animal welfare and nature conservation

Animal welfare and nature conservation are very important to us


We want our high-quality products to provide long-lasting enjoyment and pay attention to environmental protection, animal welfare and employees throughout the entire value chain.

It is important to us to develop outdoor products that are as environmentally friendly as possible in their production, use and at the end of their life, while combining ecological and technical performance.

We actually operate according to one principle only. We want to offer honest, correct, and long-lasting products, and for that, we demand a fair price. A price that's worth the product, not exorbitant prices that are then made normal with a red pen.

We're not looking for the cheapest material, nor are we looking for production with the lowest costs. For us, quality, fair conditions, and ecological aspects are our top priorities.

Whether it's a sleeping bag or a jacket: our products consist of many individual parts and materials. We have to buy them from different countries and bring them together in one place. We make each of these decisions consciously and weigh many arguments against each other.

  • For example, we use YKK zippers for our sleeping bags. They are zipper experts and the best in the world (from Japan).
  • The wool for our DownWool or AlmWolle insulation comes from our alpine pastures in Bavaria, Austria, and Switzerland. It's very stable and perfectly suited for combining with down.
  • For sleeping bags used in outdoor applications, robust and water-repellent outer fabrics are essential. We replace PFCs with environmentally friendly impregnations and use sustainable dyes. This is especially important to us because the toxins would otherwise enter the water cycle and our customers have a lot of skin contact with the materials.
  • All our materials are certified according to the OEKO-TEX® 100 standard.
  • The best sewing factories for our ultra-thin and lightweight fabrics (20g/m²) can be found in the Shanghai region. For comparison, a sheet of paper weighs approximately 80g/m². We are, of course, also looking for a sewing factory in Europe that offers equivalent quality. This would further improve our ecological footprint, save considerable transportation costs, and offer a product made in Europe. Unfortunately, we haven't found one yet. Since the quality of the seam directly influences the lifespan of the products, we don't want to compromise here. A long-lasting product avoids waste and saves valuable raw materials. We like that.
  • We know our producers personally and have done so for a long time, and we maintain friendly relationships with them. We know where and how our products are manufactured. This is important to us. We don't want exploitation of either people or nature.


When our product is finally finished, we want to hold it in our hands with a smile and say with conviction that we did a great job. Otherwise, we won't enjoy our work or our product, and you probably won't either.

My team and I personally vouch for all of this!
Yours, Markus

Materials

We strive to use as many renewable raw materials as possible: cotton, wool, down, wood, and silk are already being processed. Alternatively, we use recycled synthetic fibers.

We use materials that are extremely durable. High mechanical strength and colorfastness are just as important as easy maintenance and repairability. This guarantees a long service life.

lavalan® Alpine Wool

It's crucial to us that no sheep are tortured, either during breeding or during the shearing process. Therefore, we source our sheep wool from Baur Vliesstoffe in Dinkelsbühl and are pleased with:

  1. Short transport routes (sorting at local collection points, cleaning in traditional factories in Belgium and England, processing in Germany)
  2. The quality of regional sheep wool and the work of Alpine shepherds are appreciated
  3. Know-how about the production of wool fleece in Germany 
  4. Ensuring animal welfare: Europe has the strictest animal welfare standards in the world. Legislation sets strict rules regarding feeding, husbandry, health, and appropriate behavior (sheep should always be kept in a way that ensures their physical functions and behavior are not disturbed and their adaptability is not overtaxed). For example, housing and enclosures must be provided with suitable feeding, drinking, dunging, resting, and retreat areas. Barns must be equipped with covering, exercise facilities, grooming facilities, and climate-controlled rooms. Shearing is carried out without tail docking, also known as mulesing, which is normally required in the Southern Hemisphere. We can therefore claim that our European wool is completely mulesing-free.

 

Alpine wool is traceableLavalan is high-techWool is biodegradablelavalan wool is washableWool can be recycledAnimal-friendly husbandry 

 lavalan Alpine wool from the Swiss Alps

 

Our down is RDS certified!

RDS Responsible Down Standard by Grüezi bag

The down used to fill our sleeping bags and jackets comes from ducks and geese. These birds are subject to the strict protection of the RDS seal throughout their entire value chain. This protection begins immediately after hatching on the farms, continues throughout the bird's life, through slaughter, and continues to the down producers and our sewing factories. This guarantees ethically impeccable origins.

The Responsible Down Standard is an independent, voluntary global standard that allows companies to certify their products according to the RDS, even when this is not required by law. The RDS was developed and revised over three years with the input of animal welfare groups, industry experts, brands, and retailers. The standard recognizes and rewards best practices in animal welfare.

 

The following standards are important for RDS:

 

On-site monitoring of animalsNo force-feeding of animalsRespect for animalsMonitoring the entire supply chainNo live plucking100% RDS certified down

 




Seals and certifications

Our sleeping bags have an OEKOTEX certificate

It's important to us that everything on the sleeping bag, from the thread to the zipper, prints, ribbons, etc., is tested for harmful substances. The OEKOTEX label allows us to demonstrate the quality of our products.

OEKO-TEX® guarantees that the environment and people are protected

 

OEKO-TEX® guarantees environmental protection


 

OEKO-TEX® enables consumers and businesses to make responsible choices that preserve our planet for future generations.

