Made in transparency
Our bottles are made in China. Consciously, for our planet and the people.
The factory
It took us several months before choosing the ideal partner for this adventure.
We have always wanted to build a product that lasts, and it was pretty obvious for us that stainless steel would be the ideal material.
China was never a given, but since the raw material would be sourced in China anyway we decided to overcome preconceived ideas.
Eventually, we found a factory on a human scale with outstanding environmental and social standards.
Facts
• Region: CHINA, Zhejiang
• Number of workers: 80
• Working 1 to 3 shifts
• Certifications: SMETA Ethical trade audit, BSCI Business & Social Compliance Initiative, SGS Standards
• Collaboration started in 2019
• Raw material used: 95% stainless steel (inner 304, outer 201), 4.5% polypropylene and 0.5% recycled nylon.
Carbon Neutral
Carbon neutrality is not the solution, we know it. But that’s a start.
We teamed up with CO2Strategy and Graine de Vie - a Belgian NGO - to make an accurate calculation of the carbon footprint of our bottles and offset our global CO2 consumption. Graine de Vie has set up reforestation programs in Madagascar and has already planted more than 20 million trees in 10 years. It provides a livelihood for more than 400 people in one of the poorest and most deforested countries in the world, and is also the world's second largest in terms of biodiversity.
Our carbon footprint
Each Drink Big bottle is responsible for emitting 2.00kg of CO2.
The largest part of the CO2 (58%) is caused by the raw materials. This mainly results from the extraction and the production of the elements composing the stainless steel that we use for the bottles (i.e. stainless steel 304 principally made of iron, carbon, chromium, nickel and manganese).
The production of this alloy - intended for industrial use - is happening is Asia and predominantly in China which owns most of worldwide ressources required by the process. As the raw materials are sourced anyway in China, we decided to base our production there. Which comes to the second largest share of our emission: transport.
Transport represents 26% of the total bottle emissions. This is largely driven by the distance travelled from the production site to the distribution site located in Western Europe. To limit its impact we adapted our operations and procurement by favoring slower deliveries such as ship and trains that are less harmful towards the environment.
Our distribution is responsible of 15% of the emission which are the activities linked to our warehousing, promotion, trades shows as well as IT maintenance.
Packaging account for 7% of the bottle emission. We opted for light, functional and minimalistic packages meeting the main need - protecting the final product. All cardboard used is 100% recycled and made of recycled paper.
This assessment does not account for implicit gains linked to the usage of a drinking bottle. After 2.5 months of usage, the Drink Big bottle already offset disposable plastic bottles’ CO2 emissions.
The methodology
In this analysis we have followed the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard developed by the Greenhouse Gaz Protocol (GHP). Over a three year period thousands of participants, technical experts, scientists and companies from 55 countries have gathered to develop, test and validate these standards. The scope 3 is currently the most complete and globally recognized method among companies for calculating and reporting greenhouse gaz emissions.
Until the recent days, most companies have focused on their own activities, operations and energy consumption to measure their carbon footprint. And consequently neglected the indirect impact of their activities on the environment. What about the rest of the value chain? Are companies only responsible of emissions inside its own walls? We don’t think so. Actually, the vast majority of total corporate emissions are caused by their indirect activities such as raw material productions or the disposal of the product they sell. Which means that many companies have significantly underestimated their carbon emissions and - most importantly - missed out opportunities of decreasing them.
The Scope 3 standards is the only internationally accepted method for companies to account for these types of indirect emissions. It assesses companies climate impacts throughout their entire value chain - both upstream and downstream of their operations.
There is a little paradox in what we are doing. Acting like a fashion brand incentivizes people to buy more, and our planet doesn’t need that.
That is why we launched the Re-Use program. Send us your damaged bottle and we'll make sure we recycle it properly. In exchange you'll receive a discount for a new one.
The loop is closed.