Sustainability, but make it honest.

Quite rightly, consumer brands are under a lot of pressure to demonstrate their sustainability creds.?We now know, courtesy of a huge body of research by people much smarter than me, that our earth is in crisis, and we all need to act now to prevent all kinds of disaster. Consumers are holding brands to account more than ever before. Brands are finding that they need to reinvent themselves to thrive in this new world, a process that can take time. But what we often find is that the gulf between a brand’s aspiration and the reality of execution leaves a vast expanse of greenwashing – where words and actions simply don’t join up. No one wants to be accused of greenwashing, so many brands are being very careful about taking the right approach.??

Planks Clothing perfectly demonstrates why. Full disclosure: I’m a NED at Planks. I’m also a huge fan of a recent post of theirs . It’s punchy, it’s funny, it’s contrarian but it gets to the point – that actually, “we’re not eco-friendly.”

I’m having this conversation with other businesses that I’m working with right now, and I had it again at a non-Exec breakfast the other week. Everybody is talking about how ESG is being discussed more and more at Board level. Another meeting with a big US search company last week revealed that they have a whole team dedicated to supplying the right kind of Board members to VCs of portfolio businesses, and that a lot of money is now being ported over to ESG funds.

Sustainability is (finally) truly on the agenda. Because let’s be honest, it hasn’t really been taken seriously in recent years. It’s typically been a tick-box activity at best, and one that a lot of companies have half-assed. As Planks says, “Using buzzwords like “sustainable” and “green” to attract customers is big, and it’s getting bigger. It’s an easy trap to fall into: Tell people you’re saving the planet for long enough, and you’ll start to believe it yourself.?That’s not for us.”

We've been working on a lot of different things at Planks, but it's a continuum. So far, Planks has switched to organic cotton in our streetwear, getting rid of non-recyclable, single use plastics from our packaging and supply chain, and with the help of some great partners, we’re learning to repair and upcycle old gear so that it doesn’t end-up in landfill.?But it’s still not enough. Ours is an iterative effort, so it's great that the world is talking about this more, but moving from giving lip service to taking real action is what it's all about.

Here are some tips around how other businesses can take that action:

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1.???Acknowledge the problem and the journey that you’re on.

Everybody says they're going to do something about becoming more sustainable, but do they really? This is a bit of a long game in that in that you have to start with an intention. You’ve got to give credit to the companies that do, but after those words, are they then regularly reporting on it? What is the mechanism that says how you can check in and hold them to account? We’re working through these KPIs right now at Planks.

We are lucky that authenticity has always been a part of Planks’ DNA. As a sportswear business, we are very attached and connected to the mountain, so we work closely to support the efforts of Protect Our Winters, a non-profit group that works to turn outdoor enthusiasts to climate advocates. It’s another way we try to walk the walk.

For businesses where sustainability hasn’t always been a core part of their brand (and let’s face it, that’s most businesses), they have to acknowledge that it's an issue and that they really mean to do something about it. They're not going to get it right all the time, but it’s important that people see, and even participate in, the journey. This is where choosing the right partners (like Protect Our Winters) can make all the difference.

2.???Be honest and transparent, always.

We are making kit that helps people to better enjoy the environment, and we know that fashion at its very heart is just unsustainable. We do ensure that our fabrics get better every time so that your enjoyment of the sport is even better, but Planks is honest about how we can do it in a way that we at least feel proud of, and a way that we know that we are part of the ecosystem. In Planks’ supply chain, we're investing in partners that help us on the environmental side of things and who we can collaborate with on sustainable fabrics. This isn’t ground-breaking - REPREVE fabrics and a lot of other companies do this too, but it’s important to be transparent about investing in such partners.

It all comes down to us being humans in our daily life. An organisation is a collection of humans, so that's really all we can do. We’ve acknowledged that we're not always going to get it right, but we’re clear and honest about our heart being in the right place. We can hold the brands that we work with, and the products that we consume, to higher standard.??

