Acknowledgement of Country

In the spirit of reconciliation, our organisation Tragic Beautiful, and all who work here, acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

 

Tragic Beautiful is an independent business started in 2006 in Brisbane Australia. We pledge to keep these three key words at heart in every aspect of our business. Sustainable, fair and ethical. And to keep trying harder.  

SUSTAINABLE

We have been actively working to reduce the amount of plastic used in the packing process. In 2017 we introduced biodegradable void fill products and have phased out plastic packing products. We now only use plastic pillows if they are being recycled from a supplier order that we have received. 

We phased out the use of plastic bags in your orders, and have started putting items directly into satchels, saving the need to use thousands and thousands of plastic bags.

Tragic Beautiful reuses as many cardboard boxes as possible in our packing process. Those that are unable to be re-used are taken to a recycling centre or donated for re-use.

All invoices included in your order are printed on recycled paper, like all paper in our office. We use an ecotank printer, reducing again the amount of plastic in the printing process. 

We recently switched to ecopure bubblewrap - it contains an organic additive that uses the presence of microorganisms to make polymer plastics completely degradable in 3-5 years without any environmentally harmful residues.

We are actively seeking a compostable mailer that won’t tear or let items get wet. In the meantime, we source from local business rather than having them printed and shipped from China, thereby increasing the carbon load of the item. 

Congruent with our goal to do better and reduce our emissions, we are pushing for the successful change of our:

Swing tags, poly bags, other consumables

We want to keep significantly reducing our carbon footprint. Dispatching parcels out to all of you is such a huge part of our business, so we want to do it as environmentally friendly as possible.

We are partnering with Carbon Neutral Australia to become carbon neutral in 2021 and moving forward. This program allows businesses to purchase carbon credits towards goals which offset the carbon used in our business. 

FAIR

When it comes to sourcing our items, we don’t just focus on commercial criteria – we put ethical trading at the forefront.

We examine our vendors and their practises. When taking on a new brand, we require them to have fair and ethical practises.

Products we make ourselves under the Aether brand are made locally, by independent small Australian businesses.

Products we manufacture overseas are made ethically. During Covid we cannot visit our overseas production facilities, so instead we require video evidence of good working conditions, clean and safe environments, and a pledge of a fair wage. None of our vendors or suppliers use child labour.

Every year we commit to producing more products within Australia, and using as many Australian components as possible. We hire designers locally; and all our printing is done in Australia using local small businesses.  

Charity

We work with various charities and in 2020 we donated goods and/or money to these organisations:

National Homeless Collective – a grassroots Australian charity that creates solutions to complex issues arising from homelessness, domestic violence, and social disadvantage.

Black Rainbow - Black Rainbow is a national advocacy platform and touchpoint for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBQTI peoples. 100% Indigenous owned and operated. 

FreeHER Campaign run by Sisters Inside - This is a fund used to free Aboriginal women thrown in jail in WA due to poverty. They have no criminal records, are mainly single mothers, and are locked up over unpaid fines such as council or parking tickets. It is appalling and we want to help contribute. 

Elephants Home & Nature - Home for rescued & abused elephants in their habitat. They all are now living in never-fading love.

ETHICAL

We highly value animal rights and our founder has been vegan or vegetarian for over 2 decades.

We will not purchase or sell any of these animal derived materials:

  • any part of vulnerable, endangered, exotic, or wild-caught species
  • fur or rabbit hair (including angora)
  • feather and down

When sourcing or supplying bone, shell, teeth or taxidermy we will make sure the supplier uses only ethically obtained specimens. We recently turned down a very lucrative opportunity once we discovered the animal items were being sourced from wild caught specimens. We will never risk animal welfare for commercial gain.

Cosmetics:

Any cosmetics we manufacture, produce or source must not in any way be tested on animals.

We are committed to a worldwide ban on animal testing.