Sustainability considerations are wide ranging, covering both environmental (carbon and water footprint, plastics, waste reduction, biodiversity) and social factors (human rights, working conditions, living wage). What are your main areas of focus?
This question is like asking me if I’d rather have fair trade dark chocolate or sustainably and ethically grown fresh strawberries on my ice cream. My answer would of course be, yes please. We need to treat humans with respect and dignity as do we also our planet. The focus with our Tier 1 factories has been concentrating mostly on social & labor requirements while our Tier 2 material suppliers have been focused on sustainability. We have recently been focusing additionally on sustainability at our tier 1 factories and social and labor on Tier 2.
We are members of Fashion for Good, Bluesign, Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Textile Exchange, Swedish Textile Initiative for Climate Action and Ethical Trade Initiative among others. As a SME, we use collaborations as much as possible. It is our belief that through strong communications and agreements within the different brands, we make it easier for the supply chain partners. This is why as a company we put so much energy into reaching out and working with groups that we believe will make a difference. We also find that being involved with the industry indexes, we are able to concentrate on improvements and at the same time point out areas of unfairness when it comes to smaller companies.
Norrøna tries to do as much up front homework by picking the right supply chain partners as possible to reduce some of the work each season. It is critical to be effective and to make every action count towards measurable improvement concerning both social and sustainable issues. Tools such as the MSI are invaluable for smaller brands to make good decisions based on science. We would not be able to afford to do all the LCA’s on all our materials. Organizations like the United Nations also provide impactful frameworks for us to build our social and labor platform from. Our goal is to be a responsible company combining security for people, animals and our planet. Nothing else can suffice.
Do you have defined sustainability targets? If so how do you measure them and what KPIs do you have in place?
Defining targets is critical to any meaningful program so yes we do. We are now working off a 2029 corporate roadmap which defines measurable targets into 2 groups. 2020 to 2025 and 2025 to 2029. The reason we used 2029 instead of 2030 is 2029 will be Norrøna’s 100th birthday. Each roadmap target is broken down into specific KPI’s per year. In order for a target to be meaningful, it requires breaking it down into annual, measurable actions necessary to reach the long term goal. Through creating long-term goals with short and mid-term targets we are able to achieve real change and have time to create innovations with our partners in order to achieve those goals. Writing down and communicating targets with our employers, partners and community at large is the best way to bring together great minds to meet the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
My belief is that by consistently reevaluating how we do things to achieve these goals, we can eventually replace fifty year old technologies with new, cleaner, better ways to create material feedstocks, processing and producing products. Norrøna does not compromise on quality, function, design nor sustainability or give up one to achieve the other. They must work hand in hand for a product or company to be a success.
When did Norrona officially incorporate ‘Sustainability’ as a function and what changes, advances and innovations have been made in this regard since then?
Norrøna was started because Jørgen Jørgensen, the great grandfather to our current owner was not satisfied with the quality of the products he and his partner were producing. Instead of compromising, he started a new company. In my mind, whether he realized it or not, he set the company’s DNA deeply into sustainability over 90 years ago. Over the past fifteen years we have concentrated on using more preferred fibers into our products. This has required the commitment to test products long-term to make sure the products are also sustainable and our customers will be satisfied that they are fit for use. I would say it has taken the last 15 to twenty years to catch up by replacing dirty fibers with cleaner fibers without creating much compromise on product integrity.
We are now on the cusp of an exciting time where chemical recycling, using CO2 and methane as new fiber feedstocks and learning to use better growing techniques such as regenerative organic farming will allow us to create new fibers with better attributes that will also be better for the planet, the people and the animals. I absolutely feel the best is yet to come, but as an industry we need to do away with exclusivities that slow down the progress of a more sustainable existence. There are still too many well intended companies that tie down technologies so they can be first to market. I strongly believe in collaboration to bring beneficial technologies to market as soon as we can prove they work, and are beneficial. It is more powerful to let different companies interpret the technologies in their own way and create their magic to provide customers with unique options. This will benefit both the innovators and customers and accelerate positive innovation to market.
Are you hopeful that we will be able to reverse the trend on global warming?
We have the tools, but we need to have the desire. Through Covid-19 we reduced travel enormously, but definitely added to our plastic pollution. But through this difficult time, I have found where travel can be cut, and where there were missed opportunities for greater improvement due to the travel restrictions. But the question of is this travel more beneficial or less is a great litmus test. I believe there are ways to create fiber that can drastically reduce GHG emissions. The ability to trap CO2 and methane from escaping into the atmosphere and instead trapping it and making fiber will potentially create carbon negative fiber.
Changing the way we dye colors or apply treatments will also have an effect. Manufacturing and selling closer to the source, more environmental methods of transporting, and elimination of chemicals creating GHG will all have an effect. But the biggest change is we are now asking the questions, and creating transparency with methods that actually measure our GHG emissions. We can measure our actions to see how effective they were and we can remove fossil fuel from the mix.
I am hopeful that governments will use taxation to even the playing field and then apply benefits for more beneficial technologies, companies will see that many cleaner sources of energy can actually be a cost benefit in the long run and consumers will eventually equate dirty energy and products with sickness and unacceptable risk to their lives. Though these past few years have tested us all, I am hopeful that in the end humanity will do the right thing, put the right people in power, and work together towards our common goal of surviving, and then living.
About Norrøna Sport
Norrona's mission is to create the greatest outdoor products. Surrounded by the Arctic and Norwegian wilderness, the need to explore and a passion for the outdoors has always been in their DNA. They take pride in understanding and mastering the most demanding conditions nature has to offer. With relentless dedication to quality, function, design, and sustainability, they have crafted products for uncompromising adventurers through four generations since 1929. Welcome to nature.
