• Rethinking the Rules of Sustainable Fashion

    In the latest podcast from Ecotextile Talks, former Timberland chief operating officer (COO) Ken Pucker shares some home truths about the success of current ESG (environmental, social and governance) frameworks in play across the fashion industry.

    Pucker, now an advisory director at Berkshire Partners, as well as providing advice to groups pressing for the New York Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, says the sector has jumped from one initiative to another over the past 25 years in the hope of finding a formula to drive transformative environmental and social change in the apparel industry, but concludes that “it hasn’t worked”.

    https://www.ecotextile.com/2022021728979/fashion-retail-news/podcast-re-thinking-the-rules-of-fashion.html

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  • The Myth of Sustainable Fashion and ESG

    The following is a conversation with Ken Pucker.

    Ken is an Advisory Director to Berkshire Partners, and currently teaches Sustainability at the Boston University Questrom School of Business. In addition to this, and among many other things as well, Ken also formally served as Chief Operating Officer of Timberland.

    This conversation is broken down into two distinctly defined chapters. The first being ESG and the second, Ken’s viral article on the myth of sustainable fashion.

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  • Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion

    Harvard Business Publishing: August 2021, Revised November 2021

    Highly Commended Sustainability Case Study for 2022 by the Financial Times

    Allbirds LogoAllbirds is a footwear startup focused on simple design, comfort, and sustainable natural materials. The case describes the company’s product development process that works with suppliers to develop natural materials including wool and sugarcane to substitute for conventional petroleum-based materials and leather. The case is set in 2021, when Allbirds was extending its product range into apparel, and expanding beyond its online store to open more retail stores around the world. Allbirds was freely sharing its know-how and material innovations with its competitors to try to scale its efforts to decarbonize fashion, but was also keen to remain ahead and differentiated based on simple design, comfort, and sustainable natural materials. The case highlights the growing environmental impact of the footwear industry, including from its use of leather and fossil-fuel-based materials, and its focus on shorter product lifespans.

    https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=61128

     

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  • The Sustainability Story: Casting a Critical Eye at Sustainability Inc. and ESG Investing

    The Sustainability Story PodcastWe talk with Ken Pucker, Advisory Director at Berkshire Partners and a Senior Lecturer at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
    We discuss Ken’s time at Timberland, where he was at the forefront of the company’s social responsibility movement. We talk about the challenges facing the sustainable finance, ESG investing and impact accounting.

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/casting-a-critical-eye-at-sustainability-inc-and/id1581786457?i=1000549766038

     

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  • Can Fashion Lower Its Climate Impact While Selling More Products?

    Can Fashion Lower Its Climate Impact While Selling More Products?Business of Fashion

    “The narrative we’ve told ourselves around win-win solutions has deceived everyone into thinking there are no trade-offs,” said Kenneth Pucker, a senior lecturer at the Tufts Fletcher School and an advisory director at Berkshire Partners. “There are huge trade offs.”

    * Decoupling = green growth. Attractive conceptually. Very hard practically. Especially post elimination of easy waste.
    * Conceptual win-wins = eco efficiency, fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, creating shared value, circularity, regeneration…have yet to yield much, beyond rhetoric. Patagonia’s Worn Wear = < 1% of revenue.
    * New Business Models = rental, reuse, repair …are not yet sustainable …meaning profitable. Hard to fund especially in an environment when profits matter.
    * BioBased Materials = often replace less environmentally destructive processes, face valley of death funding challenges and often rely on scarce feedstocks. Also, harder to fund when profit matters.

    Net. Change the rules. Make excess consumption less profit rich. Pass the NY Fashion Act.

    https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/fashion-lower-climate-impact-selling-less-products-degrowth-decouple-grow-sustainability/

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  • The Myth of Sustainable Fashion

    Ryan McVay/Getty Images
    Ryan McVay/Getty Images

    Harvard Business Review

    by Kenneth P. Pucker

    January 13, 2022

    Few industries tout their sustainability credentials more forcefully than the fashion industry. But the sad truth is that despite high-profile attempts at innovation, it’s failed to reduce its planetary impact in the past 25 years.  Most items are still produced using non-biodegradable petroleum-based synthetics and end up in a landfill. So what can be done? New ESG strategies such as the use of bio-based materials, recycling, and “rent-the-runway” concepts have failed. Instead, we must stop thinking about sustainability as existing on a spectrum. Less unstainable is not sustainable. And governments need to step in to force companies to pay for their negative impact on the planet. The idea of “win-win” and market-based solutions has failed even in one of the most “progressive” industries.

     

    https://hbr.org/2022/01/the-myth-of-sustainable-fashion

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  • How a Bottle of Salad Dressing Inspired Corporate Social Responsibility

    The Guardian

    Timberland’s former chief operating officer sheds light on the company’s lofty sustainability practices, but argues more needs to be done to develop an industry standard for emissions reporting

    The first decade of the 21st century was a boom time for corporate sustainability. Iconic US companies, including GE, IBM, Walmart and Google, embraced the movement. Fortune 500 firms published their first corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Conferences, consultants and awards proliferated.

    Timberland – where I worked for 15 years through 2007 – won more than its share of plaudits. One personal highlight was attending the 2002 ceremony at the White House, where Timberland received the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership, joining the ranks of other US exemplars of corporate citizenship such as UPS, General Mills, HP, Alcoa, Johnson & Johnson, SC Johnson, Procter & Gamble and many more

    https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/nov/17/timberland-corporate-social-responsibility-walmart-google-ibm-general-mills-ups-jeff-swartz

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