“We weren’t born a sustainable brand, but we’re extremely serious about it.”

The French fashion brand Ba&sh is one of the names in the premium segment that is successful despite the inflationary environment. In addition to the products, the well-functioning and constantly evolving CSR policy is also a reason for the company’s popularity.

In 2022, revenue increased by 22 percent while Ba&sh’s carbon footprint decreased by 15 percent. A number proudly shared by the brand, which represents the ability to decouple growth and environmental impact. But how exactly can you limit this impact when you are an international company founded in 2003 and producing more than two million parts per year? To understand the challenges, FashionUnited spoke to Pierre-Arnaud Grenade, CEO of Ba&sh.

Ba&sh announced this summer that it would shift 70 percent of its production to local imports (Europe, Maghreb, Turkey). When will this be implemented?

Pierre-Arnaud Grenade: Actually, we have already started. Today we are at 50/50 between Asia and the Euromed zone. We give ourselves two more years to reach 70/30 percent. In general, we produce where we buy the material: accessories in Italy, shoes in Portugal, cotton products in Portugal, jeans in Morocco or Turkey, coats in Central Europe, silk and viscose in China. The positive effect on the environment doubles because the energy mix in Europe is better than in China and we have fewer transport routes. Another effect is shorter time-to-market processes, so that we can adapt better to demand because we have less latency and transport times in our warehouses. Nevertheless, we also have a flow of products from China to China [Anmerkung der Redaktion: Ba&sh hat 58 Geschäfte in China]. However, the flow of goods from the warehouse to Europe and the USA is stronger. China now accounts for around 15 percent of our sales. We are a global and global company, 320 stores worldwide, 40 in the USA, 120 in Europe – excluding France. We have to start the argument on a global level.

How much does such a CSR project cost?

We need to be accompanied by experts and specialized consulting companies [Anmerkung der Redaktion: Die Marke hat sich kürzlich mit Fret21 zusammengeschlossen, einem Begleitprogramm, das die Auswirkungen der logistischen Aktivitäten von Unternehmen verringern soll und das mit der Agentur für die ökologischen Transformation, Ademe, verbunden ist]. Switching from conventional to certified materials came with costs. I think in the future it will cost less. At the moment we are still in a situation where only a small amount of the certified materials are available. But soon there will be a sufficient supply of certified material, higher production and thus a new balance between supply and demand. However, this is definitely an additional cost factor temporarily.

For example, we switched our polybags to 100 percent recycled plastic, which causes additional costs of around 20,000 euros. We accept these costs, but beyond that we try to be smart about other spending aspects to compensate for this. What is certain is that customers are not really willing to pay more for an exemplary product, especially not in these times. So it’s up to us to put in the effort and find smart solutions so that we balance the expenses and ultimately it doesn’t unbalance the company. The whole thing must also be economically positive, if it is not positive it is never sustainable.

How does Ba&sh measure the impact of its actions in reducing CO2 emissions?

We have been calculating our carbon footprint since 2020. The method we have chosen is that of the GHG Protocol, which is an international assessment framework, a calculation mode that covers the three scopes: the company’s direct and indirect emissions. On the other hand, we quantify our reduction plan. As we use more shipping, we are able to calculate the positive impact this has on carbon emissions. We therefore prioritize the measures that have the greatest impact in our CSR map. But we don’t just do that. Ultimately, CO2 emissions are a simplification of measuring impacts that are in reality much more complex. But it helps because it allows everyone to develop their own roadmap. We also track the proportion of certified materials. Today, 70 percent of our materials are certified, labeled or recycled. Then we measure the distribution of transport and the share of renewable energy in our stores. We have a set of indicators applied to each of the reduction measures that we have previously identified as measures that have a real impact.

How did you choose factories when relocating production?

We have a social audit for all of our Tier 1 suppliers [Anmerkung der Redaktion: Veredelung oder Konfektionierung] carried out. To check whether the teams’ working conditions meet our standards and criteria. In 2024, we will become 100 percent of our Tier 2 suppliers [Anmerkung der Redaktion: Färberei oder Gerberei, aber auch Weberei/Strickerei] audit. And we will go even further with the environmental aspects of all our Tier 1 suppliers.

