Our KPI's

In 2020, a total of 12 trucks left our warehouse for Delorge with textile waste destined for recycling. One truck carries about 10 000 kilograms of textile waste, this adds up to a total of 120 000 kilograms a year.

These textiles originate both from our production in Poland and from the activities in our own warehouse in Nazareth. These fabric scraps are used in the upholstery of cars and insulation.

In 2021 the total of textile waste was 120 000 kilograms as well.

In 2022, we solidified a new partnership with a German company specialised in textile processing. They collected 65 706 kg textile waste from our warehouse in Nazareth, Belgium.

With this textile we are doing tests to find out how we can best reuse these fabrics, currently we are focussing on using it as filling for poufs, cushions, …

Our total textile waste volume is as much as 50% less already than in 2021. One of the reasons is the confection of our patchworks duvet covers, which were made using leftovers from the production of other duvet covers.

In the Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter collections of 2021 combined we have offered 48 duvet covers, of which 2 were cotton-viscose. This brings us to roughly 4% ecological bed linen.

In total there were 39 kinds of table linen, of which 15 were made using recycled components, a good 38%.

Out of our plaids & decorative cushions none were made from recycled materials.

When combining all these data, we reach a total of 12% sustainable products. For the collections of 2022 we should at least raise this percentage by 8% to continue achieving our goal.

Out of the Autumn-Winter and Spring-Summer collections of 2022, a total of 37% of the products were sustainable. This means we have increased by a whopping 25% in 1 year.

In the course of 2022 we added 425 new products to our website, of which 75 carry our Mistral Home Cares logo. This equals about 17,5%.

At Mistral Home we have been working with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified printed packaging as much as possible, depending on clients whishes and supplier availability. Unfortunately it proved to be impossible to measure as we didn’t track our efforts. First of all we want to change that. By keeping track of whether or not printed packaging is FSC certified (or in any other way) we will be able to track and improve our efforts.

When it comes to boxes it is fairly straightforward: all boxes are made of recycled material. A sustainable habit by our purchase department who check and compare suppliers not only on price, but also on their level of sustainability.

We expect that the market of sustainable packaging will grow & innovate a lot the coming years and so we do not want to limit ourselves to simply buying only “FSC certified” goods. We want to look into recycled or reused cardboard, to new and better certifications that mark sustainable paperware. On top of that we have to be critical when suppliers commit to FSC as there has been scarcity & rumours of abuse of the label.

For our European confection for our biggest customer & our own Mistral Home brand all printed matter is FSC certified. For more and more customers, all our print work is FSC certified. The difference in cost price is minimal, which makes the switch even easier.

For import numbers are a tad more difficult to track. Of our 2022 import orders, approximately 53% was FSC certified.

To reach this KPI we will be working with the 6 R’s of waste management: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair. The concept is to decrease the amount of things we use and simultaneously also decrease the amount of things we throw away.

Apart from these 6 R’s we have also focused on the domains of data and communication.

Learn more about the actions we have taken in regards to the 6 R's on our "Waste management" page.

We are currently (October 2021) in the process of renewing all our packaging under the Mistral Home brand. The objectives here are to use as little plastic as possible, to limit paper waste and to clearly inform our customers that certain articles are more sustainable.

As of the summer om 2022 the packaging for our own Mistral Home products hase been updated.

Our duvet covers, table linen and other products are packed without a plastic bag. They are folded using only recycled carton and a fabric ribbon which can be reused by the end customer.

This is new way of packing does not only benefit in an ecological way but also economically. When customers sent back products they bought on our webshop, the products can be easily repacked and resold.

On the 8th and the 16th of June 2021 at total of 16 colleagues took part in the clean-up initiative of the business park in which we work, De Prijkels. This was organised by “Mooimakers” and will continue to be organized twice a year.

This organisation provides all companies with trash bags, grabbers and fluorescent safety vests. The colleagues then set out together to collect waste from the streets and roadsides in the vicinity of our company. Together, we keep our company zone clean.

