Thursday, March 25, 2021
Reima, why is taking care of the climate and the environment important to your business?
Because we serve kids and families. When your whole business revolves around children, you really can’t avoid the question of their future; what kind of a planet will they live on? Will they be able to enjoy the same things as adults as they’re enjoying now? Will they still have snow to play in with their kids, for example?
And children are really smart! Our employees are already getting questions from their own kids about what we’re doing about climate change and the environment. In Finland we have a saying that “the truth will come out of a child’s mouth”, which is why they’re the toughest critics of both our products and our sustainability work.
How does Reima take climate and sustainability into account?
We’ve measured our own carbon footprint for a couple of years now and are going carbon neutral starting 2020 through offsetting. We’ve also developed the calculation method for our products’ carbon footprint. Now we’re conducting a comprehensive carbon footprint analysis of everything we do, so that we can make an informed commitment to a science-based reduction target in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.
At the same time, we’re shifting towards more sustainable materials, such as recycled polyester. By 2023 we aim to use 50% recycled polyester and 100% certified organic cotton. On the chemical safety side, we’re a bluesign® system partner which helps us minimize our manufacturing environmental impact. We’re aiming to have 75% bluesign® approved materials by 2023. Finally, we’re designing clothing that is more easily recyclable, which is crucial for circularity at the other end of a product’s life.
Tell us about how your team includes sustainability in their work.
As mentioned above, the sustainability of our products can make a big difference, which is why our product designers and managers, as well as R&D professionals, are so crucial to our sustainability work. They’re the ones who ensure every season that our collections are made from increasingly sustainable and circular materials, that more of them are easily recyclable, and that they always comply with Reima’s high quality standards, meaning that they can be used by many happy kids before they break.
What have you learned from all the work that you’ve done so far?
That sustainability can be pretty complex! There’s rarely a straightforward answer to what is the best course of action, so you need to be quite curious and ready to get deep into the details. And also to be willing to question your own assumptions. At the same time, it’s exciting to see the innovations and progress made every day.
Who or what inspires you to take climate action?
Again, kids. They didn’t choose to be born at this moment in time and if we don’t take action every day, they might inherit a world of terrible unintended consequences, which is completely unfair towards them. Many kids are also bravely reminding us of the urgency of climate action, even when we’d rather forget about it for a moment. We owe it to them to listen, and act.
What would you say to others who know they want to take climate action, but maybe haven't done so yet?
The easiest way to start is to calculate or measure your impact, and then compensate with a trusted partner. The internet is full of free carbon footprint calculators. Even if you don’t have time to read about the finer details of what the calculations are based on, you can try a few calculators to get an idea of your footprint.
Then find a trustworthy compensation scheme and partner with them. Of course climate action requires emission reductions from us all, but compensating is the quickest way to get started with cleaning up after yourself.
Why did Reima choose Compensate as an offsetting partner?
Because we trust that they have done the research and have only the most impactful and responsible projects in their portfolio. When you scratch the surface of carbon offsetting, you realize that even certifications don’t necessarily ensure that an offsetting project is impactful.
Knowing the selection criteria and process that Compensate uses to assess the projects, and the level of expertise they have, gives us great confidence that this compensation truly makes a difference.
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"Many kids are also bravely reminding us of the urgency of climate action, even when we’d rather forget about it for a moment. We owe it to them to listen, and act."