BETTER ALTERNATIVES MADE WITH PLANETARY RESPECT
RESPONSIBILITY
At ASK Scandinavia, we believe that achieving a less harmful industry requires interconnecting all efforts. No aspect of responsibility exists in isolation; each impact pillar is essential to creating a kinder and less polluting fashion industry.
Our promise is to help you lower your impact by creating timeless and planet-kind products.
We use the most innovative, vegan and low-impact materials available to us to inspire change. We look to constantly evolve as new materials come available.
We work with carefully selected factories in Europe with ethical working conditions who we know and visit personally. We are aware of the whole supply chain and only work with trusted partners.
We are committed to improving our practises and are constantly looking for different ways to do this.
We invest heavily in rigorous research and take bold actions to materialize our values and promises to you. We put true love, thought, and tireless effort into every piece we create. Every piece must be versatile, timeless, and made with materials at the forefront of innovation to support the fight against the pollution of the industry.
OUR COMPANY VALUES
PLANET
We use MIRUM® and ECONYL® as our main materials to make our bags. They are some of the most innovative materials available made with planetary respect and created for circularity.
PEOPLE
We work with small factories in Europe, this helps us have better insight to all the steps in the supply chain because there are less layers to the structure.
ANIMALS
We do not use animal-derived leather, feathers, or fur in our products. Both MIRUM® and ECONYL® are animal-free materials made with respect for everyone on the planet.
ENVIRONMENTAL WELFARE
Operating with planetary respect to create value and beauty. It all begins with your values and then we build our policies, translate our research and tight sourcing operations, and continue with ongoing work towards a circular fashion industry as our goal.
The fashion industry has an enormous impact on the environment and therefore it has a great impact on climate which we are committed as a brand to reduce by taking action and materializing our goals and to regenerate the health of Earth and its inhabitants.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
At ASK Scandinavia, we prioritize human welfare and health in our supply chains. We consciously opt for short supply chains and exclusively collaborate with small factories, maintaining close
oversight of operations as a small brand.
Before forging partnerships, we extensively vet our manufacturing allies, ensuring alignment with our values through a comprehensive list of questions. Our selection process is grounded in rigorous research, emphasizing long-term relationships that are mutually beneficial.
Recognizing the complexity of supply chains, we streamline our collections, using minimal materials and favoring repeat styles for reorders with our trusted partners. This approach ensures a steady income stream and reduces resources spent on prototyping, fostering a harmonious working environment.
Through these efforts, we uphold high standards of social responsibility, prioritizing the welfare and health of all involved in our supply chain.
Our future efforts will include becoming Fair Wear Foundation members, this is not available to us at this time because of our small scale productions. Meanwhile, we work with Code of Conducts to align on standards.
OUR MATERIALS
MIRUM®
MIRUM’s LCA conducted by NFW and Anthesis shows that the current carbon footprint is only 30-40% of synthetic leather and only 5% of conventional leather.
MIRUM® is USDA certified 100% biobased product
MIRUM® use FSC certified rubber for conservation practices and no deforestation
MIRUM® has a textile backer that is Climate Beneficial certified by Fibershed that increase soil biology and life, soil carbon, decreases of synthetic fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides.
MIRUM® has been tested by The University of Georgia with the results of being non-toxic and it does not contain any substances restricted by REACH.
MIRUM® is certified by Oeko-Tex Hohenstein Labs to have no harmful substances.
MIRUM® is colored using natural pigments.
The MIRUM® manufacturing process does not require any additional water inputs except what is represented in the natural ingredients. This means there is no wastewater discharge created from the making of MIRUM®.
ECONYL®
For every 10,000 tons of ECONYL® raw material, 70,000 barrels of crude oil is saved.
Aquafil uses old carpets destined for landfil, fishing nets from aquaculture and fish industry, ghost nets, pre-consumer waste from industrial processes such as plastic components, waste, scraps, and other textile waste through take back programs
ECONYL® yarn is certified OEKO-TEX and GRS
Our ECONYL® fabric is wipe-clean and does not require machine washing for the majority of cases which reduces the risk of plastic microfibers shedding into the water systems via laundry.
ECONYL® is made to be infinitely recyclable by Aquafil.
Our ECONYL® yarn and fabric are made in Italy and is REACH compliant.
Our OCEAN Collection fabric is quilted in Feuchtwangen, Germany south west of Nuremberg using recycled wadding.
Our OCEAN Collection is made from ECONYL® in Sastamala, Finland
OTHER CERTIFIED MATERIALS
We use GRS-Certified Polyester to line all ECONYL® products.
We use GOTS-Certified Cotton on our dust bags that are made in Portugal. We do not bleach or dye the cotton for minimized footprint.
