Sustainability

Masterart: Art-Canvas Specialists

How we contribute as a firm to ongoing and increasing requirements to do pur part to ensure that we both source or materials ethically and minimise our contributions to negative environmental effects.

 

What do we mean by SUSTAINABILITY?

Sustainability is one of those words that has become reasonably common in everyday language. However, it is also one of those words that does not necessarily mean the same thing to all people. We have come to understand Sustainability as being:

• Sourcing our raw materials from producers that can prove their components are derived (in the main) from renewable resources.
• Source materials from producers that can prove their products and supply chain are free from labour exploitation.
• Minimise the quantity of waste materials that go to landfill.
• Minimise the amount of transport generated carbon emmissions

As business owners that have been in manufacturing products for over 30 years, we have come to appreciate that some of our earlier practices (and some of our current material uses) are not as good for our environment as they could be.

Plastic wrapping
One of our current concerns is the amount of plastic we put into the environment. An increasing number of our customers are opting to have their canvas orders shipped with no plastic wrapping, we encourage our customers to request that we do not plastic wrap their canvases and we are considering requiring people to "opt in" to having their orders plastic wrapped.

Ethical Sourcing
As a number of our customers are aware, we are quite vocal about ethical sourcing of raw materials. We believe that all materials used in our operation and supply chain must be free from expoitative labour practices and must be from material sources that are renewable (in the main).

• Timber We use Radiata pine that is grown and milled in New Zealand for the majotity of our stretcher bar and bracing - All timber is plantation grown and is Forest council certified. On occassion, our suppliers also source plantation grown Radiata pine form Chile.
• Canvas We are very careful to ensure that none of our canvas materials are sourced from countries that use exploitative forms of labour. We absolutely do not source any materials from China as the probability of materials made with forced labour is very high. It is well recognised that in excess of 80% of all of Chinese made cotton products are sourced from the Xinjiang region and is highly likely to be produced with Uyghur and Kazakh forced labour. (a simple internet search will produce a considerable number of reliable commentaries. See for example: https://minorityrights.org/programmes/library/trends/trends2022/china/).
  We source the majority of our canvas from India. While this country is also reputed to have instances of undesirable labour practices such as bonded labour (as does New Zealand!), we have ensured our suppliers are independently audited by reputable international institutions.