Sustainability
We believe how we manufacture our products and the decisions we make as we scale this movement globally are intrinsically linked to our mission.
OUR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS GOALS
Thankyou has set itself the following responsible business goals, which build on Thankyou’s endeavours to date:
All Thankyou’s Partners to commit to Thankyou’s Responsible Business Statement & Goals, Responsible Business Implementation Policy and Code of Conduct.
Our KPIs
- All existing direct suppliers are to be found to be compliant to the Code of Conduct standards after 12 months from the date of first production (either an audit or self-assessment questionnaire depending on the risk analysis)
- All new direct suppliers to be found to be compliant with the Code of Conduct standards by date of first production (either an audit or self-assessment questionnaire, depending on the risk analysis)
- The Partner will provide information needed for a quarterly review on progress of these goals.
Thankyou is on a mission to gain full visibility across all of our product and packaging inputs, and to ensure our product inputs are responsibly sourced.
Our KPIs
100% visibility¹ of inputs for Thankyou products by date of first production
Responsibly source² Thankyou’s inputs (described below) by 2030
- Any product input that is greater than > 50% of total procured weight (per product) by 2030
- All palm oil (including derivatives) to be RSPO certified
- All products to be ‘Cruelty-Free’ (not tested on animals)
- All products to be Greywater safe
- All products to be rosewood oil-free OR certified
- All paper inputs to be responsibly sourced (e.g. FSC / SFI certified or an equivalent certification standard)
- All inputs deemed as socially and/or environmentally ‘high risk’³ by an internal materiality assessment to be responsibly sourced through either a certification scheme, or a third-party audit
- In addition, the Partner must adhere to all other product development guidelines in Thankyou’s New Product Development guidelines
The Partner will provide information needed for a quarterly review on progress of these goals.
More than ever, measuring and reducing our carbon footprint is of paramount importance for organisations operating responsibly.
Our KPIs
- Thankyou measures its operational and product GHG emissions using FY20 as a baseline year, which is externally validated by a third-party environmental audit.
The Partner commits to reporting on energy emissions associated with Thankyou Products. This includes reporting on energy and carbon emissions data from its facilities, and freight data, including shipping information (type of transport, weight of Thankyou goods per trip etc.) - Thankyou commits to an emission reduction intensity target per product of scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions from the business by 25% by 2030 compared to the Financial Year 2020 baseline.
The Partner will provide information needed for an annual review on progress of these goals.
Thankyou will focus on consumer packaging by adopting goals to ensure packaging uses less resources, more easily recycled, and use materials which can be returned and reused, with the goal of minimising waste associated with the consumption and generation of consumer packaging.
Our KPIs
The partner commits to all existing and future Thankyou products to align with Australia’s National Packaging Targets. As of 2025, the targets are below:
- 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging
- 70% of plastic packaging being recycled or composted
- 50% of average recycled content included in packaging
- To phase out of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics packaging (as per the Australian Packaging Covenant’s definition)
All Thankyou products’ finished good manufacturing facilities to have a zero-waste policy by the end of 2027
- The Partner will maintain an up-to-date status of these packaging goals across the Thankyou product range.
- They will provide information needed for an external annual review on progress of these goals.
Water scarcity is one of the most urgent and pressing environmental issues of our time. Therefore, we will measure our water consumption and also ensure the environment our partners work within is kept safe from the effects of wastewater pollution.
Our KPIs
- All Partners’ facilities and their suppliers to ensure they are adhering to local environmental protection regulations by safely disposing of hazardous chemicals during the manufacturing process, to ensure waterways are protected.
- Thankyou will measure and report on its water footprint annually. The Partner will provide information needed for an annual review on progress of these goals. This includes data associated with the water consumption and usage of its facilities.
Thankyou will adhere to the social and environmental reporting obligations. As an organisation, we are proud to be members and signatories of the following initiatives.
To see our annual progress reports for each initiative we participate in, please see the section below.
- Visibility is defined as having transparency on the total weight per ingredient procured per year, the country of origin it is procured from, and any sustainability certification or social and environmental information on the sourcing process.
- ‘Responsibly source’ means all inputs will either be certified by independent, social and environmental certifications benchmarked to our Code of Conduct, or each level of a product’s supply chain adheres to our Code of Conduct by passing a third-party, social and environmental audit.
- Thankyou’s impact team performs a risk analysis based on available data from existing research on social/environmental issues found in high-risk industry sectors and countries.
We’ve received our B Corp Certification, making us globally recognised for reaching the high standards of social and environmental performance, governance, transparency and legal accountability. The B Corp global average B Impact Score is 50.9, and we’re pleased to announce that in 2024, we received a score of 102.1.
Initiatives we participate in
We are proud to be a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and are committed to the Ten Principles of the UNGC in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
We are proud to be a member of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation and support their vision of collaboration and circularity within the packaging value chain in order to minimise landfill. We have adopted the National Packaging Targets internally as a responsible business goal.
We are also independently certified by Social Traders as a social enterprise, Australia’s peak social enterprise, thought-leadership body.
Please click on the logos to view our sustainability reports.
Our product sustainability journey.
To be honest, when we look at an increasingly complex global supply chain, it can start to feel overwhelming and paralysing. We are under no illusions that meeting our Responsible Business Goals will be both challenging and ambitious. Sometimes, we also know that the best place is to “begin”.
There’s a great quote we live by at Thankyou from Mark Twain: “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”
While we know we aren’t satisfied with our progress, here are a few examples that demonstrate our deep resolve to continuously improve and meet our Responsible Business Goals.
A journey towards circularity.
We have created our new range of Forever Bottles and refill systems with the intention of meeting consumers where they are, in a more sustainable way. Today, many revolutionary sustainable innovations are appearing around the world. Whilst our own sustainable, innovative products are in the pipeline, the launch of these products marks a step forward in offering consumers a more sustainable option of the products they are accustomed to.
Forever Bottles are designed to be purchased once and used forever, and our refill systems are intended to promote circularity.[more]
It’s important to note that not all recycling is created equal. Some products are low-value recyclable, and some are not kerbside recyclable, like pouches. However, we’ve designed our refill bottle using high-value recyclable untinted HDPE. This bottle is also made from 100% recycled materials, which means you can place it in your kerbside recycling bin. More recycling means less waste and a healthier planet.
Our system aims to make reductions to our waste, carbon emissions and water footprint and provides a more sustainable offering to our previous consumer products and those of the mainstream market.
Walking away from our genesis
Thankyou started as a bottle of water. From day one, we said we thought it was a silly product but, while it existed, we wanted to provide a choice to consumers that did some ‘good’. However, as we have matured, we realise we also need to mature as a brand. We’d hoped we could find a sustainable solution, but many of the paths we explored turned out to be nothing more than greenwashing. So we made the call to simply walk away, leaving literally millions of dollars on the table, but all in pursuit of a more sustainable future. [more] While we can’t reveal what the future of Water will be today, we are proud to announce that we have de-launched our entire single-use plastic bottled water range. While it doesn’t make commercial sense (even our retailers were shocked by this decision), we knew it was time to say goodbye.
To read more about our decision to exit, here’s our announcement: We’re announcing the end of Thankyou Water.
