Sonett

The pro­duc­tion of Sonett pro­ducts takes place in sou­thern Ger­ma­ny. The working con­di­ti­ons in which the ingre­di­ents are obtai­ned are unclear. 

The labe­l­ing of many of the pro­ducts is done by dis­ab­led peo­p­le at the near­by Cam­phill Work­shops Lenen­hof. In addi­ti­on, Sonett has col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons with other care faci­li­ties and the Rehab Cli­nic for Drug Addicts ​“Seven Dwarfs.” In addi­ti­on, the com­pa­ny sup­ports social and com­mu­ni­ty inte­gra­ti­on and sup­port for peo­p­le who have dif­fi­cul­ty fin­ding jobs in the regu­lar labor mar­ket, offe­ring them a new perspective.

Sonett con­siders its­elf a pio­neer not only in terms of the effi­ci­en­cy and eco­no­mic use of its pro­ducts, but also in terms of the social struc­tu­re of the com­pa­ny. The­r­e­fo­re, one of the com­pany’s main con­cerns is social ori­en­ta­ti­on at all levels: towards employees, cus­to­mers and sup­pli­ers. They belie­ve that not com­pe­ti­ti­on and self-inte­rest, but coope­ra­ti­on and mutu­al sup­port count in busi­ness. Pro­fits remain within the com­pa­ny or are trans­fer­red to the Non-Pro­fit Foun­da­ti­on Sonett. Pro­fits are also used for dona­ti­ons to rese­arch and wel­fa­re pur­po­ses; think water rese­arch initia­ti­ves and artis­tic cul­tu­re projects. 

As for sup­pli­ers, it is Sonet­t’s prin­ci­ple to stri­ve for long-term coope­ra­ti­on based on trust, trans­pa­ren­cy and per­so­nal respect. As for cus­to­mers, the com­pa­ny con­siders its­elf their ser­vice pro­vi­der with the goal of not only mee­ting their needs and demands, but enn­ob­ling them. 

Fur­ther­mo­re, the com­pa­ny sta­tes that it offers equal oppor­tu­ni­ties, wit­hout dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on based on gen­der, eth­ni­ci­ty, reli­gi­on or belief. Of the 110 jobs, 56 are held by women. They employ peo­p­le of diver­se natio­na­li­ties and ages. Moreo­ver, Sonett stri­ves to faci­li­ta­te the recon­ci­lia­ti­on of fami­ly and pro­fes­si­on by offe­ring fle­xi­ble working hours and paren­tal lea­ve periods. 

The importance Sonett places on the peo­p­le it works with is also evi­den­ced by the fact that the com­pa­ny holds a CSE (Cer­ti­fied Sus­tainable Eco­no­mics) label. Unli­ke pro­duct cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons, this label covers the enti­re com­pa­ny. In addi­ti­on to eco­lo­gi­cal pro­duct requi­re­ments, the com­pany’s social and ethi­cal ori­en­ta­ti­ons are also certified.

The jury that award­ed the Ger­man Sus­taina­bi­li­ty Pri­ze 2022 to Sonett reaso­ned that: ​“Sonet­t’s washing and clea­ning pro­ducts are pro­du­ced accor­ding to strict sus­tainable gui­de­lines. This appli­es both to the pro­ducts made from 100% biode­gra­da­ble, purely vege­ta­ble and mine­ral raw mate­ri­als and to the pack­a­ging.” The com­pa­ny does not use petro­che­mi­cal raw mate­ri­als, gene­tic engi­nee­ring, nano­tech­no­lo­gi­cal enzy­mes, micro­pla­s­tics, syn­the­tic fra­gran­ces, dyes and preservatives. 

Quite a mouthful, in other words. But what does the com­pa­ny use? Well: essen­ti­al oils deri­ved from orga­nic plants, plant-based soaps and sur­fac­tants from sugar and mine­rals. They use lar­ge quan­ti­ties of raw mate­ri­als from bio­dy­na­mic or cer­ti­fied orga­nic cul­ti­va­ti­on, such as oli­ve oil, rape­seed oil, sun­flower oil, coco­nut oil, palm oil, essen­ti­al oils and bal­sa­mic addi­ti­ves. The per­cen­ta­ges of ingre­di­ents in each pro­duct are indicated. 

Sonett has the NCP label (Natu­re Care Pro­duct) and the NCS label (Natu­ral Cos­me­tics Stan­dard). This shows that they are inde­ed using orga­ni­cal­ly grown raw mate­ri­als, and not microplastics. 

