1. Sustainability Strategy
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Bamatex Home Textiles, your reliable partner for professional textile linen for the care sector, hospitality, business and wholesale, has a holistic approach towards sustainability.
A holistic approach means that we do not act one-dimensionally, but follow the three-pillar model of sustainable development: economic, environmental and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet and profits.
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For us, social responsibility is synonymous with shaping a future worth living for all. That is why we are committed to the following guidelines:
- UN Human Rights Charter
- UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP)
- UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- UN Convention on the Rights of Women
- Core Labour Standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
- OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
- OECD Sectoral Guidance Documents
- The ten UN Global Compact Principles
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2. Our history
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1960-2012 Maes Textiles founded by André Maes. Home textiles products are produced in own production facilities in Waregem (Belgium).
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2013 Foundation of Bamatex home textiles by Bart Maes, raised in a passionate textile family and master in textile engineering with more than 25 years’ experience in home textiles.
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2016 Development of Emotion collection, made of a very high-quality combed cotton fibre (AEGEAN COMBED COTTON). This fibre guarantees characteristics as unrivalled softness, very brilliant colours, high water absorption and high durability.
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2018 Bamatex home textiles is Oeko-Tex certified. This certification is part of a vision of sustainability and ethical business behaviour.
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2019 purchase of land for construction of own plant
2020 construction of state of the art plant (offices + warehouse)
2021 move to the new plant
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2022 Bamatex home textiles is Grüner Knopf, GOTS, OCS and GRS certified.
2022 Bamatex home textiles: Proud amfori BSCI member. BSCI is an initiative of the Foreign Trade Association (FTA), the leading business association of European and international commerce that brings together over 1,500 retailers, importers, brands and national associations to improve the political and legal framework for trade in a sustainable way. Membership of amfori BSCI helps us achieve our goal of being a sustainable trader, monitoring our supply chain and partnering with our suppliers. We have chosen this organisation because of its extended experience on an international scale and its hands-on approach. Training and exchanging best practices helps us to improve at all levels.
2023 Start of electrification of company vehicle fleet
2023: Bamatex home textiles obtains the Grüner Knoph certificate 2.0.
3. Contribution of Bamatex home textile
A. Environmental Integrity
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Beginning of 2021, Bamatex home textiles moved to a new state of the art plant (offices + warehouse):
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• Reduction of electricity consumption due to:
- the installation of a heat pump that provides floor heating. This system is far better than standard electricity as it reduces electricity consumption and it helps to prevent bad gases like CO2, SO2, and NO2.
- the smart use of LED lighting: a sensor picks up the entering of someone in a room/the warehouse. Only at that moment light lightens up.
- the windows in the offices: the glass in the windows are high efficient which results in a lower electricity consumption.
- the new vehicles in warehouse: the vehicles in the warehouse, which are equipped with the latest technology, consume significantly less.
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- Reduction of air pollution due to the installation of solar panels: the system reduces the exertion on finite resources and helps to fight climate change. The system also reduces the usage of non-renewable energy sources. We strive for CO2 neutrality. Our own solar system (168 panels) produces 16.913 kHh.
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Reduction of water consumption: rainwater collected from our roofsurface is used for sanitary in the offices and warehouse and to perform tests in our laboratory.
Reduction of heating cost: a ventilation system pushes the warm air in the eleven-metre high warehouse downwards. As a result, there is always a pleasant temperature on the work floor and extra heating costs are avoided.
Reduction of our foot print:
- Our products and compositions are developed for long life.
- Wastage of fabrics is avoided by using the right equipment and processing during the production. When starting up partnerships with new suppliers, the state of the production facilities is an important selection criterium.
- We avoid unnecessary package and substitute packaging materials for recycled materials.
- We maximise the number of pieces per pallet to reduce number of pallets per months. As a result, we reduce the number of rides we make per year to our clients.
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B. Economic Values
Based on the product specifications of our customers, Bamatex home textiles deliver high end quality solutions at the best price. With more than 25 years of experience in the business, we find the right solution for our customer's needs.
Customers can order from our stocks or collections. We produce on order base or keep stock in our warehouse.
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During every step of the supply chain we measure the quality of all our products. In our headquarter in Waregem, we test all products and productions in our in-house laboratory.
Our racking system is developed to give us a big efficiency advantage.
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C. Benefit to society
- Employees engagement: a special air system in the offices creates a nice working and meeting place for our employees, visiting customers and suppliers.
- Safety: the walls of our warehouse are 24h fire resistant.
- Occupational health of our employees: the new vehicles in the warehouse are ergonomically adjusted to the maximum for the comfort and well-being of the driver.
- We have invested in a pneumatic robotic arm. This allows boxes to be stacked "weightlessly" on a pallet in a truck or in a container. This machine scores fantastic in terms of ergonomics when lifting boxes. After all, you no longer have the weight of each box in your hands. This ensures that in the medium and long term, we can prevent a lot of physical complaints such as back pain among our staff.
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4. Our business partners
We only work with selected business partners in an active long term partnership. Our business partners commit to socially responsible, safe working conditions and environmentally friendly production processes. They sign our Code of Conduct and have recognised certification such as Oekotex, BSCI or Sedex. Bamatex management visit on regular base the different production plants to strengthen the collaboration.
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We carry out a comprehensive risk assessment for every country we do business. We seek ways to prevent, mitigate and redress actual negative impacts in our supply chain. Therefore, we have chosen to increase the use of 'Made in Green' certified items and are exploring the use of recycled cotton and organic cotton in products.
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It is our goal to continuously improve our footprint (socially and environmentally). When purchasing or developing new products, we look for solutions with the least negative impact.