Product Stewardship Policy

SCOPE

Steelco are committed to developing and maintaining a significantly responsible role in our industry by subscribing to high standards of ethical and environmental conduct.

COMMITMENT

Steelco understand that we have a corporate and social responsibility to ensure this high level of ethical and environmental conduct is integrated throughout our supply chain and in our daily activities. We will work with all our suppliers to source raw materials and finished products that are ethically produced and sustainable and will endeavour to maintain a high level of ethical conduct and environmental responsibility throughout all aspects of our business. This policy has been developed to support our core values of honesty, integrity and reliability.

OBJECTIVES

• Our commitment to product stewardship includes;

• Designing products to meet long term life cycle guarantees

• Designing products that can be easily disassembled for component re-use or re-cycling

• Producing products through processes that meet the highest level of environmental responsibility

• Prioritising the use of recyclable raw materials in product and packaging wherever possible

• Offering a product take-back option (for refurbish or disposal)

• Offering buy-back guarantees and extended life-time warranties to our customers

• Auditing of our suppliers to ensure compliance with all aspects of this policy

• Maximise our opportunity to control risk by design & planning.

These commitments are in addition to our basic obligations to comply with all state and territory health, safety and environment legislature. For further detail regarding how Steelco is achieving these objectives, please view the following pages.

ETHICAL SOURCING

As an emerging Australian company in the design and manufacturing of storage furniture, Steelco has an opportunity to play a positive role in improving social, ethical and environmental standards along our supply chain. With this in mind, we are committed to building a world-class ethical sourcing program that creates positive impact along our supply chain and establishes Steelco as the ethical choice forconsumers.

Through our ethical sourcing program, we are committed to collaborating with our people, suppliers and the wider industry to improve working conditions for people employed along our supply chain, strengthen relationships with our suppliers, protect the environment and promote animal welfare.

Our approach is to work in collaboration with a range of stakeholders in a way that promotes and supports continuous improvement. We will be open and honest about the complexity of the challenges that lay ahead, and we will also be very clear in relation to what we expect of our supply chain partners.

Steelco is a registered supplier on the SEDEX Ethical Sourcing Platform (Ref No. ZC1011847 – listed under OLP). This platform allows Steelco to bring together many kinds of different data, standards and certifications, to make informed business decisions, and to drive continuous improvement across our value chains whilst also ensuring that we are implementing ethical sourcing across all facets of our supply chain.

PACKAGING

Steelco have focused on making as much of our packaging recyclable. This has resulted in an investment into a new type of honeycomb cardboard being used as the packaging material which is not only recyclable, but has also been drop tested to ensure the product maintains in a new condition throughout the products transit period.

Steelco have continued to reinforce the message to our customer base with the addition of the Australasian Recycling Label to our product packaging. The Australasian Recycling Label is an evidence-based system that provides easy to understand instructions about how to correctly dispose of every part of your product’s packaging, so you know which parts belong in recycling or in the rubbish.

If you have any questions regarding how to correctly dispose of the packaging, please read the carton or get in touch with Steelco’s customer service team.

PRODUCT TAKE-BACK

Steelco is dedicated to providing a full circle service that will minimise the effect of its products on the environment. The Product take-back option is available to all customers who have purchased a Steelco product. This process has many stages to determine the best outcome from an environmental standpoint. To begin the product take-back process, please complete the Steelco Service request form our Product Care Page, and send it to sales@steelco.com.au

Buy Back

On a case by case basis, Steelco will assess the product and where applicable will provide a quote for the product buy back. The value of the product will be dependent on damage, wear and tear, age, and the possibility of reuse amongst many other variables. This is a conditional offer that will require all information provided by the customer for assessment being correct without excluding any information.

Refurbishment and Repair

If the product warranty period has lapsed or the terms and conditions of the warranty have not been met, the product can still be refurbished or repaired by Steelco. The product will be assessed and quoted for repairs at the cost of the customer.

Disposal and Recycling

For products that have exceeded their lifetime and are not able to be refurbished at a cost that
is less than the value of the product, Steelco will disassemble the product. Once disassembled,
the components will be separated into reusable components and non-reusable. The reusable components will go back into stock and the rest of the product will be disposed of. Steelco have an ongoing relationship with AAA Metal Recycling (which allow Steelco to recycle all unusable metal), and Remondis (which allow Steelco to recycle all cardboard packaging) which will be utilised to recycle any returned Steelco product.

*Please note that whilst Steelco have agreements with AAA Metal Recycling and Remondis for the recycling, your product may be recycled by an alternative third party recycling company.

Costs incurred for the customer

The customer is responsible for the cost of transport for the cabinet. Additional costs will apply for refurbishment/repair or if the product is returned to Steelco without contacting Steelco prior to the delivery taking place.