Sustainability
As an independent, family owned and operated business, sustainability has been at the heart of Neri Karra since our inception. We believe in creating beautiful, high-quality bags and accessories designed to last a lifetime. Great care and detail go into the items we make, as well as the materials and processes that lead to their creation. With a commitment to environmental sustainability, we strive to operate in ways that reduce our impact on both our local and global environments.
OUR MATERIALS
We are conscious and deliberate in our sourcing and manufacturing processes, seeking high-quality and durable materials with minimal impact on the environment, whilst creating items built to last and as such not depleting resources. This is why we use leather of the highest grade for each and every Neri Karra bag and accessory. Each hide that arrives in our factory is carefully scrutinised by our master craftspeople, whose eyes are trained to detect even the smallest of flaws, ensuring the quality of the leather used in our creations. 100% of our leather is a by-product of the food industry and sourced from gold rated, Leather Working Group tanneries ensuring full traceability of our hides. We treat our leather like the precious material that it is and all efforts are made to ensure the optimal use of our hides, however inevitably some offcuts remain. Rather than let these pieces of high-quality leather go to waste, we are resourceful, repurposing them to construct; card holders, key chains, and other small accessories. No plastics are used in the composition of our items and we are committed to only using water-based glues and vegetable tanning. In addition, all of our suppliers adhere to our animal welfare policy and we do not use fur in any of our production. We believe that this respect for our materials is evident in the quality of our creations
MADE TO LAST
Neri Karra bags and accessories are not made for trends and seasons, but as quality pieces designed to be used daily and to last a lifetime, respecting the resources used in their creation and the people who created them. Each piece is made from the highest quality Italian eather, cut and assembled with care and precision by our expert artisans. All of our metal accessories are meticulously hand polished and coated in palladium, a metal known for its lightness and durability. Finally, each piece is methodically inspected, ensuring that every detail is perfect before leaving our factory. To ensure the
longevity of your Neri Karra purchase, please refer to our care guide where you will find tips and advice on how to protect and maintain your pieces. We are incredibly proud of the quality of our bags
and accessories and so confident in their materials and construction that we offer free lifetime repairs to any Neri Karra item whether brought from us or a distributor, 2 years or decades ago. The same team of artisans that attentively build our bags and accessories, also undertake the restoration of leather goods that are sent back to us, ensuring that all of our repairs are carried out by craftspeople with an intimate knowledge of that item’s construction. When the piece has been restored it is returned to the owner to be used and treasured for many more years to come.
OUR PACKAGING
To protect the integrity of our leather goods, each Neri Karra product is carefully wrapped and boxed before leaving us. We minimise the environmental impact of our packaging by selecting materials that are recyclable or biodegradable. We regularly conduct formal assessments of our packaging and have taken initiatives to reduce the amount of material we use, with plans to further reduce our customer and transit packaging, and to phase out plastic by 2030. Our shipping policy includes no air travel and requires shipment through the lowest impact methods available, in fact in recent years we have successfully reduced our ton-miles of distribution by up to 74%.
OUR SITE
All of our leather goods are built on-site in our Istanbul factory where they are assembled by our expert artisans. As part of our commitment to responsible practices, we ensure that the operation of our site has minimal impact on the environment, at both a local and global level. The design and management of our facilities are energy efficient; monitoring our energy and water use, providing staff training on the topic, investing in energy-saving technologies and equipment, and setting targets to reduce our consumption. We are a zero waste site, operating a recycling programme for paper, composting and leather, and collaborating with suppliers so that waste is tracked throughout our supply chain. We measure our impact and dependency on biodiversity and support UN Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15, to protect; Life Below Water, and Life on Land. We are also carbon neutral and work with climeworks to offset our carbon footprint.
CERTIFICATION
We know that statements are not enough and that our customers deserve the confidence in knowing that they have purchased an item of quality, with minimal impact on the environment, and have supported a business with sustainable values. This is why we are proudly both a Certified B Corporation and a Positive Luxury brand. Both of these certifications require rigorous checks and documentation to meet the necessary requirements, which assess environmental and social sustainability practices. Details of our B Corp certification, which breakdown our score, can be found here. We are incredibly proud of our achievements in obtaining these certifications, but they do not represent the end of our sustainability story, we still have more to do through constant self-assessment and innovation. To further our commitment to do better, we are also signatories of the UN Global Compact and a member of Fashion for Good - a global initiative to inspire change and make fashion a force for good.