PACKAGING
Our packaging is fully recycled, paper and cardboard used are fully biodegradable and recyclable. And we always repurpose all packaging materials, whenever it is possible.
NOT OUR MATERIALS
We proudly refrain from using animal-derived textiles, leather, or fur in our products. Instead, we utilize PETA Vegan-approved materials.
By abstaining from the use of fur and leather, we actively contribute to several planetary benefits:
- Our choice to not use fur and leather reduces the demand for intensive farming practices, thereby lowering greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture.
- Our choice to not use fur and leather helps mitigate habitat destruction for livestock, safeguarding biodiversity and crucial carbon sinks such as forests.
- Our choice to lowering the demand for animal products decreases water usage in farming, particularly significant in regions grappling with water scarcity due to climate change.
- Our choice to reducing demand for animal-derived materials, mitigate pollution from animal waste and emissions, alleviating strain on local ecosystems and communities.
Our commitment extends beyond environmental concerns. We recognize the intrinsic link between the welfare of animals and the well-being of our planet. As stewards of the Earth, we actively work to reduce pollution in the fashion industry, thus safeguarding the welfare of the animal kingdom.
NOT OUR MATERIALS EITHER
We refrain from using PVC, PU, viscose from endangered forests, materials that cause deforestation, sandblasted materials, materials that contain restricted harmful substances.
Through these actions, we uphold our commitment to sustainability and ethical practices, ensuring a better future for both animals and the environment.
WASTE
We run seasonless collections to mitigate over development, overproduction and material waste.
Our products have high European quality, made to last and be passed on. We are working on resale solutions to extend the life of our products but also to decrease the amount of new material used.
We produce small quantities in batches based on pre-orders to ensure we fight against overproduction and waste generation.
We design products to be cut on the off-cut material pieces and our factories recycle any off-cuts we are not able to use. We perform creative pattern cutting with our factories to reduce any cutting waste. For example, Holly, our card holder is cut out between Willow and Clover.
We are not a trend driven company in the sense of colors. This makes it possible for us to continuously repurpose our leftover fabric and material inventory.
We encourage all of our factory partners to recycle any cutting waste. We sell in sample sale or give to charity all our samples, so we have not wasted a single product.
When it comes to repairing products, at the moment we are able to offer repair services in Finland but our goal is to expand this service as soon as it possible.
We are also soon launching a resale for our products. For repairs, we welcome you to contact info@askscandinavia.com.
WHERE ASK PRODUCTS ARE MADE
We are proud to say that all of our products are made in Finland and Italy. We consistently partner with small scale factories and workshops to ensure easier oversight of operations and a closer connection with the manufacturers.
ITALY
FINLAND
ITALY
CIRCULARITY
Our goal is to become fully circular, design with durable, regenerative, and restorative materials that will enable circularity.
RESALE As a small and young brand, we do not
have enough product to engage with existing resale sites. Instead we are
working on solutions for our customers to sell their ASK products directly via
our website. In the meantime, we are establishing relationships with resale
platforms to have solutions ready when it becomes relevant.
REPAIR At this time we have repair services
available in Finland and we are working on extending this service to where our
customers live. In addition we work closely with our customers on an 1 on 1 to
support them with care guidance and instructions.
RECYCLABILITY As a small and young brand, we
haven’t accumulated a large enough amount of products to participate in the
available take back programs. But we are in conversation with NFW about taking
part of their take-back program when it becomes available for us. We are also
in conversation with disassembly partners that enable recycling for when that
becomes relevant in the future to ensure we are set up for circularity when it
is needed.
RENTAL We believe in sharing and co-owning for lowered impact of the fashion industry. As rental services grow in
Scandinavia and Europe we speak to solutions providers about near-future
partnerships.
RESTORE We launch limited edition capsules
with products using our own left over fabrics when this occurs. It is rare as we use a very narrow material portfolio to avoid any left over fabrics and instead select materials that will stay in our collections for the long term. In addition, we offer our customers to purchase any development samples from our website to reduce impact.
AREAS WE ARE WORKING TOWARDS
MIRUM is currently only available from Peoria, Illinois. As NFW scale and start producing in Europe, we will be one of the first to order from that manufacturing facility.
We strive to use 100% bio-based haberdashery for construction for our BIO-LEATHER Collection. We are in the progress of starting testing quality and performance where there are available bio-based solutions. Unfortunately, not everything is available in bio-based yet.
As we continue to operate, we keep striving for our goals to use regenerative and restorative materials.
The more we know, the more we can do. Therefore, as we grow we are looking to increase our efforts in transparency and traceability by giving all of our products a Digitial Product Passport and have already started conversations with solutions providers.
Measure our impact with a third party solutions provider. We aim to get started with one of the solution provers we are in conversation with in the near future.