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If you thought cork was only limited to stoppering your favourite wines, get ready to make a new toast!

Light, elastic, and compressible, cork is an excellent raw material to work with, that lends its abrasion resistance and hypoallergenic properties to materials produced from it. On an average, a cork oak tree can live up to 200 years providing a renewable source of cork bark. Cork oak forests retain up to 14 million tonnes of CO2 every year, and surprisingly when the bark is harvested responsibly, the same trees actually absorb up to five times more CO2, thereby playing a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The cork we source is from our partner ‘Portugalia Cork’ who are supported by the World Wildlife Fund and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This certification ensures that the cork is harvested responsibly - only once every nine years, without hurting the trees.

Piñatex® is a natural, responsibly sourced, cruelty free, plant-based alternative to leather, made from pineapple leaf fibres that we source from Ananas Anam. Created from a by-product of the agricultural industry, no additional land, water or resources are required to produce the raw material.

Apart from being a certified vegan product, it is also REACH compliant and GOTS certified. This material fits our vision like a glove, and obviously, this glove is sustainable too!

Developed with the purpose of creating an alternative to animal leather, Desserto is made from nopal pulp (a cactus). Desserto is a highly sustainable vegan leather complying with the most rigorous quality and environmental standards. It is a cruelty free sustainable alternative, without any toxic chemicals, phthalates and PVC.

Owing to its strong molecular bonding, Desserto offers high resistance to abrasion, rubbing and tearing. Distinguished by its softness while offering excellent performance it is used in a wide variety of applications

The material was first successfully showcased in 2019 in Milan, Italy.

While sustainable fashion only seems to have found its relevance in the present age, weavers in India have been carrying on the tradition for many decades. ‘Khesh’ is a traditional form of weaving that finds its roots in the Birbhum district of West Bengal.

Recycling and upcycling, recreating new garments with the old, exists an eclectic handloom textile that is literally recreated by scraps of older sarees. The tearing process is labour intensive and is done by hand largely by the women folk within the weaving community. A single saree yields 80-90 strips . The beauty about Khesh is that no two materials look the same and only once the fabric is woven can it be appreciated in its full beauty.

Khesh is the perfect example of a century old art form finding its relevance in modern day fashion. As traditional weavers pass on their craft generation-after-generation, we embrace sustainable practices that have been with us all along.

The inner linings and fabrics we use are sourced from Khaloom, a group of passionate weavers based out of a weaver’s colony in Bangalore, India. Their fabrics are handwoven using recycled and post-consumer recycled yarn. All fabrics are woven on traditional handlooms that are man-powered and do not require electricity, thereby significantly reducing the carbon footprint required to produce them.

By sourcing from Khaloom who offers their weavers fair wages as well as fixed contracts and benefits such as health insurance and pensions – a rarity in India – we support the preservation of skills that have been passed down by generations.

For our waterproof linings, we use fabrics that have been lovingly recovered from old umbrellas.

The zippers used in our bags are NATULON® zippers made by the YKK Fastening Products Group.

The nylon used in the zippers is recycled from post-consumer use plastic products, with over 86% percent of the product being recycled. This is achieved using proprietary manufacturing processes that are designed to reduce energy consumption, CO2 emissions, the use of crude oil as well as the production of industrial waste. The zippers we use are also Bluesign® approved, which ensure that resources are used responsibly during the manufacturing process, with minimal impact on humans and the environment.

Every Beej product comes in a reusable jute dust bag placed inside a recyclable corrugated box that’s packed using water activated paper tape. Our brand cards and swing tags are made from recycled paper and we take great care to ensure there is no plastic in our packaging solutions.