COMMITMENT TO THE COMMUNITY

Everything Lalela Scarves does is to serve the communities in which they work, especially the children they educate. The have several goals they hope to achieve, including ending poverty and hunger, ensuring the health of the community members, promoting lifelong learning regardless of gender, and maintaining sustainable economic growth. Lalela, which is an NGO, helps keep at-risk youth off the streets through their arts programmes, during those hours after school during which they’re at their most vulnerable. The art they create during that time is what they use to decorate the scarves, and all of the proceeds go back to the programmes.
Lalela has several initiatives, including the Conscious Kids Club, another after school program that teaches children about sustainability and protecting the environment. They’re also launching an initiative to help boost the local economy in a township called Houtbay, and they’re working to make it a tourist destination to support the people who live there. Lalela support many charities, too, including Kylemore, a small group of crafters who they outsource some of their sewing to.

MINIMAL WASTE AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Lalea is working towards using less water in their production, and they work with suppliers to safely dispose of waste. They are taking steps to reduce their own waste, have cut back from four deliveries a year to two and use eco-friendly vehicles to make those deliveries, and they’ve moved their offices closer to their clients.
Because Lalela is a small business and fills small orders, there isn’t a lot of waste produced through making their scarves. But when there is, any fabric scraps are cut into pocket squares, bandanas or luggage tags, bringing them closer to their zero-waste goals.