ENVIRONMENTAL

It’s our duty to take responsibility for our environmental impacts for future generations, and we have therefore adopted several approaches. To support sustainable development, we have focused on our products, their packaging and their life-cycle. Alba has already committed to reduce its carbon footprint and eliminate plastic from its packaging.

• Choosing recyclable resources

Packaging design plays a huge part in product development where we favour recycled and recyclable materials with a clear objective to limit as much waste as possible and in turn our reduce ecological footprint.  We publish the environmental characteristics for each of our products allowing consumers to make informed choices. 

• Creating strong and robust products

We work directly with our suppliers to reduce the need for third party involvement so we can control the quality and supply chain of the materials used. We use long-lasting materials such as wood, steel and/or metal mesh to create products that stand the test of time. We want to optimize your assets so whether you are buying furniture and accessories for a new office, moving location or renewing your old equipment, Alba is with you to offer products guaranteed to last over time.

• Creating products that consume less

80% of the lamps in our lighting range incorporate LED lighting. This technology is a much more energy efficient alternative to fluorescent and halogen, more environmentally-friendly, and more sustainable. For example, our LED lamps have an average life of 25,000 hours. All our lamps carry energy labels showing clearly their energy consumption and classification, again allowing consumers to make intelligent choices.

Further benefits are reduced energy consumption and LEDs operate at a lower temperature giving all the associated safety benefits. With LED bulbs, 80% of the energy produced is in fact converted into a light source and only 20% into heat dissipation.  

• Optimized packaging

Alba’s designers create products and packaging that are optimised to limit our carbon footprint. We have eliminated all plastic packaging including polystyrene and plastic bags and replaced it with recycled materials. Our designers have reworked our best-selling products (without compromising design, of course) to optimize packaging enabling pallets to be stacked more efficiently and helping us to achieve our aim of reducing empty space on pallets by nearly 40% - a goal of which we are very proud.

• Recycling and re-use

In line with management of furniture waste legislation, Alba is now responsible for the end of life of its products. Therefore we have joined forces with three French organisations to help us reduce our industrial waste and meet our environmental targets.

Valdelia, Ecosystem and Ecologic. These three companies offer a complete solution for the collection, treatment, recycling and reuse.  

Valdelia is a French eco-organization that offers a complete solution for the collection, recycling, and reuse of all used commercial furniture (non-household furniture waste). Founded in 2011, this non-profit organization approved by the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition responds to strategic environmental, economic, social, and societal issues as well as its legal obligations. Valdelia's vocation is indeed to reduce pollution linked to office furniture waste, to avoid wasting precious natural resources, while generating local activity and employment in the area.

Ecosystem is a French eco-organization that organizes, develops, and collects used lamps and waste electrical and electronic professional equipment. The group also invites private individuals to drop off used lamps at collection points.

This hazardous waste requires appropriate disposal: used lamps are sorted before being shredded. This enables the unwanted items (packaging, other waste electrical and electronic equipment, etc.) to be removed, which are then sent to the appropriate treatment channels. All the waste is segregated ready for:

* recycling to produce new materials - Thanks to Ecosystem, for example, lamps are recycled to more than 90% of their weight,

* energy recovery or material recovery,

* disposal in accordance with regulations.

Ecologic France is an eco-organization that provides a waste collection and treatment service nationally. In accordance with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations, from households and businesses, they process products to be recycled  to  avoid waste and mining.

• Engaging our suppliers

Alba is committed to working with responsible suppliers. We regularly visit our factories and workshops and carry out strict controls in accordance with legislation and good practice to ensure good working conditions and responsible use of materials and resources used.

• Raising the awareness of our employees

We believe that every small gesture counts. We have a caring culture and encourage our employees to work responsibly throughout all their activities.  In the office, we are committed to limiting our waste and saving energy and believe that small actions can make a huge difference.