In addition, we have General Purchasing Conditions, which stipulate that the supplier must comply with a number of rules before the audit. For example, not using certain chemical materials, banning certain materials from certain regions. For example: no cotton from the Uighur region.

We have integrated a number of warnings into our general purchasing conditions. They evolve every year. We are very humble, we are not saying that our specifications are perfect, but they definitely represent the maximum knowledge we have about things that we should definitely avoid. We really rely on our suppliers. It’s real community work.

Textiles are a relatively unautomated profession. We need to be able to convince teams to change their behavior on a daily basis. There are many people, be it at the farmer, factory or retail level. This is why we started social audits: because I think we can demand real environmental efforts from teams as long as they are treated well.

How do you communicate this data to your customers to achieve more transparency?

When the Agec law comes into force [Anmerkung der Redaktion: Agec steht für ‚Anti-Gaspillage pour une Économie Circulaire‘, was ‚Anti-Verschwendung für eine Kreislaufwirtschaft‘ bedeutet] we had already taken precautions. Some parts are traced back to Tier 1, but we do not yet have full traceability. The goal for 2024 is that 100 percent of the references are at least up to Tier 3 [Anmerkung der Redaktion: Spinnerei] can be traced. Today, product labels in stores have a QR code that you can scan to see the manufacturing stages of the product.

Nowadays, customers are willing to accept that you are not perfect, but that you are trying hard and working hard on it.

We also publish a CSR report in which we state clearly and transparently where we are and where we want to go. I think you have to be very humble. Nowadays, customers are willing to accept that you are not perfect, but that you are trying hard and working hard on it. So we are transparent about this. Our carbon footprint has fallen by 15 percent, while growing by 22 percent between 2022 and 2021 (11,000 tons less CO2). At an item level, this means that a Ba&sh product will emit 29 percent less CO2 in 2022 compared to 2021.

You recently announced that you will reduce your CO2 emissions from transport by 38 percent by 2025. What were the challenges?

When it came to transportation, it was all about rethinking our schedule. We had to rethink our entire product chain, development, design, production and more to favor sea transport as much as possible. That was a first challenge, redesigning the entire process. So we heavily involved our suppliers in meeting deadlines and completely restructuring the schedule.

Another challenge is how to communicate this in a simple way, but not so simple that you risk falling into greenwashing. You have to be didactic in order to communicate seriously and not be boring at the same time. It is important to find a balance.

We weren’t born ‘sustainable’, but we’re extremely serious about it. I believe we are one of the most serious and hard-working brands dealing with this topic. We have five people who work on CSR internally. This is a big investment. We do this because we believe in it, because our teams believe in it and also because we believe it is the future. We are proud of our results and at the same time know that there is still a lot to do. It’s not over yet.

What are the next CSR projects?

By the end of 2023, it should be 75 percent certified materials, 100 percent by the end of 2025 and zero packaging made of new plastic by the end of 2023. And when it comes to the goals for the end of the product life cycle, we have set ourselves the target of five percent of the e- Commerce sales should be accounted for by second-hand goods. We regularly open second-hand pop-up stores. We send all defective products, i.e. products that cannot be sold again, and the very small stocks that we still have – less than one percent after two years on the market, so we are talking about a few thousand pieces – to a recycling chain further. And we will continue to upcycle.

How does the brand fare in relation to stationary retail?

We have opened about twenty stores by 2023. We will continue this until 2024. 25 stores are planned. We no longer open in France because we believe we have a complete network, but we continue to open in Europe: in Italy, in Germany, in the Scandinavian countries. Of course we are also opening in China, in November in Singapore and in early 2024 in Taiwan. We opened quite a bit in Korea too. A few weeks ago we opened in Boston and Vancouver.

This translated article previously appeared in French on FashionUnited.fr.