NN07 on brand longevity and a sustainability journey
In this blog series (The Sustainable Choice), I have chosen to put focus on small- and medium sized brands and how they have made the choice, that sustainability needs to be a part of their brand identity. Brands that you can identify yourself with unless you are H&M, Zara, GAP or similar in size. The brands I am putting focus on are not perfect – either! But they have started their journey and it is that beginning, where you are at the bottom of the mountain and decide to take the first steps, that I want to write about. Why did they do it? Was it difficult? What resources did they need? And how do they see the future journey?
One such company is: NN07
The same day as the "history's greatest climate strike," September 20th, 2019, I met with the Copenhagen label NN07 - A brand, which describes itself very contemporary as an open-minded brand without limits.
I met with NN07's CSR Responsible, Anna Simone Toft Larsen, who described NN07's journey towards becoming more sustainable as a constant work-in process without a specific destination.
However, a journey with a thorough and ambitious planning of sustainability goals with three basic brand values: social, environmental and material consciousness.
All three elements gathered under the brand umbrella, Longevity, a promise of long-lasting garments.
How and why it started
The strategic focus on sustainability, started approximately two years ago with, NN07 wanting to act on the negative effect the fashion industry causes. This was a conscious decision from top management and also a feeling of wanting to do better from the entire NN07 team.
Not only do we meet an increasing interest from within our own company to work with more sustainable materials and a more sustainable business model, but the customers and consumers are also beginning to demand this as the new normal way of doing business.
The consumers, and we, are still learning about sustainability within the fashion industry and how to make fashion sustainable. 10 years ago organic food wasn’t our first choice when going to the grocery store, but now for many Danish consumers the conscious decision when reaching for the milk, is organic. Now the same conscious decision making within fashion has begun and hopefully the development will be fast since we know and have seen how desperately our planet needs it.
“We feel obligated and dedicated to be part of the solution to this development”.
What are the major challenges?
According to Anna Simone one of the major challenges is to navigate in the many offers available in regards to certifications and standards. We have to decide what fits our business model best and what makes the most sense for us to focus on. Sustainability can be approached in different ways, and you have to find the way that suits you and your company, that has been the first challenge for us – finding the right fit for us.
Another big challenge is time. Decisions about fabrics are made almost a year in advance and the production takes time too. The general exercise in turning a business into a more sustainable one is generally a time consuming task.
There is another challenge on sustainable fibers, one such challenge is on recycled materials. We would love to work more with recycled materials as it saves energy, has fewer processing stages and reduces landfill pressure. However, the recycled fibers are not always as strong as the virgin ones, so we are facing quality issues with this type of fiber.
Does sustainability cost a lot of money?
Yes, it takes time and money to change the way we do business. But money should not, be an excuse for slowing down. And fact of the matter is;
If you do not enter the game now, you may be out of the game within a few years
You can implement sustainability in your company with different kinds of focuses and on many levels. We never claim to be perfect at what we do within sustainability. And it is really important for us to be honest about the actions we want to take, and where we want to go.
Our journey started off by getting some help from a consultant who knows more than we did and who could show and tell us where to start. We gathered the entire NN07 team in a workshop and provided insight into the negative effects our industry has on the planet, and the people we rely on throughout our supply chain.
From that point we started to talk about how we wanted to go about being part of the change within our industry. The discussion circled around the Sustainable Development Goals, as these are good tools to grasp the “ big elephant” (to use Sustainawear terminology).
What specific steps have you taken up until now?
We have become members of BCI (Better Cotton Initiative), which enables us to source more sustainable cotton for our styles and our goal for 2019 is that 28% of our total cotton use are sourced as Better Cotton. Additionally, we have focused on replacing the virgin polyester with recycled polyester in trying to combat the big plastic problem. When choosing fabrics we are always conscious of the fact that we must not compromise quality even for sustainable options.
Longevity is the key element in the DNA of NN07, and luckily longevity and good quality in itself is most sustainable
Do you mean that sustainable fabrics are not always the best quality?
Yes, we sometimes find, that we will need to add “virgin” fibers as well, to ensure the quality of the product. But it is just until the new sustainable fibers have been developed further. By sourcing them now, we contribute to further development of sustainable fibers – this is the ripple effect.
We rely extremely on our suppliers and value their time and knowledge. It is a must to have a dialog with suppliers in every meeting to hear what their plans are in terms of sustainability and learn from them, on what is possible now and what the next steps will be in terms of creating sustainable styles.
NN07 is already communicating on their website about sustainability.
Many brands are reluctant to communicate their actions as they fear the risk of becoming labelled as: ‘not good enough´. I have asked them about the thought process behind becoming more transparent towards the consumers.
It is just as important to communicate the process as the result” - Anna Simone
We fear that label as well, no doubt. But we feel the need to do something and tell it.
Then it doesn't matter if it is a small or a big step. It's a step on the way. We also really want to show the conscious and responsible consumer that we hear them and that we are working on making the strongest, sustainable and longlasting products in the market. This is also why we in 2020 will add a new hangtag to products with a sustainable element like organic cotton, recycled polyester and so on. This will let consumers know, that besides from being high quality and longlasting, it is also a product with sustainability in mind.
With that said I want to emphasize that it is also important to communicate:
“hey, we did not achieve our goal today, but we are on the way”.
We also communicate because of the NN07 team. We want to create a sense of pride within the company, a pride of what the company stands for and seeks to accomplish.
A quick advice from NN07 to other brands?
Get started!
Reach out to other brands for help! We can benefit a lot from working together!
“Now I don't remember how old Greta Thunberg is. 16 years old or something like that?… but if you can be 16 years old and gather millions of people for a climate strike, then there must be something to it and it only goes to show, that we can all make a difference” Anna Simone