On this more human level, you can take a quiz created by Kate Gaertner, author of Planting a Seed: Three Simple Steps to Sustainable Living , to see how much you walk the walk in your daily life.

3.???Commitment to sustainability has to become a value first.

You have to start from within and make it part of your DNA. Think about how you're treating your employees, who your suppliers are, about the building that you're in, the road that you're on, the trees that are outside your office. Think about how you prioritise and where you should start.

It's about saying, as a business, and as a team, are we filtering all our thoughts and ideas through the lens of our brand values? Do all of our actions reflect these values? Do we really walk the walk? It might seem repetitive, but everyone at Planks is asks themselves these questions every step of the way.

We have to make sure that we're not constantly judging others either - we can only ever be responsible for ourselves. I want to see everyone move away from throwing stones at other people, and see people be led by their own conscience and what they believe. The author of the post, co-founder Jim Adlington, is a staunch vegan who never forces anyone to eat vegan at group lunches, but there’s always a spirited (and very good-natured, I might add) conversation with the people who ordered sausage on their pizza. That’s what we need more of from businesses. Putting it on the table for discussion, in a way that educates, inspires, and provides food for thought.

Planks is doing this because it's who we are. “Developing greener products and practices is a must. Planks must play its part,” and we think that there are enough like-minded people out there to set an example, start a movement, and reduce the damage the fashion industry does to this planet. Currently, it’s responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

With guidance from Protect Our Winters, we’ve pledged that Planks will be Net Zero (reducing carbon emissions to an absolute minimum and offsetting what remains through carbon absorption and extraction)?by 2037.?Could we do it earlier? We will certainly try.

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4.???Your Board needs to be fully on board.

At Planks, it’s a part of every conversation we have at Board level, and if it's discussed at Board level, then it filters out to the rest of the organisation. It becomes firmly part of the agenda in a real (not a tick-box) way.

We don't want to hold ourselves up as being ‘holier than thou’ – we still have a lot of work to do (we have worked hard to become a more diverse business, but we still have a way to go). ?We have simply been honest and said that we're going to try to do better, and we are trying to do better, but we're not there yet.?For example, we collaborate with a Manchester-based charity to help increase ethnic diversity on the ski slopes. Skiing is not a racially diverse sport at all and though Planks is not an elitist brand, the sport certainly is. We’re working to change that.

How can a tech business be sustainable or eco-friendly?

I’m on the Boards of a few software businesses, and it’s important for those businesses and their Boards to consider the sustainability implications of tech. Again, it starts with the human. It’s about having those conversations at every quarter and looking honestly at yourself and your words versus your actions, whether it's software, consumer goods or charities, or whatever.

For software businesses, it’s obviously thinking about the backend computing parts and asking, “How are we using green data centres for computing?”, for example. But it’s about the human capital. It's about diversity. This speaks directly into where the UK is right now, with wages increasing, increasing numbers of DEI programmes, and companies investing in the upskilling of their people to combat skills shortages. How are you as a business aligning yourself with these developments? Who are you using for your coding? Where are they? Is your workforce diverse? Are they in the UK? It’s so important for brands to speak into these points, and there’s not a single Board that shouldn’t be discussing them too.

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Some efforts I’ve seen from other brands:

• Mulberry – is committed to the responsible sourcing of all raw materials used in the production of its products, and has adopted an innovative approach to introducing new, sustainable materials within its ranges.
• Levi Strauss – transformed its supply chain last year, reducing the number of chemical formulations used in finishing from thousands to a few dozen.
• Ganni – has launched a new season collection made entirely from upcycled and reprocessed materials from past Ganni pieces.
• Tommy Hilfiger – will be implementing product information technology Higg Index Sustainability Profiles to its online stores as a way to strengthen its product transparency.?
• Samsung – switched to recycled and sustainably sourced packaging in 2019, and all sites in Europe, the US and China are powered by 100% renewable sources as of last year.

Written by Gabrielle Hase.

CEO of?Soleberry Advisory ?and digital Non-Executive Director. I want to help solve the problem of the lack of appropriate female and digital skills and perspectives at the board table.?

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