FresHotel

Foundation Member | Tracking Since February 2024

FresHotel Sustainability Actions

Social and Environmental Responsibility

We require all of our suppliers to abide by our standards in relation to human rights, environmental and ethical business practices and uphold the principles within the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) which we abide by. As we do, all our suppliers and partners must have a formal policy that outlines their approach to managing environmental impacts within their control. They must comply with local and national laws related to environmental standards and adhere to the principles set out by the Greenpeace Detox Movement which is committed to a toxic free future for people and the environment by the removal of hazardous chemicals from the entire production process for household textiles, garment textiles and footwear.

Our Commitment Towards Building a Sustainable Future

As a member of APCO (the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation) we have committed to move all our consumer facing packaging, across all areas of our business, from PEVA bags, to 100% recyclable cardboard by 2025. We have already made the first steps on this journey, with new packaging to begin rolling out in 2023. This packaging will not only be 100% recyclable, but it will also be made from at least 50% recycled materials and feature the ARL (Australian Recycling Label) to easily communicate disposal methods.

Sustainable Design Approach

By highlighting sustainability as important in our business this has fed into everything we do. This includes designing our building to reduce and improve our sustainable footprint wherever possible. Small examples of this include, laying the factory out to facilitate natural lighting to reduce reliance on electricity, utilising rapid-open/close roller doors to naturally manage air flow and temperature regulation, and using a lean approach to operations which leads to a more efficient flow of goods, and in turn saving electricity. We believe that making incremental changes can make a significant difference as little things add up

Solar Power at our Head Office and Manufacturing Facility

In March 2020 we moved our Melbourne head office, manufacturing and warehousing facilities to solar energy. In the first 3 months this saved the equivalent of 12.3 tonnes of CO2 emissions. That is the equivalent of 81,816km not driven in a car expelling CO2 or 315 trees planted to use up the CO2 emitted. In late 2021, we moved to our new state-of-the-art facilities where we were unable to install solar energy straight away. It was a requirement that we monitor the power output of our new machinery for a period of time to ensure the right system could be put into place to cover our needs. We have been doing this and are now proud to announce, that as of the 1st of May our New Head Office and Manufacturing Plant in Melbourne is Solar Powered. We will share with you over the coming months the impact this has in terms of CO2 emissions.

Internal Recycling

We have a number of different recycling bins across our office and manufacturing facility that are used to efficiently sort and manage our waste. These bins are then regularly collected by our appointed waste services provider for recycling. We also re-use where possible, cardboard cartons across manufacturing, storage and distribution.

Adoption of AMR - Paperless Pick Pack

Our state-of-the-art new operations facility features AMR (Autonomous mobile robots). Used in the process of picking customer orders, these have reduced the need for paper based picking slips, significantly reducing our paper usage.

Heropacks - Eco-Conscious Mailers

For all online orders, where appropriate, we are distributing them using Heropacks. These eco-conscious mailers are made from home-compostable materials such as corn starch and PBAT. Taking 90-120 to break down in the right conditions, they can be put into your backyards compost heap.

Electric Forklifts - Reduce our Consumption of Fossil Fuels

We use electric forklifts in our manufacturing facility to help us reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and be environmentally friendly. They also mean no exhaust fumes for a cleaner, healthier working environment.

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