Per­haps you had alre­a­dy noti­ced the use of palm oil from the abo­ve sto­ry. The big­gest pro­blem with the use of palm oil is that lar­ge tracts of rain­fo­rest are dis­ap­pearing to make way for oil palms, some­ti­mes exploi­ting farm workers or dri­ving indi­ge­nous peo­p­le out of are­as. Sonett says they use palm oil for their soap pro­duc­tion becau­se palm oil is solid at low tem­pe­ra­tures. In doing so, they use only cer­ti­fied orga­ni­cal­ly grown palm oil from Colom­bia. The manu­fac­tu­r­ers sup­p­ly­ing the palm oil to Sonett are RSPO cer­ti­fied, which means the pro­duct comes from sus­tainable forestry. Cut­ting down rain­fo­rest is for­t­u­na­te­ly pro­hi­bi­ted in orga­nic cultivation! 

For pack­a­ging, Sonett uses poly­ethy­le­ne (PE) and poly­pro­py­le­ne (PP). They did rese­arch on alter­na­ti­ves to the PE bot­t­les, but haven’t found any­thing sui­ta­ble yet. The­r­e­fo­re, the Sonett alter­na­ti­ve is: rebot­t­ling and recy­cling. Sin­ce 2019, the­r­e­fo­re, they have taken back emp­ty 10‑l and 20‑l cans from more than 250 refil­lers. The cans clea­ned and refil­led. All Sonett PE con­tai­ners that are retur­ned and can no lon­ger be refil­led are shred­ded and pro­ces­sed into new Sonett bot­t­les. In this way, pla­s­tic and CO2 are saved in the long term, as poly­ethy­le­ne is infi­ni­te­ly recy­clable. The bran­d’s NCP label and NCS label con­firm that they are inde­ed using recy­clable packaging. 

As for the pro­ducts them­sel­ves, by using 100% biode­gra­da­ble raw mate­ri­als and renoun­cing micro­pla­s­tics, the return to and reinte­gra­ti­on into the natu­ral cycle is promoted! 

The coco­nut oil Sonett uses comes from a Fair­Trade pro­ject in the Domi­ni­can Repu­blic. The oli­ve oil is sup­pli­ed by coope­ra­ti­ves in Spain, Ita­ly and Greece. As for the other ingre­di­ents, the­re is no descrip­ti­on of whe­re they come from, so we at COSH! do not have a good idea of how long the chain is.

Sonett is cer­ti­fied with the Stop Cli­ma­te Chan­ge label. This label means that CO2 emis­si­ons have been exami­ned and that the com­pa­ny pro­vi­des trans­pa­ren­cy in the pro­ces­ses that cau­se CO2 emis­si­ons. The ana­ly­sis at Son­net show­ed that the com­pa­ny hard­ly cau­ses any CO2 emissions.

Most Sonett pro­ducts car­ry the Vegan Socie­ty Label, which cer­ti­fies that the­re are no ani­mal ingre­di­ents in the pro­ducts and that the com­pa­ny does not con­duct or com­mis­si­on ani­mal test­ing. Howe­ver, the­re are also some pro­ducts that do not car­ry this label, name­ly: Sonett Wool Care, Sonett Gall Soap, Sonett Flo­or Mop­ping Flu­id and Son­nett Bio­Bubbles. The­se pro­ducts are not vegan! 

Sonet­t’s site includes an ani­mal pro­tec­tion state­ment that is in line with the Nor­we­gi­an Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Alli­ance. In it, the com­pa­ny sta­tes, among other things, that they inde­ed do not test on ani­mals, and do not hire others to do it for them. Sup­pli­ers of the ingre­di­ents used in Sonet­t’s pro­ducts must also docu­ment that they do not test on animals. 

Some of Sonet­t’s pro­ducts are a con­cen­tra­te, such as the All Pur­po­se Cle­an­ser and the pow­ders. This allows you to do lon­ger with one packa­ge of the pro­duct. In addi­ti­on, many of the pro­du­cers are refillable!

The brand is very trans­pa­rent about which raw mate­ri­als are used and in what quan­ti­ties they are in the various pro­ducts. Howe­ver, the­re are still gains to be made in terms of trans­pa­ren­cy of ingre­di­ent ori­g­ins. At COSH we are very curious about whe­re the­se come from. Only then can we gain insight into the working con­di­ti­ons of the sup­pli­ers the com­pa­ny works with and the exact length of the chain.