While in Portland last month investigating the sustainability efforts of local athletic and outdoor manufacturers, I had the opportunity to visit with Jamie Bainbridge,Fabric and Product Development Directory, Nau, Inc. (www.nau.com)
Nau, Inc. is a retail (as well as direct) technical and lifestyle outdoor clothing company committed to integrating economic, environmental, and social factors into their business model. Formed in 2006, the entire enterprise was designed from the ground up with the idea and ideal of sustainability at the center of the venture. Sustainability permeates how Nau designs and manufactures their products, the design and construction of their stores, how products are shipped, and the people who work there. As part of its committment to corporate responsibility Nau gives 5 percent of every sale to social and environmental organizations. Customers are encouraged to help decide which organization will receive that 5 percent.
In Nau’s first 3 years they survived bankruptcy, economic collapse, buy out and rebirth. According to my interview with Jamie, Nau had a great sustainability plan but not a good financial plan, thus the bankruptcy. Fortunatel, four years ago, Horny Toad Activewear, a Santa Barbara manufacturer, bought Nau. They provide necessary financial stability but allow the Nau to continue control of their business model. As a result, their business is divided in half between wholesale and e-commerce. Their wholesale business is primarily focused on the outdoor business and emphasizes more technical fabric and styling, while their fashion customer is served by the e-commerce site. Their fashion clothing focuses on urban outerwear and items that can transition from the ski slopes to dinner at an urban hot spot.
Jamie Bainbridge has been with Nau since its beginning. As theFabric and Product Development Director Jamie is in charge of all things textile decisions, including Nau’s sustainable materials and product development. With 25 years of experience in apparel product design and development, Jamie has a strong interested in innovative approaches. She left Nike after 20 years to join Nau because she wanted to work for a start up that was building a sustainable brand from the ground up. At Nau, Jamie leads the advanced innovation group. She is also involved in the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) working group developing a consumer product index which will help companies learn about the real impact of the products they label as green.
I asked Jamie how Nau is involved in sustainable practices. She explained that 40% of their customers say they come to Nau because of environmental concerns. In response, Nau maintains small brick and mortar retail stores that carry only one of every size, this is a deliberate effort to maintain a small footprint. Customers then purchase directly through their website with a 10% discount. This way Nau bypasses the transportation costs involved in shipping product to stores. Items go from factory to distribution centers then directly to customers.
In addition to streamlining the shipping process, Nau has reduced packaging. Nau ships customers’ purchases in compact bags that use recycled content (up to 50% post-consumer materials). This decision was based on the results of a study commissioned by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. EPA. The study analyzed over 20 packaging options and found that shipping items in bags resulted in the smallest environmental impact, including lower consumption of fossil fuels, less solid waste, and lower emissions. Corrugated boxes have a much larger impact.
Nau also designs a giving component into its products. 5% of all retail sales (that’s 5% of retail not wholesale like most giving programs) goes to partner for change chosen by customer. It can be a global, national or local choice.
When they began, Nau had a great sustainability plan but not a good financial plan, thus the bankruptcy. Fortunately,four years ago, Horny Toad Activewear, a Santa Barbara manufacturer bought Nau. They provide the financial stability the company needs and told Nau not to change their product, just their business model. As a result, their business is divided in half between wholesale and e-commerce. Their wholesale business is primarily focused on the outdoor business and emphasizes more technical fabric and styling, while their fashion customer is served by the e-commerce site. Their fashion clothing focuses on urban outerwear and items that can transition from the ski slopes to dinner in Portland.
Jamie explained that Nau views all of its product design through an environmental, social and profit lens. In other words, the triple bottom line of people, planet, profit. They strive to design timeless clothes that serve mulitiple functions–clothes that can take the customer through the entire day and out to dinner. Clothes designed for a mobile lifestyle, that blur the line between technical and urban street wear. They strive to use the most beautiful fabric out of limited menu to create a product you want to own and keep.
Nau is a small company that employs 14 people, 8 of whom focus on the website and online sales and marketing. The remaining 6 people produce 110 styles two season a year with about 25-30 new styles each season. Everyone multi tasks.
Their uniquely innovative approach is to create a marketplace for what vendors want to market but thinks there is no market for. They provide vendors the opportunity create fabrics they might not otherwise have thought to do. And, vendors can say they work with Nau.
In terms of promoting sustainability, Nau considers the entire product life cycle including product end of life when designing their garments. One of the more innovative aspects of their sustainability plan involves working with Tajen in Japan to recycle their polyester jackets. Customers send their used jackets back to Nau who sends them to Tajen where they are reprocessed into recycled fiber. Nau’s factories in China, Turkey and Canada are never allowed to incinerate scrap. And, as mentioned before, their business plan allows them to maintain limited inventory and streamline the packaging and shipping process.
The biggest challenge in terms of sustainability is ensuring the integrity of the supply chain. Nau uses all organic cotton even though the cost is 20% more. Ensuring that the cotton they purchase is truly organic is a challenge. They work with Textile Exchange to help grow the market for organic in hopes that more quantity on the market will reduce the price.
One of the ways a company can protect its integrity is through certification and the use of sustainability indexes. Jamie is part of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a 90 member collaborative of professionals from the outdoor industry working in conjunction with the EPA to develop a common index tool that incorporates a full life cycle analysis of products.
A big impetus for this is the fact that the French government is instituting legislation to require a garment “nutritional label,” a label of ingredients similar to a food nutritional label. If this goes into effect it will dramatically alter international trade. Any company doing business in France would have to meet this strict standard of labeling and that is pushing certification forward. This is a real game changer. Other forces are also moving the industry toward certification. REACH, the UK body that monitors environmental issues already requires documentation of material certifications. And, the recent Green Peace Dirty Laundry report is also putting pressure on manufacturers to eliminate 100 toxic chemicals from fabric and clothing/footwear production.
There are currently many indexes and certification process in use such as BlueSign which certifies mills in terms of chemical use. However, the SAC tool serves a wider production base. It computes the entire life cycle from start to finish including packaging, transportation, and end of life. It also has strong industry support from large companies like Nike and Wal Mart as well as the EPA and is widely regarded as the most comprehensive tool available.
I’ll discuss more about the Eco Index in my next post when I describe the next stop on my investigation–Nike.