Marimekko’s product range is manufactured by a global partner supplier network of around 75 partner suppliers and 100 factories. Almost 70% of our products are manufactured in Europe. We select our suppliers carefully, taking into account social and environmental responsibility. Information about our suppliers’ sustainability efforts is gathered as part of the selection process, as well as in constant dialogue with the suppliers, for example as part of factory visits and supplier evaluation. A significant part of the lifetime emissions of our products are created in our supply chain during the manufacturing of the products and the materials used to make them. Therefore, we have started to map the emissions in our supply chain in more detail, starting with our direct suppliers.
Our study in 2019 showed that 82 percent of our direct suppliers use renewable energy sources. Furthermore, 16 percent of the suppliers use only renewable energy sources[1] in their operations and 66 percent use energy both from fossil and renewable sources at the same time[2]. The rest – 18 percent – use only fossil fuels as their energy source. Of those suppliers who are wholly or partially using fossil fuels, 23 percent plan to increase the use of renewable energies in the future.
Almost all of Marimekko’s suppliers in Europe (95 percent) and outside Europe (97 percent) have set their own targets to reduce energy use and emissions, and/or have implemented other measures to mitigate climate change. Examples of such targets and actions include investing in wind power plants, installing solar panels, minimizing water use in production, capturing heat and using it to warm the production facilities, installing more energy-efficient equipment and participating in reforestation initiatives. We monitor the implementation of these targets and actions as part of our cooperation with suppliers.
[1] Renewable energy sources include solar, wind and hydropower, biogas, biomass and geothermal heat.
[2] If the supplier has mentioned only electricity as the energy source, the division between renewable and non-renewable energies is based on International Energy Agency’s data on energy sources used for electricity generation in that country (https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics).
