Sustainably In Love

In this episode, we will be talking about Made to Order footwear - particularly kids footwear - with the co-founder and mastermind behind Pyk Copenhagen Ulrik Schultz.

It’s no detail the fact that Ulrik is doing this for kids. There is certain magic behind a made-to-order brand for kids because we always tell the generation to come is the one that can change the world. And maybe - just maybe - when kids are living and being educated under good and sustainable practices, hope for change gets renewed.

We’ve also debunked Pyk’s purchase experience that surprise on its simplicity; the functionality as a core pillar and how the brand is incorporating surrounding sustainable practices such as recycled materials all the way up to carbon-neutral products on their website without over-marketing the vision of the company.

And… what does Pyk actually mean? The answer is right there for you to listen.

Safe to say that when we think about sustainable brands the corporates like Primark, Zara or C&A are not at the top of our list. Moreover, we tend to instinctively put all in the exact same bag just based on their mass volumes and turnover.

How different are they? And where do they intercept? In this episode, we had the most amazing opportunity to talk with Primark and C&A former International Design Director Samantha Jones that gives us an inside view throughout the history of these massive corporations.

Is sustainability a topic in the Board of these organizations? Is there backstage meaningful work being performed or just PR stunts? And I had to ask the tuff question: how can a company like Primark embrace sustainability when selling a 1€ t-shirt? Samantha did not hide from it and gave her view on this.

You can find Samantha Jones and her work on LinkedIn:

What are the behind scenes in planting trees? And how do we balance carbon compensation with carbon reduction? It is about understanding that our biodiversity system is in urgent need of our help, while our population continues to grow at a fast rate. Without biodiversity, Earth won't be able to keep up with our consumption demands. When you support the right partners, you know that your mission is a movement that wants to build sustainability for this world, which means living in balance with our mother earth. Tune in to this last episode of our first season, where Kasper Kupperman from The Green Brach takes us through a tree planting journey through reforestation projects in Brazil.

You can find The Green Branch and Kasper Kupperman below:

In a moment where sustainability took the reigns of fashion content and storytelling, there’s a real greenwash danger associated - among multiple other factors - with the taking over of the biggest corporations applying the same sustainable messaging as the independent labels that had this approach as a distinctive factor. And even considering that parts of the chain become more sustainable, a lot - or even all - falls on the business models practiced.

To tackle the threat, smaller sustainable brands are always looking ahead and some are taking things to the next level: circularity. The early definition by Anna Brismar back in 2014 states that circular fashion applies the concept of a circular economy to sustainable development and concerns the entire life cycle of a product, from design and sourcing to production, transportation, storage, marketing, and sale, as well as the user phase and the product’s end of life.

How can we make this a reality when so many layers need to be applied and respected? It’s not easy, but some brands like Human Are Vain are doing this. The amazing path towards circular footwear led by Chris Margett is truly inspiring. And quite challenging to match a strict policy with the design goals of the brand (we all know how hard it is to make sustainable shoes look cool). Safe to say we all will be hearing a lot from Chris and HaV.

There’s much more to hear, let’s say from this conversation I got at least a brand new topic I hope to uncover soon.

Collecting data about the sustainability efforts of your company is crucial in this new decade, from KPI’s dashboards to your sustainability targets and indicators the world will evolve in a place where we embrace noble AI to help us become data-driven sustainable lovers. What do you think are the main challenges for businesses when processing and collecting data about their sustainability impact on the environment? This is one of the great questions we had the opportunity to ask Maria Svantemark, Co-Founder & CEO of SustainLab who are pushing the boundaries within sustainability data technology and accelerating change for businesses worldwide. SustainLab was nominated in 2020 Best Newcomer and Startup of the Year in Nordic Startup Awards, and Maria was nominated and recognized on the global list of Top 100 Green Data-Driven Professionals who have made a significant impact on sustainability in their industry by Fairforce.

You can find Maria and SustainLab below:

The kid's segment is probably the slice of the industry that has been embracing sustainable production & sourcing in its DNA for a longer period. The usage of organic materials brings complexity and it is often seen as a design limitation because of e.g. a more restricted color palette. So how can a brand express the design in all its freedom while respecting a fully sustainable approach to the collection? That’s what we found out with Valeria Popov, the creative mastermind behind the Berlin-based kids brands Monkind that has taken sustainable design to the next level. As the major proof Monkind became “Approved Vegan” by PeTa – a first for its field - and at the same time won the Best Fashion Kids in the PETA Vegan Fashion Awards in 2020.

