Kemi Telford Values
People
At Kemi Telford, we value how people are respected and valued. This includes our customers, employees, and suppliers.
We work closely with manufacturers in the UK, India, Nigeria, and China. Over the years, we have built great relationships with them and their staff. They are all small, independent companies that value the welfare of their employees. They understand our vision, and we support each other's businesses. For example, we pay invoices very promptly.
We have vetted each of our manufacturers' workplaces. Employees work no more than eight hours a day, with regular breaks. Pay exceeds the minimum wage in their respective countries. We have the right to visit our manufacturers (without notice) to check that the standards of working conditions are being maintained.
How people are treated is vital to the success of this brand, and we never compromise on that. This brand was created to empower women, which means that our employees—and those of our manufacturers—are always treated with care and respect. The people who create the items sold here must feel worthy and acknowledged.
Kemi Telford & the Environment
Shopping online is inherently more environmentally friendly than traditional shopping. This is because it is more efficient for a delivery van to visit several houses in turn rather than individual shoppers making separate round-trips by car (or bus) from their houses to a shopping centre. This study discusses this in more depth.
Made To Last
We are not 'fast fashion'. Our clothes are of high quality and expected to last a long time. Many of our customers have told us they have sold their pre-loved Kemi Telford items, demonstrating their long-lasting value. With care, Kemi Telford's clothes should last for years, or even generations - just like our mother's clothes did.
Reducing Waste
We have a section in our shop where we sell samples and seconds to reduce waste. Seconds are items that we have manufactured but which—for a variety of reasons—didn't meet the very high standards that we require. Rather than reject them, we work with the manufacturer to fix any problems going forward, but we sell the items already made at a cheaper price.
Sometimes, remnant material is produced during the manufacturing of clothes. Rather than waste it, we've worked with manufacturers to turn the remnants into lovely items, such as hair bows, scrunchies, and headbands.
Packaging
We are committed to minimising the environmental impact of our business's packaging. For example, we ask our suppliers to send us inventory in reused cardboard, which we then reuse or recycle.
We aim to ship all orders in either recyclable or biodegradable packaging. We're decreasing our use of plastic in favour of paper packaging. This is made from either recycled or sustainably sourced paper. It is biodegradable, reusable, and fully recyclable. Most of our plastic bags are biodegradable, and some are also designed for reuse (they have an extra adhesive strip). We use Tesa Pack Paper Ecologo packaging tape comprising 60% bio-based materials.
Website
Our website runs on carbon-neutral infrastructure. It runs on Shopify's cloud e-commerce platform. We operate no servers or data centres of our own. Cloud computing is generally more environmentally friendly than owned and operated servers. Shopify uses Google Cloud as its infrastructure provider. Google Cloud matches 100% of the energy consumed by its global operations with renewable energy. And Google aims to operate on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030.
Cooling
During the summer, we use evaporative air cooling units in our office, which are generally considered more energy-efficient than refrigeration-based air conditioning.
Carbon Offsetting
We use Ecologi to offset our remaining carbon emissions.
Green Mark
We have received a Green Mark Level 1 accreditation. The Green Mark provides an internationally recognised environmental certification for companies that want to assure their clients and employees that they are conducting business to recognised environmental standards. You can find out more about Green Mark at greenmark.co.uk.
Community
In March 2022, we donated to Lumos's Ukraine emergency appeal. It aims to protect children by providing emergency food, hygiene, and medical kits, as well as by helping to support families and foster carers to look after displaced and traumatised children.
In May 2021, we donated to the Goonj organisation to help fund its work providing Covid relief in India.
We are proud to support Reigate and Banstead Women’s Aid (a refuge, based in East Surrey, for women and children fleeing severe domestic abuse) by donating clothes to them.