Rio Beauty
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local production matters...this is why
Why is local production such a big deal?
Even if all the factories in Asia met the highest environmental standards, the impact on the environment of shipping product half way around the world is huge. Every container shipped from China to Europe puts an amazing 2 tonnes of CO2 directly into the atmosphere. For a TV this can equate to roughly 20kg of CO2! Shipping product by sea to the consumer alone accounts for 5% of total global CO2 emissions?
You may be surprised to know that the CO2 emissions for a large container ship is equivalent to the output of a small power station...
and there are thousands out at sea shipping product every day. Environmentally it is almost a case of out of sight out of mind.
How is Rio Different?
We feel it is now time to tell our customers what we do, and why, so we can be judged more widely by the standards we have set ourselves.
As a UK manufacturer of health, beauty and personal care products, Rio is almost unique in the simple fact that for the last 20 years we have made our products locally.
Almost all other leading companies have their manufacturing in Asia (mainly China).
Rio does source components in Asia, particularly electrical components, which are small in volume, however, the bulky components are produced locally saving on shipping.
Looking at “product miles travelled”, we have calculated the container miles saved by our environmentally aware strategy and the corresponding reduction in CO2 emission.
The saving is some 14 million container miles which equates to an amazing 1500 tonnes (1.5 million kg) of CO2 emission every year. This is a real saving achieved by local product and has a genuine impact on the environment.
Perhaps what should be of concern to us all is that Rio is only one supplier of consumer products. If other companies adopted a similar strategy the impact would be a thousand times greater and then we could all take comfort in the knowledge that manufacturers were taking their environmental responsibilities seriously and doing everything possible to reduce CO2 emissions. We are a very long way from this today but by supporting local producers you can help bring about change.
What is Rio doing locally?
It doesn’t stop with the shipping, Rio is also concerned about its impact on the local environment.
Our purpose built production centre in the Royal Forest of Dean was from the outset designed and built to be “Eco-Friendly”. It has won awards for its low impact on the environment.
Rio (as a part of The Dezac Group of companies) has also achieved independent accreditation to ISO14000 – the global gold standard for environmental awareness.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Environmental groups have been promoting “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” and Rio has put this at the centre of its strategy. We are actively reducing the material content of our products by “going leaner”. We are re-using materials where possible to lesson our impact on non-renewable resources. Each year our emissions, waste, and what is recycled are monitored with the aim of reducing the impact on the environment.
Every product which is returned to us is stripped down for recycling.
This however is very unusual. All too often customer returns end up as landfill because returning a product to a factory 5000 miles away is not considered viable.
What is the future?
There are some remarkable changes beginning to happen in Industry and Commerce and we believe we are going to see a quantum leap in environmental awareness, to the extent that the 21st Century will become known as the ‘post-carbon era’.
We want you to know that there is a positive way to do business and that Rio has been leading the way for decades. We want every company to know and be aware that they have to consider where and how they manufacture in order to take care of the environment, and that these issues matter! We think that all businesses and individuals need to ask the question “What did we DO when we knew that something HAD to be done?” It’s a question future generations will be asking us...