These are risks that Reffstrup is willing to take in his desire for Ganni to push the envelope. Case in point: the brand’s commitment to eliminate virgin leather from its designs – a goal it successfully achieved at the end of last year – after discovering that it was responsible for a third of its carbon footprint from materials, despite only making up nine per cent of its collections. This has led to some hard decisions: the brand has had to discontinue (at least for now) two color ways of its best-selling Western boots as it can’t currently find a way of producing them without using virgin leather–costing the company an estimated 2.4 million DKK (roughly $349,000) in sales.
While, refreshingly, the topline may not be everything at Ganni, Reffstrup is clear that the company does need to grow in order for it to continue to invest in sustainable solutions. The challenge? Ensuring that this growth doesn’t cancel out its ambitious goal of slashing its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2027, compared to 2021 (currently, the majority of fashion’s climate targets are in relation to growth, meaning that if they sell more products, their greenhouse gas emissions could increase in real terms). In positive news, the brand’s latest responsibility report found that emissions did drop seven per cent in 2023, despite the company growing on average 18 per cent in the past three years.
Still, there’s a long way to go in order for the brand to achieve its target. “Phasing out virgin leather entirely will have a substantial impact on 2024 reporting, so I’m confident we will continue the trend [of reducing emissions],” Reffstrup says. “Looking beyond that, we need a lot of innovative new materials, more circular business models, take-back schemes, better recycling of our own product – so lots of unknown factors.”
Ganni’s approach shows that change is possible, even if we don’t currently have all the answers – which is why Reffstrup hopes his book will inspire other fashion brands to embark on this journey, too. “I’m hoping for action over perfection – just go out there and do something,” he urges.
The Ganni Playbook: How To Get Started Creating A Responsible Business will be available from Ganni.com on June 12 and globally from June 27.