction per packaging of over 37% percent in FY 2020-2021. In June 2021, Trust introduced the first of many upcoming products made from recycled materials: the GRS-certified Atlanta Laptop Bag ECO, made from 18 recycled PET bottles.
Trust aims to be climate neutral in 2030, believing its responsibility extends beyond direct operations, to the entire product life cycle. Most of Trust’s environmental impact is indirect, through the products sold to customers from manufacturing partners and suppliers.
To support SDG8, Trust is doing its utmost to create an environment in which employees of all ages and backgrounds feel safe and can thrive.
In 2020-2021, many tools and activities were introduced to contribute to employee development, health, and engagement.
But the responsibility goes beyond Trust’s workforce. Trust is also committed to ensuring good working conditions at manufacturing partners. To do so, a supplier code of conduct is embedded as a contractual condition of doing business with Trust. In fiscal year 2020-2021, the company carried out 45 audits.
Read Trust’s ‘Impact report 2020-2021’ online
The full report can be read and downloaded at trust.com/sustainability. Trust International B.V.’s ambition is to initiate and further intensify the dialogue with retailers, consumers, manufacturing partners, employees, and other stakeholders regarding how Trust can play its part in offering fair and affordable products to everyone. The ‘Impact report 2020-2021’ aims to facilitate this dialogue by clearly stating the company’s ambitions, actions, progress, and challenges.