Values

 

Create value

sagaan as a company was born out of a social and ecological impulse. Tim Mergelsberg developed the idea for sagaan together with Joachim Heinz during his civilian service in a facility for people with disabilities not far from Lake Baikal. At the same time, it was clear from the outset that sagaan would not enter the market as a non-commercial organisation, but as a commercial enterprise. In doing so, we do not want to marginalise social and ecological concerns, but rather place them where they belong: At the centre of social change, which today is largely driven by the formal economy.

In a sustainable society, we need to strengthen the third sector, civil society. At the same time, however, we also need a formal economy that is changing. sagaan wants to help shape this change: Towards an economy that actually creates value.

The economy should be there for people and not the other way round. This principle teaches us that money can never be the goal of economic activity, but only its consequence. The goal can and must only be to promote human fulfilment and to recognise frameworks in the process.

sagaan creates value by processing a unique material given to us by nature into aesthetically pleasing, useful objects in as few steps as possible. We want to give everyone the chance to experience the value in good and beautiful things.

The added value starts with production. The workshop for people with disabilities in Istok can use the birch bark material in their therapeutic work and produce beautiful vessels for us. The employees of the project are thus given the opportunity to participate in the social value creation process and not only experience recognition, but also contribute to the financial existence of the facility, which reduces dependence on donations and foundations and thus on potentially one-sided dependency structures.

But the quality of birch bark also has a positive effect on the work process for all our other producers and partners who work for us as sole traders or in small and medium-sized enterprises, because it is an ecological, sensible and therefore energising material to work with.

Finally, we offer you as a customer warm, useful and ecological products that are left as natural as possible.

 

Value in material

Through constant virtualisation and the associated alienation from real (qualitative) material values, we are experiencing new freedoms and possibilities on the one hand, which on the other hand threaten to culminate in the loss of the natural basis of life. sagaan wants to promote and enable the moment of positive materiality, using the freedoms for the good: Experience aesthetics in simple, seemingly unremarkable everyday objects.

 

Our ecological responsibility

Those who use or experience high-quality, natural objects contribute a great deal to ecological responsibility. Through this awareness, awakened by the material experience, we ignite a flame in our and society's behaviour towards seemingly worthless objects and endless resources.

At the same time, the manufacture and use of high-quality natural products still means an intervention in the ecosystem, despite all the sensitivity. Thanks to the economical use of materials, circular economy with nature and the almost infinite lifespan of our products, they have been fulfilling the demands placed on modern products and production processes for centuries.
The remaining interventions in the ecosystem can only be carried out as cautiously as possible and with a development perspective:
With our work, we want to Partners in Siberia create a regional and stable livelihood that contributes to the protection of the environment in which one lives.

As advocates of strong sustainability - the natural environment can neither be valued nor replaced in monetary terms - we nevertheless find ourselves in a design process that must be constantly scrutinised anew: how carefully must forest management be practised in order to create an awareness for sustainable use of the taiga, which is now more threatened than ever, and do initiatives such as ours perhaps prevent forest fires from ravaging entire forest areas?

We hope to make our contribution to a different approach to the natural environment, knowing that our goals are high and the road is very rocky...

 

sagaan 2012

 

In 2006, sagaan formulated the following Vision, to which we still feel committed today.