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:
As Thankyou continues to grow, it’s essential that the partners we work with operate in a responsible manner.
Our KPIs
- All Thankyou’s direct partners (partners Thankyou has a contract with) to commit to Thankyou’s Responsible Business Statement & Goals, Responsible Sourcing Policy and Code of Conduct.
- All new significant product suppliers for Thankyou managed products to be socially and environmentally audited and found to be compliant to Thankyou’s Code of Conduct standards by date of first production. All low-risk suppliers for Thankyou products to be self-assessed by date of first production.
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 2025
- Any product & packaging input which is greater than > 50% of total procured weight (per product)
- 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, all packaging inputs must meet the requirements specified in Responsible Business Goal 4.
More than ever, measuring, reducing and offsetting our carbon footprint is of paramount importance for organisations operating responsibly.
As of 2020, Thankyou is a certified carbon neutral organisation for its operations by Climate Active. Carbon emissions associated with our products and supply chain estimations were also included and offset as part of this assessment.
Our KPIs
- Thankyou measures and offsets 100% of its operational and product GHG emissions annually, which is externally validated by a third-party assessor
- 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 a Financial Year 2020 baseline.
Thankyou will focus on consumer packaging by adopting goals to ensure packaging uses less resources, is more easily recycled, and uses materials which can be returned and reused, with the goal of minimising waste associated with the consumption and generation of consumer packaging.
Our KPIs
For all existing and future Thankyou products to meet these goals by December 2025:
- 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 Australian Packaging Covenant’s definition)
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 waste-water pollution.
Our KPIs
- All Thankyou product 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 by date of first production.
- Measure and report on Thankyou’s direct total water usage (operations & products) annually by December 2024.
Thankyou will publish the progress and impacts of Thankyou’s Responsible Business Goals annually.
To see our annual progress reports for each initiative we participate in, please click on the logos in 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.
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 have been a Climate Active certified, carbon neutral organisation since 2020. Carbon emissions associated with our products and supply chain estimations are also included and offset as part of this certification process.
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. Our aluminium bottles are made entirely from 100% recycled aluminium and are completely recyclable. 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 natural 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 new 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.
Dilution revolution.
Our universal cleaning range is a significant step towards a more sustainable future. Undiluted, our formula is a hospital-grade disinfectant perfect for deep cleans. Add one part Universal Cleaner to three parts water for a household-grade disinfectant. Add one part Universal Cleaner to nine parts water, for an antibacterial floor and window cleaner. The dilution process allows you to save a considerable amount of money compared to other comparable products in the market. As a result, this process significantly reduces waste, carbon emissions and water usage. For example, using the household-grade cleaner leads to 70% less plastic waste*.
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.
*This calculation is derived from a comparison of a consumer using the hospital vs household Thankyou Universal Cleaning range. The 70% less plastic-waste claim compares the amount of plastic packaging savings that the household-grade cleaning solution uses (by diluting the solution with water, and hence making the product ‘last’ longer without purchasing a new product) as opposed to the amount of plastic packaging involved in using the hospital-grade cleaning solution (without dilution).