Mitarbeiterinnen des Einkaufs und Qualitätsmanagements von Depesche beim Produkttesting
Mitarbeiterinnen des Einkaufs und Qualitätsmanagements von Depesche beim Produkttesting

Step by step to more sustainable product development

In a constantly changing global economy, we are faced with the challenge of making our corporate processes more sustainable and taking on more ecological and social responsibility - in order to ensure long-term economic success and at the same time make a positive contribution to the environment. Product development plays an important role in this. The conscious selection of raw materials, the optimisation of our shipping packaging in logistics and the responsible use of chemicals are the first steps towards developing our products more sustainably. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Sustainability

First steps

Raw materials

Less is more – from PVC to more sustainable materials

With every product development, we examine how we can increasingly do without plastic as a raw material. The most sustainable packaging is no packaging - that is our goal. If we cannot do without packaging for quality or safety reasons, we are increasingly replacing the previously used material with more sustainable alternatives. The PVC in some of our accessories, tags or product packaging is increasingly being replaced by alternative materials such as paper, cardboard, synthetic resin or ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). These products are the start:

The tags of our 6-colour TOPModel gel pens are no longer made of PVC, but synthetic resin. For the packaging of our TOPModel glitter rollers, on the other hand, we use ethylene vinyl acetate, or EVA for short - a plastic that contains no plasticisers. Both materials produce fewer harmful substances in their manufacture and are kinder to the environment and children's hands.

We are increasingly supplying products for which we cannot completely dispense with packaging, such as our Dino World torch with picture effects, in easily separable raw material packaging so that the PET can be easily returned to the recycling cycle and reused.

For some products, such as our Miss Melody notebook set, we can now completely dispense with packaging. This not only saves artificial material, but also space in the packaging and therefore CO2 in shipping. That is our long-term goal!

Logistics

Clever shipping packaging

Still sturdy, just without foam: In our shipping packaging, we dispense with harmful materials such as foam and reduce non-essential raw materials. This saves paper, reduces packaging waste and disposal costs, causes less CO2 during transport and ensures better handling at the POS. So people and nature win ...

Depesche-Versandverpackung reduziert auf notwendige und nachhaltige Materialien
Use of chemicals

Glimmer & glitter in children's rooms – only with responsibility

Deliberately added microplastics have been banned for new products by the EU chemicals regulation REACH since 17 October 2023. This also applies to loose glitter in cosmetic products. For this reason, we will refrain from using loose added microplastics in the form of glitter in future product development and will use synthetic fluoroplogopite and glass powder instead of natural mica. Products in which the material is technically sealed will continue to glitter.