Our second event of 2021 was the Sustainability Day. On Wednesday 13 October, all personnel came together for an afternoon dedicated to sustainability and how we as a company (want to) deal with it.
The day started with a lecture by a climate expert, continued with interactive brainstorming sessions in groups to get as many voices heard as possible, we presented our KPI’s & new waste policy and we ended with the awarding of prizes to the winners of the CO2 challenge. During this challenge, our colleagues were challenged to come to work by bike or carpool as much as possible. The team and the individual with the most 'green kilometres' won a nice surprise, entirely in the theme of sustainability.

The afternoon snack also came from a sustainable bakery and we rounded off in beauty with an ecological food truck that came by. This event was a big success during which our colleagues expanded their knowledge about sustainability, learned more about how we are striving as a company to become ‘greener’ and a ton of new ideas emerged. These ideas were gathered and and will be brought to the next meeting of the sustainability committee.

Just like the previous year, we participated in the clean-up initiative of the business park in which we work, De Prijkels.

Since June 2021, we have been producing our own green energy through 386 solar panels installed on our roof. This will cover about 70% of our total consumption. An a yearly basis they will produce up to 165 000 kWh. This equals the energy usage of 45 families for a whole year.

We will continue to investigate how we can increase this percentage in the future.

In 2022 we were informed by Encon about what we can do to reduce our energy consumption.

To reduce gas, we would need to invest in heat pumps, but in an exsisting warehouse this would be a hell of a job. An alternative to heat the warehouse without gas, is the installation of heat panels that run on green electricity. This will be explored further in depth in 2023.

In the offices the temperature went down to 19°C and in the warehouse from 16°C to 14°C. Our emission will have decreased in 2022.

We consumed 280 MwH on average. With our solar panels, we generated 195 MwH in 2022. Rounded up, this brings us back to 70%.

In 2022, we replaced only a few lamps in our office. We did buy 400 lamps this year, which will be delivered and replaced in 2023. The entire showroom and part of the offices will get LED lighting. Part of the warehouse and the other part of the offices, will be an investment for the years to come.

In 2022 we didn’t buy any new cars. A complete purchasing plan will be made in beginning of 2023.

We are committed, through our travel agency, to making a contribution with every trip to compensate for the CO2 produced by that trip. They invest this amount in projects that have a positive effect on greenhouse gases, such as combating deforestation.

We chose the project Kariba, VCS certified.

In total we compensated 12,22 ton CO2 emissions.

• 4.22 tCO2e offset in Forest Project in Zambia (VCS certified)
• 8 tCO2e offset in Forest Project in Zimbabwe (VCS certified)

The positive impact in Zambia during 2022:

• 316,5 trees saved
• 48,11 ares under sustainable agricultural management
• 633 acres of forest area saved
• 1 266 farmers trained in using SALM practices.

The positive impact in Zimbabwe in 2022:

• 316,5 trees saved

Only one of our transporters still has some EURO lorries in his car park, these are systematically being replaced.

One of the methods we used this year was filling the decorative cushions in Belgium, after only the decorative cushion covers had been shipped here from the Far East. Initially, this had to do with the container prices that went through the roof last year, but in doing so, an enormous number of kilometres are saved.

We are already working on this by grouping the transports as much as possible and choosing the shortest, or rather the least polluting route.

We scrapped the plan to appoint a transport manager. Instead, customer sales managers focus on groupage of transport. For example, we have monthly instead of weekly deliveries to Romania. This is done in consultation with the customer.

These projects are described in detail on our page "Social".

As of 2020, Mistral Home started to take a structured approach to organisational CO2 emissions. For this we called on Encon, who enabled us to methodologically frame the possibilities and objectives. The measurements were done in 2020.

Our Carbon Reduction Management Plan was drawn up to clearly show how we can reduce our CO2 footprint. This is not a rigid, but an organic working document.

Reduction measures are always calculated in accordance with the Science Based Target Initiative.