Sustainability
Our Commitment to Sustainability
MADE x HANDS was created to bring extraordinary Asian and African design to the forefront. To minimize the environmental price of this, we’ve built category-leading sustainability into our business model. We do this in four major ways:
We only make handmade products
Every single MADE x HANDS piece is carefully crafted by highly skilled artists. Handmade is in our name. We don’t use machines anywhere in the process in our rugs, other than good old-fashioned scissors or a shearing machine to get the pile to an exact, even length. For our throw pillows and blankets, the only machine used is a sewing machine to stitch fabric panels together or to attach product labels.
Our handmade products consume less energy and natural resources in the production process, and create minimal waste, which results in significantly lower carbon footprints vs. items made on mass-production assembly lines. And by creating market demand for handmade products, MADE x HANDS is providing living wages and career paths for skilled artists. Handmade supply chains counteract the unsustainable inequality that is now so pervasive across industrial democracies.
We only use natural dyes
All our products, with the exception of three rugs in our launch collection, are naturally dyed with colorants derived from plants, animals, minerals or fungi. This makes them not only biodegradable, but nontoxic and nonallergic too. Many natural dyes also have antimicrobial properties, making them safer for kids in particular.
Natural dyes are infinitely better for the environment. They do not contain harmful chemicals or carcinogens, common to chemical dyes, and don’t produce toxic runoff that often ends up in our delicate oceans. And the production of natural dyes produces no waste, unlike chemical dyeing.
We only use natural materials
Every MADE x HANDS piece is crafted using natural materials from start to finish. The pile of our rugs is Mulberry silk, Bamboo silk or premium New Zealand wool, hand-knotted on cotton base threads. Our blankets are made of cashmere from Kashmir or a cashmere/merino wool blend. Our throw pillows are made using Eri silk or flax linen. We are currently using Rayon thread for the embroidery on some of our pillows but are working to replace this with silk or cotton. We are also working on programs to use recycled and upcycled materials and will be bringing those collections to market soon.
Natural materials last longer than synthetics and are biodegradable which equals less waste in our landfills. Synthetic home décor needs to be incinerated which contributes to air pollution. Cashmere and wool are renewable; goats and sheep continue to grow their fleece and we can grow as much bamboo, Eri silk, and flax linen as there is space for. Lastly, natural materials are carbon neutral which is just a fancy way of saying they tend to absorb the same amounts of CO2 as they emit during the production cycle.
We only ship in sustainable packaging
E-commerce has been a boon for consumers, but because of all the packaging involved to ship products, there has been a significant negative impact on the environment. While we cannot control the packaging used by UPS, FedEx and other shipping companies, all of our product packaging is 100% recycled, recyclable and biodegradable.