Transparency and openness are core elements in the work with environmental and social responsibility. Although reporting does not in itself make a company more or less sustainable, it is an important part of a company’s approach.
Dansk Wilton is not legally obliged to report on ESG’s (Environmental – Social – Governance), but we want to communicate openly about our areas of action, challenges and opportunities, which is why from the financial year 2023 we will include reporting on E, S and G in our annual reporting. We have so far always included information about our work with the Cradle to Cradle certification, as our tool for sustainable business development, just as we have communicated about initiatives within, among other things, recycling.
Through our Cradle to Cradle certification, Lifecycle Assessments and Environmental Product Declarations, we have extensive data and documentation for our activities, just as we have made a first climate report on scope 1 and 2 plus elements from scope 3 in 2022.
Until we have our annual report for 2023 ready, we refer to the below documentation and description of selected focus areas within environmental and social responsibility.
Green House Gas Emissions
For 2022 we have calculated our greenhouse gas emissions using a tool “Klimakompasset” provided by the Danish authorities and compliant with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
The numbers and result have been verified by an independent advisor and relates to our production of both Colortec and Axminster carpets.
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In addition to the greenhouse gas emissions calculated for our Dansk Wilton facility, we also include reporting on scope 1 and 2 emissions of the backing facility where the backing process of our Colortec carpets is handled:
The embodied greenhouse gas emissions for our Colortec carpets are available in our EPDs that can be requested by email or found on The International EPD System’s website:
For our Axminster carpets we have prepared a life cycle assessment to calculate the embodied emissions associated with the production. Early 2024 an EPD will follow.
Water use
The production processes of Dansk Wilton carpets is not associated with high-volume water consumption in the final manufacturing stages (facilities that withdraw or purchase ≥ 100.000 m3 of water per year are considered as having high-volume processes). However, Water & Soil Management is a category within the Cradle to Cradle certification and a point of attention, in our case especially related to the activities in our value chain.
The water consumption data for the last manufacturing stages of our carpets is segregated between the two final manufacturing facilities and consolidated into a total figure:
*The data for the backing facility encompasses not only the backing process of Dansk Wilton carpets but include the total water usage of the facility
Water and soil stewardship strategy
In our Water and soil stewardship strategy, we have set specific objectives related to our consumption of wool as wool is a primary resource of both Axminster and Colortec carpets manufactured at Dansk Wilton.
Wool can, by definition, contain residues of pesticides, which are used in agriculture and transferred to grazing animals. The aim of our water and soil stewardship strategy is to use certified organic wool to 100% exclude the occurrence of pesticide residues in the wool used in our carpets (and the use of pesticides in farming in general).
The aim is to be able to certify our carpets on GOLD level in the Material Health and Water & Soil Stewardship categories in our Cradle to Cradle certification.
Challenges related to certified wool:
Wool used for carpets need to have certain properties to meet the wear and tear requirements of contract use (heavy wear and tear) to ensure a good quality and hence durability. At this stage there is not much certified wool suitable for carpets used in the contract market. To our knowledge there is no GOTS certified (Global Organic Textile Standard) wool available. An option could be Ecolabel certified wool which is a focus area in our optimization dialogue with our yarn supplier.
Another challenge also affecting the certification issue is the lack of traceability in many countries producing wool: i.e. New Zealand has a structure with a limited number of very large farms supplying wool making traceability easy. Hence, the Ecolabel certified wool appropriate for carpets we have identified is New Zealand wool. In i.e. United Kingdom on the contrary, many small farms delivers wool to the wool dealers, making traceability a challenge.
These challenges are related to existing structures and systems that must be questioned and changed over time. We appreciate and support a positive and regenerative development and hope that an openness about these issues helps to address the challenges in the industry.
Despite challenges related to residual pesticides in wool, we firmly believe that wool is still a preferred fiber for carpets, as it has many great properties: Wool is inherently fire retardant, so we do not have to add fire retardant to meet strict fire requirements, wool is absorbent, i.e. absorbs and releases moisture and thus contributes to a healthy indoor climate, wool is a rapidly renewable natural fiber and wool carpets have very good acoustic properties.
Synthetic fibers have other advantages and disadvantages and are also generally associated with pollutant intensive processes, including challenges with microplastics, just as several synthetic fibers are oil-based.
The social dimension covers our social responsibility as a company, both in terms of human rights and labor rights and covers conditions throughout our value chain.
Within the framework of our Cradle to Cradle certification in the category “Social Fairness”, we have, in collaboration with an external consulting company with expertise in due diligence, prepared a comprehensive risk assessment on human rights, based on clear, specific and very high requirements.
Based on this risk assessment, we have identified de facto risks associated with both countries and individual raw materials. We will continue to investigate these potential risks in our value chain, so that we can exclude the occurrence of conditions that violate international guidelines and our own Human Rights Policy.
Our value chain – final manufacturing stages and tier one suppliers
Dansk Wilton has few primary suppliers. It is our belief that we can only achieve optimizations and our objectives through close and good cooperation with our suppliers. Our primary suppliers are all located in Europe and the United Kingdom.
Final manufacturing stage facilities and tier one suppliers by country are visualized in the below illustration. Further, the illustration shows potential high-risk components and raw materials by country of origin.
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High risk components and raw materials
Components and raw materials sourced from high-risks locations in relation to human rights include suppliers beyond tier 1.
In the risk assessment we have investigated both supplier country and country of origin for the component and raw material.
The components and raw materials shown in the illustration are potentially associated with high-risks within several areas of human- and labour rights:
Thus, there is a potential risk that we in the manufacturing of carpets are indirectly linked to conditions that contravene international conventions and our own human rights policy.
We manage the knowledge of these risks by engaging in a dialogue with our tier one suppliers to clarify the level of information of each individual component and raw material supplier to clarify the need of further investigations and documentation.
The next step is defined according to the results of further investigation, and it may be necessary to initiate audits in collaboration with our tier one suppliers and external audit specialists. Our aim is to have full clearness that there are no violations of human rights in our value chain, in accordance with our human rights policy. These activities are supported by our strategy for implementing our human rights policy.
Since Dansk Wilton has not directly caused any negative impacts but is indirectly connected to potential risks via the supplier chain, we want – in accordance with OECD guidelines – to influence the behavior of our sub-suppliers aiming at remedying and preventing any incidents. If we identify violations of human rights and any damage caused by this, we intend to contribute to recovery in collaboration with our suppliers and sub-suppliers.
Whistleblower scheme
Dansk Wilton has established a whistleblower scheme, both for its own employees and for other external stakeholders.
All reports to the Whistleblower scheme are registered and processed in accordance with internationally recognised human rights and standards (UN Declaration of Human Rights and ILO Conventions). The internal scheme complies with Danish legislation on labour rights. The external scheme is established on a voluntary basis.
With this scheme we provide the opportunity to report matters in Dansk Wilton and our value chain that are contrary to Dansk Wilton’s policy and international guidelines.
The “G” in ESG refers to the system that supports the company’s actions. For Dansk Wilton, our policies, strategies, and actions are prepared according to the requirements of the Cradle to Cradle certification, which is the basic framework and guideline for our activities related to environmental and social responsibility.
The Cradle to Cradle certification is based on a scientific foundation and international guidelines and sets out a large number of very ambitious requirements for companies and products certified according to the scheme.
We are more than happy to tell more about Cradle to Cradle, the philosophy and certification requirements related to our carpet solutions. Please reach out to us to book an online meeting: ld@dansk-wilton.dk.
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