What are you doing to make your supply chains more sustainable?
This is such an interesting topic to work on these days because it combines the need for transparency down a complex supply chain, with the need for solid data to understand where the pressure points lies, as well as the need to ensure that all parts in the conversation are on the same page. By that I mean that I think we will be most efficient in achieving the change we need by really having a close dialogue and collaboration in the supply chain, rather than only coming with requirements and demands. That being said, to answer the question specifically on how we work, we have an approach where we combine making our requirements and standards clear and ensuring that they are in line with best practice, as well as ensuring we work with a stable, fairly consolidated supply chain with long term partners. That way we can build up a lasting relationship that will lead to not only continuous improvement on social compliance but also on co-investments and projects together on environmental improvements.
For us we strive for the most impact by focusing on our tier 1 suppliers with social compliance and working conditions while at the same time working closely with our tier 2 suppliers (the material suppliers) on environmental performance. I am excited that we are now rolling out a program with projects within our supply chain to specifically focus on water, energy and chemicals.
What have been the most significant sustainability challenges you’ve faced and what did you learn from them?
One of the milestones we have achieved is phasing out the use of PFCs in the impregnation of all our fabrics. That is for sure something we are proud of and it did not come without a lot of work. It might seem like a small change, but sometimes those small details such as a particular chemical substance has big consequences and hence needs to be dealt with. What we learned from that was that there is no one solution fits all, and that a transparent dialogue within our supply chain is key to achieve results. That I guess was more an example of a milestone we have reached. Looking more at significant challenges I would say that there is still a significant challenge in looking at how to leverage new business models that are more circular than what we have today. There is a lot of good examples out there, and we have them ourselves as well with rentals etc, but they tend to stay in a pilot phase and are hard to scale in a fully, commercial way.
The learning or realization in that is that it is hard to change something significantly when every single process, ranging from IT systems to infrastructure and processes are fully optimized for a linear business model. But it is not impossible. Nothing is. It just takes a bit more time and effort.
One of Fjallraven’s commitments is to develop clothing and gear that lasts for generations, encouraging people to extend the life cycle of a product and, by implication, buy less. This is a great message from an environmental standpoint, however how does it reconcile with the commercial concerns of a business for profit and growth… how is it possible to encourage consumers to buy less and yet still grow a business?
This is a question I get from time to time when we talk about product durability and timelessness. And I believe that it stems from how we tend to look at growth, meaning as something that requires the same people to buy more and more. We believe that by creating that trust, consumer relationship and long-lasting connection that delivering high quality and durability does, we do not compromise our ability to grow. What I mean is, if you are very happy with a functional, long-lasting jacket, where would you look for a pair of trousers next, or a backpack? And what would you recommend your friends to get when they need a jacket?
I do not think that sustainable financial performance is dependent on someone consuming something and then throwing it away. So no, making sustainable financial profit and growth in a sustainable pace is not standing in the way of making timeless products.
Zalando has just launched a new “pre-owned” section, which allows customers to shop and trade in pre-owned items “with the look, feel and convenience of Zalando”. With circularity being on the frontline of the battle against waste, has Fjallraven considered a pre-owned offer and if so what success has it had and what challenges have you faced?
I think there are so many interesting versions of this being developed as we speak, and I applaud every single one of them! We are also looking into this but have not materialized a final solution yet. One of the considerations we have had when looking into what solutions would give the consumer’s most value is taking into consideration some of the platforms for peer-to-peer selling that already exists. Fjällräven is actually amongst the top 10 brand names searched for on the Swedish version of what would be the equivalent to eBay or similar platforms. So there is a lot of activity going on also without our involvement, so I guess we are working to find out what we could add to further accelerate the focus.
