Every year we summarize our efforts in a yearly report. The sustainability report contains more details about how we work with materials, production, and the products as well as Nudie Jeans as a workplace. It also contains our challenges and goals for the future. Nudie Jeans' sustainability report for 2022 reflects the activities performed at the Head Office in Gothenburg's own retail stores and subsidiaries but also includes the impact we create through our production suppliers in Italy, Portugal, Tunisia, Türkiye, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, and India.
The denim industry has a high impact on local communities and the environment, and we work the best we can to minimize the negative effects and contribute with positive impacts where possible, in a social, economic, and environmental manner. We hope that by sharing and being transparent about our work we will inspire others to take responsibility for their full product where the impacts occur. We have mapped our value chain and identified where our biggest impacts lie and which topics we need to report on. We start from the GRI standards and the Sustainable Development Goals and have identified our most important stakeholders as customers, suppliers, and employees.
Highlights
Free repairs forever
In 2022 we repaired 65,386 jeans.
CO2 and water mapping
We mapped all our emissions and water data from our full supply chain in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for the fourth year in a row. We have also offset our business' full emissions through the UN Carbon Offset Platform.
Highest level of transparency
We reached a new level of product transparency — showing all tiers of the supply chain, including CO2 emission and water use.
Climate Action Roadmap
We created the first draft of our Climate Action Roadmap that will lead our way forward to reach our climate targets set in line with Science Based Targets and the Paris Agreement's 1,5° degree pathway.
Leaders — again
We were ranked as FWF leaders
— for the ninth year in a row.
Reverse supply chain
In 2022, we increased our capacity for Repairs and Reuse, by partnering up with the Scottish textile circularity expert ACS Clothing.
Create material change
We were placed in the Leading category in the Textile Exchange Material Change Index for the fourth year in a row.
Certified only
When we use virgin cotton, we are proud to say that we only work with certified organic cotton. 2022 was the sixth full year in which we used only certified organic cotton for all our cotton products.
95,6% Organic, certified or recycled fibers
Of all fibers we used in 2022, 95,6% were fiber we define as sustainable according to the Nudie Jeans Sustainable Material Tool.
HIGG Brand and Retail Module score (2021)
In 2022 we went through the verification process of Higg Brand and Retail Module with the scores:
Total Environmental: 71,4%
Total Social: 70,2%
Reflections on 2022 and the future
2022 was an eventful year for Nudie Jeans.
While the external circumstances from the aftermath of COVID-19, the war against Ukraine, inflation increases, and rising energy costs have created a less predictable world to navigate, internally we have never been more confident about our direction for the future by renewing and clarifying our company strategy. The strategy is focused on amplifying sustainability and incorporating it deeper into our core practices.
A series of high-impact decisions established the direction for the operational work in the second half of 2022, a central part of which was increasing our repair and reuse business. In reworking our strategy, we are now exploring different activities to align our operational work with the renewed direction.
A positive sign that we are moving in the right direction is the increased number of repairs: more than 65,000 pairs of jeans were repaired globally in the last year. Another milestone was the implementation of our stores’ omnichannel solution. In addition to being an excellent service for customers, this entails a further positive impact on climate reduction targets as we move forward. For the fourth year, we mapped our water use and CO2 emissions for Scope 1, 2 and 3, and to cover our total emissions, we invested in carbon offsetting. At the end of the year, we developed our Climate Action Plan, outlining the concrete actions we need to take to deliver on our climate goals in accordance with the 1.5° C pathway.
During the year, we carried out our first third-party verification of our HIGG Brand and Retail Module, including a third-party verification of our annual emission mapping. The verification resulted in a high score that captures how we work with sustainability integrated into many of our processes. We are proud to see the organization’s efforts to take on new challenges and tasks that are transforming more and more of our core processes. By keeping our practical approach to sustainability, we will take further steps to maintain our leading position in the denim industry.