Each individual item is tested in a laboratory to determine whether it is skin-friendly or contains other harmful chemicals.

The testing and certification processes behind the OEKO-TEX® standard guarantee the highest level of consumer safety.

PFC-free impregnation

 


PFC-free and sustainable impregnation 

Grüezi bag products have always been produced without chemical impregnation. We avoid PFC impregnation of the outer fabrics because we work with material expertise to achieve water-repellent yet breathable materials :
  • Material: The outer fabric is made of durable, recycled, and lightweight nylon. It feels beautifully soft, smooth, and silky against the skin.
  • The nylon is pulled over hot rollers to tighten the pores. This makes the fabric down-proof and impermeable to clothes moths, yet remains naturally breathable without the usual plastic coating.
  • The pores of the outer material do not clog during the dyeing process. We use environmentally friendly BEMACRON dyes from the Swiss CHT Group. 
  • Impregnation : The products are treated with a durable, highly water-repellent finish made from bio-based raw materials (BeSoDRY-ECO) . Synthetic sleeping bags feature the environmentally friendly German BIONIC-FINISH® ECO finish with RUCO®-DRY ECO PLUS (free of  perfluorinated compounds, thus avoiding the release of PFOS and PFOA).

DEUTIM-Waldemarie CO 2 compensation

A healthy environment is particularly important to us. That's why, with DEUTIM , we support the preservation of healthy and climate-stable mixed forests in Germany.

  • We have calculated our CO2 footprint and offset our unavoidable CO2 emissions with DEUTIM CO2 compensation (TÜV - certified ) .
  • In addition, we reforest 1 square meter of forest for every purchase made through our shop.

Reforestation is being carried out through the " Waldemarie " project. The location of plantings is transparently and playfully visible.

Drought, storm damage, and pest infestation have led to vast areas of bare forests in our local forests in recent years, and we are now contributing to their reforestation through our forest commitment. By establishing and maintaining species-rich mixed forests, we simultaneously create a natural CO2 reservoir that binds our corporate emissions in the forest for the long term.


Our natural products, 100% compostable

Biopod DownWool Nature

Our customers repeatedly asked us to develop a sleeping bag that was 100% natural, from the thread to the last button. Grüezi bag has succeeded. The sleeping bag is made exclusively of wool, down, cotton, and wood.

compostable sleeping bag with wool and down


Biopod DownWool Ice Compostable

What happens to a sleeping bag that's reached the end of its life? Does it go straight into the trash? No, with the Bopod DownWool Ice CompostAble, we've created a 100% compostable sleeping bag. It can completely decompose under anaerobic conditions in 200 days, leaving nothing but fine soil behind!

compostable sleeping bag from grüezi bag

Textile finishing

We strive to process our ecologically sustainable materials such as down and wool as sustainably as possible in the production process.

  • The wood fibers (lyocell fibers) of our WoodWool shirts come from FSCE-certified forests and are obtained through an environmentally friendly manufacturing process (the necessary manufacturing resources are 99.8% biodegradable).
  • The silk in our SilkWool jackets is made from recycled Italian silk.
  • The outer fabric of our BioCotton duvet series is made from organic cotton. The cover of the duvet series is made from 20% SMARTCEL™, a high-tech wood fiber with naturally occurring zinc oxide. SMARTCEL™ has a lasting antibacterial, odor-inhibiting, and dust mite-fighting effect, thus contributing to the protection and recovery of healthy, stressed, irritated, or diseased skin.
  • The outer and inner fabric of our products is made from ultralight, durable, and recycled 20 denier 380T nylon (100% polyamide) that feels incredibly soft, smooth, and silky against the skin. This is achieved by pulling the fabric over hot rollers to tighten the pores. This makes the fabric downproof and impervious to clothes moths, yet remains naturally breathable without the usual plastic coating . The pores do not clog due to the bio-based BeSoDRY-ECO waterproofing or the sustainable BEMACRON dyes. The outer material is therefore windproof and highly water-repellent, staving off snowfall and light drizzle.
  • Impregnation : The jackets are treated with a durable water-repellent impregnation based on bio-based raw materials (BeSoDRY-ECO).
  • Colors : We use selected BEMACRON dyes from the CHT Group: they are non-toxic to nature and meet both Cradle to Cradle requirements and the bluesign® standard.

Transport routes

We regionalize our supply chains as much as possible. DownWool® and lavalan® Alpine Wool are  manufactured in Germany, while the raw materials for DownWool® and Alpine Wool come from Europe.

Delivery to customers is climate-neutral with DHL. 

Multifunctionality and durability

  • Repair service for jackets and sleeping bags as well as filling refill service.
  • Easy care : The jackets and sleeping bags can be washed by hand or in the washing machine. 
  • The fabric construction and manufacturing process are selected to  ensure the highest quality of materials and workmanship for Grüezi bag® products . Robust outer fabrics, high-quality components, yarns, and superior craftsmanship guarantee a long-lasting product. For example, a round needle and careful, slow sewing are used for the thin outer shells. The children's sleeping bags can be extended using a zipper, ensuring long-term use.
  • Insulation filling with wool base allows a wide range of climate zones and temperature ranges and thus multifunctionality .
Fair working conditions production