Sustainability
Why talk about the Sustainability accomplishments of Hunkemöller?
A lot of mid-sized companies are demonstrating their commitments to climate and people in their promotional campaigns, but frankly we can and should question whether they are really investing in making the world a better place to live.
Hunkemöller, on the other hand, amongst other companies such as Scotch & Soda, communicates its climate targets honestly and transparently, and makes an active contribution to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
[See references: Together Tomorrow - Sustainability Report 2022]
The European Commission saw a few years ago that something needed to be done, consumers needed to be protected against false claims, protected from greenwashing.
The proposal for the Green Claims Directive was born.
“Today it is difficult for consumers to make sense of the many labels on the environmental performance of products (both goods and services) and companies.
Some environmental claims are not reliable, and consumer trust in them is extremely low. Consumers can be misled, and companies can give a false impression of their environmental impacts or benefits - a practise known as greenwashing."
[See references: Green Claims Directive: COM/2023/166 final- 52023PC0166]
[See references: Berlin, 22 July 2023 - The winners for the Green Product Award Fashion have been determined!]
Hunkemöller sued for greenwashing
Hunkemöller in April 2022 was sued for greenwashing when marketing a part of their collection as being made from ‘sustainable cotton’.
Hunkemöller responded by making changes to their website.
"Hunkemöller is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). BCI is a global, on-profit organisation which aims to make global cotton production more sustainable and help farmers find more water efficient and productive methods for cotton cultivation. Better Cotton materials are sourced via a mass balance system and not physically traceable to end products. This means that sourcing from Better Cotton is not about a content claim on a product but rather about creating demand and encouraging more farmers to adopt sustainable practices."
— Hunkemöller, Together Tomorrow - Sustainability Report 2022.
The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) responded recently to the proposed Green Claims Directive of the European Community
Better Cotton is the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world. Their mission is to help cotton communities survive and thrive, while protecting and restoring the environment.
One of the pillars of the Better Cotton Standard System is their Claims Framework, which was created through a multi-stakeholder consultation process and is subject to an annual review.
It is interesting to see that the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is stating:
"It is because of the multifaceted nature of Better Cotton’s operations that the organisation is supportive of the EU’s decision not to limit claim substantiation to just one standard methodology, such as the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) or Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
Whilst such a mechanism is effective, it would fail to encompass all of the complex, interconnected aspects of cotton production, therefore jeopardising a company’s ability to make claims about its commitment to more sustainable cotton."
[See references: Better Cotton Calls for Alignment on EU Greenwashing Proposals]
Note: One conclusion could be drawn there is still a lot of uncertainty in the world of sustainable products.
Hunkemöller won a Green Product Award recently
But Hunkemöller just recently (July 2023) hit back by winning a Green Product Award for their recycled underwear line.
Note: One should really question whether all these mid-sized companies that have outsourced their production to manufacturers overseas have a grip on what is happening there.
Last year I wrote about the biggest challenges companies face to comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Scope 3 emissions are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by the reporting organization, but that the organization indirectly affects in its value chain. Scope 3 emissions include all sources not within an organization's scope 1 and 2 boundary.
See Scotch & Soda releases its annual Environment Profit & Loss (EP&L) impact report and Sustainability "priorità numero uno" in Value Chains of Organizations.
Technology, at last
Maybe you are already on the verge of skipping further reading because you thought it was all going to be about the 'digital transformation journey' of Hunkemöller and instead till sofar it is about Sustainability.
Let me tell you it is threefold - Business - Technology - Sustainability.
Well is all about mixing the right ingredients at the right moment with the right people to become successful.
What is the best place to find the World-Class Tech Partners that support Hunkemöller?
Wrong guess!
Together Tomorrow - The Hunkemöller Corporate Social Responsibility website where you can find the Hunkemöller Brand Journey 2021 which contains this overview "POWERED BY THE BEST".
[See references: Hunkemöller Brand Journey 2021]
BUT Let us look at a few recent digital technology initiatives that are changing the way of working of Hunkelmöller
Quickly a chronological wrap up of what Hunkemöller did before 2022 and 2023:
Hunkemöller turnt to inRiver in 2014 and extended their collaboration recently with migrating to the new value proposition.
In 2020 we invested in the Salesforce service cloud enabling our teams to deliver a better and more seamless customer journey. This enables a single view of the customer to show, for example, their complete order history and the brand interactions on social media - See Brand Journey 2021. All customer is now in-house.
[See references for links to respective initiatives]
More in Part two
References
Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive)