Our Sustainability Journey
Our commitment to improve our carbon footprint has been a focus since we began this journey more than a decade ago.
As part of our efforts, we assess the impact of our processes to the environment throughout the value chain using accredited entities such as Higg Index, CDP, and Thesis. In addition, we participate in programs as Project Gigaton, Packaging, and Fiber Surveys, all with the purpose of measuring and setting internal ambitious goals to make continues improvement.
We are proud to have achieved Giga-Guru status for three consecutive years. We have reported results to CDP since 2010, participated in THESIS since 2019, and began Higg assessments in 2021.
Our goal is to maximize Cupid’s environmental performance by consistently reviewing areas of opportunities that will improve our carbon footprint. We also are committed to making environmental management part of our long-term strategy that influences company decision making. Some of the strategies we are working on are:
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- Identifying significant environmental impacts in our operations.
- Evaluating areas of opportunities for long term environmental management strategies.
- Assuring compliance to all laws and regulations relating to environmental management.
- Showing commitment of all company stakeholders, from the board of directors through the rest of the Cupid team towards sustainability.
- Engaging with our partners in the supply chain to measure their environmental performance.
ENERGY
Energy use is our largest source of greenhouse gases release (GHG). Greenhouse gases are those gases in the atmosphere that have an influence on the earth's energy balance and cause the greenhouse effect.
In order to reduce our overall emissions, we closely track all energy and fuel consumption, and have set a normalized baseline for our purchase of electricity. This allow us to set reduction goals and measure progress towards them.
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- Upgraded 61% of fluorescent lights, thus reducing our KW usage by 8.22% in our main manufacturing location.
- Reduced operation time of 87% of AC units by17% at our main manufacturing location during the cooling season.
- Upgraded machinery motors to more efficient models.
- Installed smart switches system and light motion sensors in most of our locations.
- Reduced warm up time on the generator by 83%.
- Upgraded the air compressorin the main manufacturing location to a more energy efficient unit.
- Retrofitted digital lights to LED lighting in our Distribution Center.
- Goods are shipped directly from our Mexico facility to Mexican Customers to bypassing our U.S. DC.
- Finished products are transported to our Distribution Center using container ships instead of cargo planes since 2005.
- In progress: AC unit upgrades across all locations.
An overall reduction of 5.7% on energy was accomplished during 2021 which represent an average of 8% reduction on CO2 emissions in this sector. These initiates allowed us to avoid from emitting 4724mt CO2 into the atmosphere.
WASTE
The proper handling of our process waste is a key element of our manufacturing process and reducing and/or diverting it from the landfill is a key part of our daily efforts.
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Monitor and track all hazardous and non-hazardous waste as well as segregation, proper storage, and training of workers responsible for its handling.
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Actively implement and optimize re-use/recycling programs (paper, plastic containers, aluminum cans, newspapers, magazines, phonebooks, printer cartridges, cardboard, electronics, fabric remnants and others) across all locations, preventing tons of refuse from being sent to the landfill each month.
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Upgraded strength of cardboard boxes used to transport our finished product to the Distribution Center to allow their re-use and extension of box lifecycle before eventual recycling.
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Reduction in the amount of paper used in certain processes.
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Upgraded Order Picking System to rely on scanner use instead of printing orders, which reduced our paper and ink use.
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In 2021 we were able to increase the amount of waste diverted from landfill 23% compared to the prior year. We were able to reduce our emissions by 1237.7mt CO2.
PACKAGING
- Reduced the use of plastic packaging used to ship our goods to customers.
- Upgraded to 100% recycled resin polybags for all packaging used in private brand products.
- Polybags used throughout the manufacturing process are now re-used before sending to recycling centers and are being changed to 100% recycled resin.
- Eliminated 100% of polybag packaging for one of our customers in a mutual effort to reduce plastic usage.
- Upgraded product tags to be 100% recyclable and some of our private brand tags are now made from recycled materials.
- Upgraded strength and recyclability of cardboard boxes used to transport our finished product to the Distribution Center to allow for re-use before being recycled at the end of their lifecycle.
- Reduced the amount of packaging used when shipping our products to customer by eliminating excess plastic bagging and reducing shrink-wrap plastic used on pallets of goods.
We are transitioning 64% of our polybag packaging to be made of 100% recycled resin, and have eliminated polybag use on one customer which represents 39.9 mt CO2 emissions avoided.
OTHER INITIATIVES
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- 53% of printed fabrics used in our products are now digitally printed reducing the amount of ink, water, and materials for its process.
- Implementing an outside energy audit to look for opportunities to reduce our electricity consumption.
- Utilizing USA Cotton.
- Progressing towards achieving ISO 14001 certification.
- Southwest Cupid Custom Trade Partnership against Terrorism- CTPAT Tier III.
- On February 6, 2007, Cupid Foundations signed a Memorandum of Understanding to voluntarily participate in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) as an Importer. By entering into that partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Cupid Foundations acknowledged the importance of maintaining the integrity and security of our international supply chain. Cupid Foundations submitted to CBP our required C-TPAT security profile that was reviewed and approved. The security profile summarized the procedures Cupid Foundations has in place to ensure effective supply chain security.
- To learn more about Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), visit https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/ports-entry/cargo-security/CTPAT.
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Since 2019, we’ve proudly participated in Walmart’s Project Gigaton initiative to prevent one billion metric tons of greenhouse gases from entering the global value chain by 2030, and have been able to achieve Giga-Guru status for 3 consecutive years. We report our GHG emissions on CDP and Higg FEM and participate in THESIS, Fiber and Packaging surveys as well.
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