Our Impact

Our business exists to directly solve pressing social and environmental challenges by embedding sustainability and ethical practices into everything we do. As an endorsed Fair Trader, we actively prioritise purpose, people, and the planet over profit in our day-to-day decisions. Our impact goes far beyond selling handmade products—we ensure that every stage of our products' life cycle uplifts communities and protects the environment.

We drive meaningful social and environmental change, using the 10 principles of Fair Trade as our framework for action.

  

 

What positive changes have we delivered so far? 

 

Fair Trader of Australia 

 

From inception, we have believed that a business can redefine success to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. While we knew we were taking steps in this direction, we wanted an external audit for this. As a result, we went through the process with the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand.

In August 2021, we were endorsed as a Fair Trader of Australia by the Fair Trade Association, and we are super excited. This gives our customers, producers and partners confidence, visibility and transparency that we would invest our effort, time and energy in accordance with the 10 Fair Trade principles and would always keep our community and planet first.

We invest heavily in social, economic and welfare initiatives for our artisan community. This includes support for their children's education, medical camps, and capacity building training. The picture below shows some of the children who have benefitted from tutoring classes and the distribution of water filters in a village.

 

Responsible production

We use renewable or upcycled raw materials for making our beautiful homewares, jewellery and garden accessories. We try to select raw materials based on their suitability, practicality and end-of-life options. Thus, we never use materials like plastic and encourage the use of sustainably sourced materials like mango wood, cloths, and scrap metal.

Artisan Workshop & capacity building

Capacity building is the cornerstone of our impact. Through dedicated artisan workshops via our producers, we provide ongoing training in sustainable material sourcing, product development, and financial literacy. By prioritising people over production speed, we empower artisans with the resources and skill sets needed to build resilient, generational businesses that uplift their entire local community. This helps grassroots workshops scale and break free from exploitative middlemen. 

 

Charitable Giving 

Since the last quarter of 2021, we have been collecting donations from our customers, which we match at the end of every calendar year to support Greening Australia. Greening Australia is a registered charity that works to address Australia’s environmental challenges so that nature and people can thrive. They can plant millions of trees, recreate and reconnect thousands of hectares of habitat, protect endangered species, and offset thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions every year.

You can read our charity policy by clicking the link.

Environmental Stewardship

Aksa accepts its corporate sustainability responsibilities and is committed to environmental stewardship and to working towards sustainable development. You can read our environmental stewardship policy by clicking the link.

 

Lowering our packaging & shipping footprint

Reducing waste is important to us, and it starts from the manufacturing process through to the product's end of life. 

We, along with our Fair Trade artisan groups, take several steps in this direction. We have worked with our suppliers to ensure that products are not packed in individual soft plastic sleeves and are shipped to us via sea freight in cardboard boxes with either cardboard or shredded paper as space filler.

We keep minimal branding on our products and never use plastic tags or stickers. We do not include packing slips or invoices to avoid paper waste.

We use compostable mailers that are certified home compostable by B-Corp-certified The Better Packaging Co. or Hero Packaging to ensure we continue to provide compostable mailers to our customers, and we partner with a company that shares our beliefs and values.

We aim to make it frictionless for consumers to dispose of parts of the product packaging through household/council recycling. Our wood products are easily recyclable at the end of their life. Any metal products and our product packaging (hex wraps, carton boxes) are also recyclable through local council programs. Our product packaging, like the compostable bags from Hero Packaging or The Better Packaging Co., address labels and tape, can be thrown in the home compost. 

We wish to let our customers know that they can pass on our products and other items should they wish, to others in their local community via their local Buy Nothing New Group. The mission of Buy Nothing New Groups is to build community and connect people through local gifting. You can learn more at buynothingproject.org, where you can also find the app. There are many Buy Nothing New groups on Facebook which you can join.