How Ganni, Veja, Nudie Jeans and more communicate about sustainability in fashion

Are you ready for an ultra deep-dive?

Welcome to another issue of The Crisps – your newsletter on anti-greenwashing and honest fashion communication. You can support us by subscribing to a free or pro subscription, liking, sharing, or commenting on our posts.

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If you’ve been reading The Crisps for a while, you know we like to put our fingers where it hurts and point out aspects worth discussing. We’re not doing it to discourage you, we’re doing it to address critical issues in our industry and challenge “problems vs. solutions” as well as our way of speaking about sustainability topics in fashion. But if and when we find good examples, we like to share them with you, too!

Last week, we already introduced 5 brands and examples of how they talk about their sustainability efforts. This week, we are diving deeper into each example (Ganni, Veja, Armedangels, Nudie Jeans, Ace & Tate) by looking closely at the content and wording.

Before we get into it, there are two things we’d like you to keep in mind when you read the issue:

1. Communication can never be decoupled from what a brand is ACTUALLY doing. That’s why we never just talk about communication but also the strategies and issues underneath.

2. No one brand is perfect. There are always aspects to be critical about. And while we know that and see them – this issue is not for pointing out what these brands could or should improve. It’s for analyzing what they are doing well and how they communicate their positive and negative impacts.

Let’s dive in!

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Ace & Tate

One of the communication examples of last week included Ace & Tate’s “We fucked Up”. The brand used their 2021 B Corp certification to communicate what bad moves they’ve done in the past.

Here’s what’s good about Ace & Tate’s approach:

Instead of using its B Corporation status to communicate its “achievement”, the brand shared what it’s done wrong in the past, taking accountability for its actions.

“Ace & Tate is now an official B Corporation. But let’s be real here — it didn’t come easy. There’s been a few bumps on the road to becoming a B CORP and we’re taking accountability for our actions by sharing the bad moves we’ve made. Hopefully, paving the way for a more transparent eyewear industry. Grab some popcorn, this is going to be juicy.”

1. Brutally honest communication

It’s one thing to set goals and quietly shift away from them when you realize your strategy needs adaptation. It’s another to speak about it openly and take your stakeholders along the ride, educating them on why you’re doing things differently and why a seemingly “sustainable” move might not be as good as it sounds. We need honest communication about bad moves just as much as good moves. Ace & Tate followed through on that:

“One of the key learnings for our team is to focus on making good changes rather than changes that just look good. To do so, we implemented a process for material and supplier decisions that involve our Environmental and Social Responsibility team more closely.”

Here the brand also admits that past changes were rooted in marketing/branding “what looks good” and not in the practical sense of changing processes for the better. We appreciate this reflection!

2. Easy language

You don’t have to be an expert to understand the piece Ace & Tate put out. They use easy language to explain the approach and terms readers might not be familiar with:

“A Code of Conduct is a document in which we as a company describe our corporate responsibility and expectations of our partners in terms of social compliance (Health & Safety, No Child Labour, Fair Wages and Overtime Restriction etc.).”

3. Life Cycle Assessment

Ace & Tate didn’t base business decisions solely on assumptions, the brand used a Life Cycle Assessment to understand its impact better. While LCAs have their downsides (we’ve written about them in more detail here and here) they can be useful to decide on the next steps. The key here is to use as much first and secondary data as possible and to put the findings of the LCA into context as important dimensions are missing — such as social aspects.

Depending on the changes you decide on (based on your LCA results), it’s important to consider which positive and negative changes come with that decision and redirect if necessary. As a reminder: Unter the EU Green Claims Directive brands will not be allowed to highlight a positive development if it creates a negative impact elsewhere. You have to speak about both.

“Our 2018 LCA showed us that our packaging was the main culprit of our CO2 emissions. We decided to take some action but made a bad move in doing so: creating water-based PU cases for our glasses. While it did significantly decrease our CO2 emissions, the water impact had a more considerable negative impact on the environment than our previous case. That wasn’t the plan.”

While we list LCAs here as a good choice, they should not be done solely for communication. A Life Cycle Assessment is a tool to find environmental hotspots in your product and business and should be used to change the product or business practices — not just for communication.

4. Acknowledging limits

When Ace & Tate reached their B Corp certification, they set a new net-zero target. The brand realized that it wouldn’t be able to meet the target and communicated openly about its adjustment.

“After announcing a Climate Emergency and committing to take action, we set ourselves a goal aligned with the B Corp Climate Collective: reach net-zero emissions by 2030. We’re not afraid of a challenge, but our teams now realise that net-zero in 2030 is practically impossible for Ace & Tate.”

Reducing emissions directly in its supply chain was the priority for Ace & Tate. The brand also communicated its offsetting partner so stakeholders could look into the project. Ace & Tate explained that they could call the brand “carbon neutral” but set the term into perspective, adding that they still have a long way to go to become net-zero.

“So, in addition to these reduction targets, we compensate for our carbon footprint by offsetting our emissions. Think of it as our emission tax. We do so with our partner, Trees for All, and by supporting sustainable forestry worldwide. This means we can say we’re Carbon Neutral, but we still have a long way to go on the journey towards becoming net-zero.”

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Nudie Jeans

Authentic communication starts with transparency. We normally scrutinize brands' claims to see if they reveal the whole picture or hide aspects. Nudie Jeans does a great job sharing its approach in all detail.

Here’s what’s good about the approach:

1. Free repairs

The brand is well-known for its denim products and encourages customers to repair jeans with a free repair service. Nudie Jeans communicates this offer prominently across various channels and formats — in entertaining and informative ways:

“Sometimes we put wheels on the sewing machines and send them on tour.”

“Every pair of Nudie Jeans comes with a promise of free repairs. And that promise is forever, no matter when, where, or how you got them. Buying a pair of premium jeans is an investment, and since we provide the jeans, it’s only right we take care of the repairs.”

2. Cultural impact