It’s great to see more and more people and businesses trying to reduce their material impact on the environment. We are in the same boat. Below are some of our initiatives:

Reduce Stock waste

Global stock waste is a major environmental challenge for the retail industry. Traditionally, retailers create and warehouse their products in bulk for better pricing. Then they hope that every unit sells, and whenever they don’t (which is often) they discard them.

We don’t want to create unsold products that end up on a trash heap. So instead, we make nearly everything ‘on-demand’ with our manufacturing partners who embrace the same mindset. This way, Sunbird products only exist if you actually order them.

They can take a bit longer to arrive, but we hope creating less waste with us makes Sunbird products worth the wait.
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Use Earth-Friendly inks

Unlike petroleum-based plastisol, our water-based inks are natural, vegan, and non-toxic to people and the environment.

And unlike traditional screen printing, our DTG and DTF processes produce nearly zero wastewater, are far safer to work with (low VOC), and are more energy efficient, too.
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Embroider with Recycled thread

All of the custom embroidered designs in our products use recycled threads rather than newly produced materials. They are just as as capable and vibrant, and reduce global production of cotton and polyester thread.

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Use Responsible packaging

ALL packaging is bad — even when it’s ‘eco-friendly’ and/or nice looking. But in our consumer-driven world, we need packages to get things from A to B. So our approach is to work with what’s available, practical, and responsible.

Currently, many of our products are shipped in post-consumer recycled poly packaging (PCR), which is fully recyclable (after delivery). We are also roadmapping plant-based biodegradable packaging. Our other products are shipped in recycled kraft cardboard, which is fully recyclable and biodegradable.

There are no perfect solutions out there, but we are committed to reducing our environmental impact, and exploring new and better ways to do so.

Our challenge:

We have a lot of designs we’d love to offer our flock. And we want to offer them on a variety of products we think they’ll enjoy. The thing is, warehousing everything in bulk becomes super wasteful if it doesn’t sell. This happens a lot in retail.

Our solution:

Offer ‘made-to-order’ products whenever we can, without compromising on quality.

Here, you’ll find a growing collection of our unique designs available on a variety of products we create ‘on-demand’. What that means is, if you order something, we'll make it and then send it your way. Otherwise, it don’t exist! This helps us avoid contributing to global stock waste.

How Sunbird does ‘on-demand’:

Some of our products are full-custom, like this tote bag. Others feature our designs on products we thoughtfully curate, like this organic dad hat.

We work with our partners to bring you unique designs on quality products for reasonable prices, while keeping our environmental footprint light.

Some differences from traditional retail manufacturing:

Our made-to-order products can take a bit longer to arrive than pre-made ones. But we think making most things when people actually want them is better than the other way around.

Production and quality control happens at our partner facilities in the US, depending on where you order from. So we may not get to see your product before it gets to you, but we ALWAYS stand by it. If there’s any issue, we make it easy to get in touch or start a return request.
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