{"id":165645,"date":"2020-02-20T10:58:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T10:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/the-interview-hana-kajimura-sustainability-manager-allbirds\/"},"modified":"2021-08-06T12:04:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T12:04:46","slug":"the-interview-hana-kajimura-sustainability-manager-allbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/the-interview-hana-kajimura-sustainability-manager-allbirds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Interview: Hana Kajimura, Sustainability Manager, Allbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"
In London, at the launch of Allbirds second UK store, Sustainability Manager Hana Kajimura sat down with TheIndustry.fashion to talk about what makes the brand unique and how sustainability is the core of the business.<\/p>\n
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What does sustainability mean to you personally?<\/strong><\/p>\n At the highest principle level, it means doing things today that are improving the quality of the environment and our livelihoods going forward, so that decisions we make today are not detrimentally affecting future generations. It\u2019s actually really important for companies to define what sustainability means to them as there are about 30 different metrics you can look whether it\u2019s human rights, fairer wages, energy, carbon omissions, waste. We believe it\u2019s better to go really deep on a few things than spread really thin and barely do anything.<\/p>\n For us that conviction has always been around climate change and the idea that if we don\u2019t fix this problem and reduce omissions like we need to, we won\u2019t have the opportunity to solve the other problems. Our founders like to use a health analogy - You might break your leg, but the leg doesn\u2019t matter if your heart\u2019s not beating. That\u2019s what we use to drive decision making and make sure we are doing the right thing and acting responsibly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the second London store, what has been done here in terms of sustainability?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s really amazing that as a small company, there\u2019s about 150 of us in San Francisco and there\u2019s the designer for the store is popping by my desk and asking me which materials best to use.<\/p>\n In retail as we expand we try to create a set of principles to follow that the teams locally can execute on, such as maintaining existing structures or creating sourcing standards for the materials we use such as our FSE certified wood chairs, the same standard we have for all of our tree shoes. We use LED lighting, we use Energy Star appliances like our refrigerators and it\u2019s really nice that across all of our stores there is the consistency that a few things or pieces make it an Allbirds store. From a sustainability perspective, it makes the job a lot easier because there\u2019s a set of standards to follow, not hundreds of one-off for each store.<\/p>\n The footwear range itself is quite curated and simple \u2013 was this also deliberately done from a sustainability point of view?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, definitely. Part of what makes Allbirds different is the philosophy and emphasis on sustainability but part of it is definitely about the direct to consumer business model that enables a lot of the sustainability practises. Being able to invest in more premium materials because we\u2019re direct to consumer and so it\u2019s important there\u2019s not four middle men taking a cut in margins. In regards to fashion, the limited range is very intentional so as not to have a trend-based product. We wanted to design really classic products that will in inventory for a really long time. The way we express style is in a very classic way, then with pops of colour in seasonable launches but it\u2019s virtually the same shoe we launched with three years ago with 30 plus tweaks along the way.<\/p>\n Was anything designed for the UK market especially, given its possible variety to the US or rest of Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n As we were launching into the UK market and building a team here, they were especially pushing that there was an unmet need in this market as half the time people may be unable to wear our original shoes as the weather is so wet. So, we were really conscious that if we were to make a new product it fills a very intention gap in customer need and that was certainly true in this case.<\/p>\n On the flip side the reason we hadn\u2019t done it sooner is because water-proofing is very hard to do from a sustainability perspective. Most raincoats or umbrellas that you may have are created with really toxic chemicals, so we had to work really hard to find the right supplier that could do it without the chemicals or harsh environmental effects. We used things like non-toxic waterproofing and bio-based liner that also helps keep water out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n