Won Hundred and the road to sustainability
In this new 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: Won Hundred
I was invited for coffee and a chat at their shop-and-office-in-one in Copenhagen. I met with Nikolaj Nielsen, the founder of Won Hundred, about the decision to embark on the road to sustainability.
Nikolaj realized a few years ago, that demand for sustainability and compliance were going to sky-rocket within the next couple of years. Actually, Nikolaj believes that within the next 5 years, sustainability will be the new normal, and he does not want Won Hundred to be that brand who did not see the signing on the wall.
However, he does believe that the changes seen now comes from within the industry, an industry that actually do want to change the negative influence we have, both socially and environmentally throughout our supply chain.
Unfortunately, the consumer is not the gamechanger here – for now at least! But it is great to see the young generation caring much more about the social and environmental aspects of the items they buy.
So, Won Hundred set up a task-force within the company to start navigating the company in a direction that seemed suitable for the brand and the resources they were able to allocate.
And he is happy, that they started their journey a couple of years ago, because the demand for sustainability is increasing drastically. You hear the word everywhere now!
The Green Cross label
To start things off, they decided for a framework of their work, which they named the Green Cross. A label on the garment, where extra efforts have been made to make it a bit more sustainable.
They have basically set up a dogma for themselves, where they only want to see the sustainable choices and make that work first. As long as we do not compromise with the product, that is very important! It should be an add-on – also quality- and style wise.
However, Nikolaj stresses the importance that they are not sacred about it, they are not there at all!
But if you set the dogma for yourself, to always first look for the sustainable choices, you come back with more sustainable styles, than if you start out the other way around. Right now, 20% of their collection have the Green Cross label on, which means that the styles contain at least 50% sustainable materials (most are 80-100%, though). The aim is that 50% of their collection will have the Green Cross by the end of 2019.
Nikolaj does not hide the fact that of course they have chosen the low hanging fruit first, but that it is absolutely ok, as long as you just don’t stop there.
The easiest thing for Won Hundred was to start with the jersey, as this would make the biggest impact for the company.
And what about the suppliers?
We visit the suppliers once a year and we know them well. We have used the same suppliers for many years, we do not shop around much for new suppliers. We challenge the suppliers in sourcing more sustainably – also to keep them in the game, now and in the future.
One of the biggest concerns of Nikolaj, is the overproduction that we see in our industry? How can we stop this? A lot of brands just produce more than they can sell to meet the minimum quantity requirement from suppliers, rather than paying the upcharge. That will not help us in our battle on overproduction. So, Won Hundred rather pays the upcharge.
So, what about the price?
…. I asked, because I know that this is a problem you are all facing. If the demand does not come from the consumer, how can you raise the prices on the styles where you have used more expensive and sustainable fibres?
“We don´t”, was the short answer. We take that from our margin, but we see it as an add-on for our brand and branding. Something that we need to do, both because it is the right thing to do, but also because we want to remain a brand and a business, also in the future.
Eco Vero is a great alternative to Viscose and is surely more expensive, but we have taken the decision for the consumer and it is an add-on to our products.
We also have GOTS certified cotton and BCI sourced cotton as part of our Green Cross Label products.
It is a shame that BCI cotton, is not accepted as a sustainable alternative to conventional cotton by some of the big buyers. But we have still decided to use BCI cotton, as this is part of changing the cotton industry as a whole and it is more scalable than if we only sourced Organic cotton for example.
How did you do it? And what is your strategy?
The entire product team have been involved in deciding the strategy and the dogma and criteria for the Green Cross labelled products. It has been a fun journey and it creates a form of ownership, when the entire team is involved.
What is your ambition for the future?
Our NOS denim will, in the future, be produced in Italy and made with organic cotton only. And our 2020 goals are that: 80% of our denim and 90% of our jersey and sweat products are labelled with the Green Cross from Won Hundred.
What is your advice to other brands?
“Sustainability might not be a competitive advantage, but soon it will be the license to operate. It is really fun – and interesting – and fun! Go for the low hanging fruits and don´t be too hard on yourself for all of the things you are not doing, but focus on a few things you CAN do, and get started. Make a goal for yourself – and make it ambitious! And enjoy the ride!”