Sustainability commitment

Conducting our business ethically and responsibly is a commitment. This commitment runs through our entire value chain, from sourcing and shipping to our stores and the end-life of our products. It is vital to our customers that our products are produced according to ethical, environmental, and social standards and are safe to use. Vital to our customers – and vital to our company’s success.

Flying Tiger Copenhagen’s ambition is to become a global beacon in sustainable retail, knowing that we are doing our part to pass on a better planet for future generations. This means offering affordable products with the lightest possible carbon footprint and actively working to become independent of virgin fossil-based materials and fuels.

2023 was a year where we made big sustainability strides. We were proud to receive an EcoVadis silver medal for our dedication to the environment, human rights, labour rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. This sustainability performance score places us among the top 9% of companies globally.

Key figures 2023

*Base year 2019

49 %
less single use products*

19 %
less platic materials in our products*

50 %
less plastic in our packaging*

Climate action

As global warming will create major disruptions on a global scale, we must act accordingly by decarbonising our value chain and doing whatever is in our means to mitigate the negative and unpredictable consequences of climate change. Doing this is a license for us to operate and for our customers to buy our products. Global legislation is moving to reflect climate change realities and we expect taxation on greenhouse gas emissions will further encourage a green transition.

Ambitions

Ultimately, our dependency on virgin fossil-based materials and fuels must end. We have developed targets, validated by The Science Based Targets initiative, to reduce our total greenhouse gas emission intensity (scopes 1, 2 and 3) by approximately 30% by 2026. A very high ambition certainly, but also achievable.

Eco-conscious products

As a retail company, our products have an impact on the planet. To us, it is therefore just as natural to offer still more eco-conscious items in our stores out of respect for global resources, to stay relevant as a company, and to stay ahead of still more stringent environmental legislation.

Ambitions

We have a distinct ambition to offer our customers even more eco-conscious, useful, fun, and inspiring products at an always affordable price. All environmentally conscious items should always be easily identified in our stores, including the multi-use alternatives to single-use products. Respecting the very restrictive EU Green Claims legislation means that communicating more eco-conscious choices to our customers is still a work in progress.

Circular materials

Our most used product materials in 2023 were wood, paper, and food, making renewable materials our largest category at 47%. This was followed by fossil fuel-based materials, plastic, and paraffin. From 2019 to 2023, we reduced plastic use in our products by 19%. To reach our 2025 targets, we will focus even more on plastic reductions and use recycled plastic whenever feasible. We will explore new ways of sourcing recycled materials and have strict reduction targets for plastic packaging.

Healthy forests

It is our ambition that all our wood and paper products come from sources that ensure responsible forestry, in terms of the consideration for people, wildlife, environment, and biodiversity. Our membership of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and its certification underline our support for the promotion of well-managed forests. FSC certification not only entails the protection of biodiversity, it also means respecting the rights of local people and the people working in the forest. Moreover, it includes that workers are properly trained, have decent health and safety conditions as well as a fair wage.

Certified palm oil

Palm oil is a highly versatile oil used for many products globally, primarily food and beauty. Unfortunately, palm oil is also a driver for deforestation. Therefore, we only want to use palm oil sourced responsibly. Since 2019, we have worked to increase the amount of certified palm oil we use for our food products. Currently, we haven’t reached our target but we are swiftly working to rectify the situation before the EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation) is implemented at the beginning of 2025.

Conscious stores

We aim for our stores to reflect our high ambitions and commitment to sustainability. We want to minimise our stores’ footprints as much as possible, using circular and responsible materials. For instance, our fixtures and fittings are made from materials of responsible origin, a minimum of composites, and can be completely disassembled and recycled at the end of their lifecycle. We also want to source only renewable electricity to run our stores and for our company car fleet to be electric.

Packaging

Packaging is one of the biggest waste categories throughout the world. It has a short lifespan with a large environmental impact. Packaging has a purpose not only to protect the products, but also to work as a platform to inform the customers about content. Using as little material as possible is the way forward. This is good for the environment, and it is a way to avoid the various taxation on packaging growing on a global scale. Less packaging shows our customers that we care and helps them minimise their local waste handling.

Ambitions

- Use less packaging
- Remove excess/unnecessary plastic
- Make it easy t o separate and recycle

Our target is to reduce the plastic used in packaging by 50% from 2019 to 2025.

 

Responsible sourcing

Our purchasing decisions have an impact on social, environmental, and economic conditions in global supply chains. We are especially aware of human rights risks in our supply chain such as forced labour, child labour and excessive working hours. Monitoring and addressing sustainability risks in our supply chain strengthens our stakeholders’ trust in our brand and increases our preparedness for a rising regulatory focus on due diligence in supply chains.

Ambitions

Focusing on responsible sourcing ensures that we account for the impacts of human and labour rights on workers and communities. Through our social compliance process, we work to ensure that factories, selected for production on our behalf, can meet our requirements and that the people producing our products are treated with respect and provided with fair and safe working
conditions. Most of our direct suppliers are trading companies who source from a range of different factories, enabling us to offer a broad array of novel products across a variety of categories.

Report archive

Sustainability People Report 2023

Sustainability People Report 2022

Sustainability Report 2021