Products of Change is delighted to welcome to its Membership Community, tonies, for whom sustainability is just as much about its materials as it is about the way children interact with its products.
Find out more about tonies and its sustainability achievements so far:
1. Tell me a bit about what you do
tonies is the world’s largest interactive audio platform for children. Our intuitive and award-winning audio system has changed the way young children play and learn independently with its child-safe, audio-first approach.
2. What does sustainability mean to you?
We believe that sustainability starts with our product. The Toniebox is particularly robust and durable, ensuring long-lasting use. Our broader understanding of sustainability – which lies at the heart of our philosophy – encompasses its screen-free design which promotes physical and mental well-being while encouraging independence, as even young children can operate it intuitively.
Beyond these inherent sustainability aspects of our product, tonies’ sustainability engagement is guided by our vision: Listen, Learn, and Grow Responsibly. At tonies, that means commitment to continuous progress, to curiosity and willingness to learn.
And within that, our sustainability efforts are focused on four pillars of action: Planet, People, Play, and Principles. We focus on measuring and reducing our environmental impact, on building good relationships with people involved with tonies, on positively impacting the next generation, and adhering to good governance throughout.
3. Why have you joined POC?
We joined Products of Change to foster mutual learning and collaboration within the industry. Our goal is to share insights with peers and integrate best practices into our workflows.
4. What would you like to get out of POC membership?
We are excited to collaborate to integrate sustainability even more deeply into our product development process – specifically by standardising sustainable-by-design checkpoints, ensuring that initial concepts and future product iterations build on a robust, long-term foundation.
5. Sustainability achievements so far?
Our focus throughout the past year was to further refine our understanding of tonies’ impact while optimising internal processes. By enhancing data quality and governance, we have created an even more robust basis for our future efforts. We are particularly proud of the following advancements:
- Increasing bio-circular content in our Pocket Tonies range
- Improving data granularity for informed decision-making
- Optimising our sustainability reporting infrastructure
6. Sustainability ambitions?
tonies’ sustainability goals are defined in our medium-term target picture. Our efforts focus on topics identified as critical through our materiality assessment, considering our unique business model and value chain (e.g., Resource Use and Circular Economy, Consumers and End-Users, Business Conduct).
7. Thoughts on sustainability in the industry – challenges and opportunities?
The greatest challenge (and opportunity) lies in balancing sustainability initiatives within the competing demands of stakeholder requirements, regulatory frameworks, and cost-efficiency. Navigating this dynamic requires collaboration across the entire value chain, which we see as a catalyst for meaningful, industry-wide advancements.