Connor is the founder of Connor Hill Co. | Circular Solutions. Their mission is to partner with brands and ensure that all waste is reborn.

He consults and coaches brands, helping them to build industry-leading circular strategies. In partnership, Connor Hill Co. are creating new consumer-focused circular products and services, and inspiring change. Is your brand ready to become a change-maker and make a difference to the planet?

Check this episode out and no matter what stage you are at, you can connect with Connor and book an initial exploratory chat at:

What if instead of mass-production and overstock strategies that inevitably lead to landfills of clothing waste, there was another way? There is one: made to order fashion. While we think of how amazing it would be to transform this idea into a reality, Jess Fleischer, co-founder of the danish fashion-tech brand Son of a Tailor, has already done it and in scale. Made to order custom-fitted garments produced with sustainable fabrics are the core fundamentals of this unique business model that’s re-shaping our approach to the industry. More about Jess and Son of a tailor below:

Russ Avery is a specialist in marketing and business growth consultant for responsible brands, also called The Sustainability Marketing Guy, and he is a serial eco-entrepreneur, owning several of his small sustainability-focused businesses. Another passion of Russ is growing communities, which is why he set up and runs LinkedIn Local Farnham and the reason why he loves connecting good people with others. This lad is incredible, and in this episode, he shared the full sustainable journey of Renewabilitee in our show.

You can find Russ and Renewabilitee on below links:

Minou Schillings and Pamela Smit are The Green Sprint ladies. They utilize the power of creative thinking/design thinking for sustainable business solutions so that people can think of new ways in which they can approach sustainability. They both are ready to empower the world with their mission.

We talk about how they run Green Sprints, and one of the methodologies they use called S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Such powerful tools are useful for any business that either wants to jump the sustainability train or learn about how to evolve their current sustainable process.

You can find Pamela Smit and Minou Schilling on below links:

Bringing humanity to work in life. This is Ed Andrew´s motto. He has a powerful mission with an incredible passion for sustainability. He is a Transformational coach for fortune 50 leaders, and top-performing athletes. He´s written his book The Golden Ticket to landing Your Dream Job. I downloaded his eBook from his web and even got some free training.

So, I got the pleasure to talk with Ed Andrew around his thoughts in such an important matter to the world: Sustainability.

You can find Ed Andrew on below links:

The world doesn’t need another fashion brand. This is a sentence of someone that owns… a fashion brand. We got together with Jakob Dworsky co-founder of Asket. Asket is a true ground-breaking brand when it comes to sustainability in its pursuit of less chasing zero-compromise garments and a full traceability framework. This amazing project of debunking the “Made In” was recently listed by Fast Company as a “World Changing Idea”.

In the second part of our interview, we deep dive into Lisa Lang experience at the highest political level as an advisor at the European Commission. In her role of mediator, Lisa knows particularly well both borders and comments on the interaction between politics and major organizations with the fashion industry.

You can find Lisa and know more about her multiple projects on:

Almost 90% of all athletics apparel is made of synthetics...

Erik de Groot Co-Founder of Iron Roots joined us to talked about what the future of athletics apparel looks like. 

There is a lot to debunk when it comes to athletics apparel and that not many people are aware of, but the microplastics generated by washing synthetic clothing creates a great harm in our environment.

Erik talked to us about how the process of creating athletics clothing that is microplastic-free looks like, and how his supplier source from a farm his raw materials like hemp, eucalyptus, beechwood, and organic cotton.

You can find Erik and Iron Roots on below links:

We got together with Akhil Sivanandan Co-Founder of GreenStory.ca, a startup with the sole focus of helping brands tell visual stories over their sustainable achievements.

We went in-depth talking more about sustainability and supply chain and also covering about Green Marketing and some of the great points from one of the green marketing tactics books of GreenStory.ca, which I recommend you to check out.

Meantime, check out the episode and let us know what you think about it?

You can find GreenStory and Akhil on below links:

Guilherme Braz and Sebastian Vivacqua get together to discuss the reason why they decided to start this show.  Join us to learn about Sustainably In Love.

Feel free to reach out to us via LinkedIn on below: