A series where we talk to retail’s movers and shakers about how they are tackling the challenge of becoming a greener business in an industry that is far from green – assessing organisational change, eco initiatives, and much more.
A cursory LinkedIn search for “positive business director” brings up the managing director of Positive Business Communications and a business director at a company called Positive – but there is only one positive business director.
And that person is Sara Brennan, who assumed this title at Berghaus parent company Pentland Brands in January 2021.
It really does appear to be a unique job title – almost certainly in UK retail circles.
But according to Brennan herself it reflects environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) matters becoming more important to Pentland strategy. It is also indicative of ESG’s ability to be a business driver for Pentland compared to the reporting function corporate social responsibility (CSR) may have been perceived as before.
Too much attention can be put on a job title, of course, but the nuance around the changes is important. Brennan says there are now several job titles out there now illustrating how sustainability and social matters are becoming embedded in business-as-usual strategy.
“One of the reasons we called it ‘positive business’ is we’re not just focused on the environment – we’re looking at how we work with partners, how we have governance, and what we’re doing around people and our communities,” she explains.
“If you limit it to just ‘sustainability’ there is a narrative the work is only planet-focused.”
The work Brennan has overseen, not just in the three years since taking on the elevated title but also in the preceding two years at Pentland as head of corporate responsibility, certainly covers a lot of ground.
Circularity scorecards
Among the landmark moments in her time at Pentland include outdoor equipment brand Berghaus gaining B Corp status, meaning it must sustain strict ESG criteria to remain part of this growing cohort of organisations placing people and planet alongside profit in its list of priorities. There are now plans for other Pentland Brands’ companies to undertake the rigorous application and due diligence process and aim to join the B Corp movement.
Several not-for-profit partnerships have been struck, too, including with Oxfam, which has received tens of thousands of items of stock a year from the group’s brands – either customer returns or imperfect items – for resale through the charity’s retail channels. Pentland has also supported community projects around the world in partnership with Oxfam.
Pentland’s ‘100-1-0’ sustainability strategy sets a net zero carbon target for its centenary year in 2032. The retail group, which also counts Ellesse, Endura, Kickers, Canterbury and Mitre among its stable of brands, has targeted supporting 100 million consumers live positive, active, sustainable lifestyles – and is continually on the look out for tie-ups and collaborations in line with this goal.
Since Brennan became positive business director all of the Pentland Brands team and employee personal development plans must now include annual positive business targets. In 2022, the organisation changed its employee annual bonus scheme meaning bonuses are only triggered if the business first delivers its ESG-related goals.
“We wanted to make sure that anything related to CSR, sustainability, ethical trade, charity etc wasn’t seen as separate,” she explains.
“We wanted to create a mindset change – we’re not telling people what to do, we’re just trying to embed some of that ethos into business functions.”
Elsewhere, from an environmental angle, Berghaus’s product repair service goes from strength to strength. “It has repaired more than 15,000 items since launch,” Brennan says of the free ‘Repairhaus’ service, established in 2022 to encourage consumers to avoid throwing items away, and instead keep them in circulation.
Meanwhile, Kickers launched its first 100% vegan ‘Back to School’ collection in 2022 and it has a tie-up with pre-loved platform Reskinned, so consumers can trade shoes in to be refurbished or recycled.
This idea of “circularity” is a key theme for 2024, as Brennan and her team want to enhance the group’s efforts in extending the longevity of products and ensure more focus is given to making products that last, and that can be re-homed or recycled after a consumer no longer wants them.
This marks the continuation of work undertaken at Pentland’s first ‘vendor roadshow’, which took place in 2023 and gathered together global vendors and partners, and internal design, brand, and product teams for what was effectively a positive business summit.
“The two key themes were sustainability and innovation – and they go hand in hand,” Brennan notes.
Attendees experienced circularity workshops and heard from expert speakers around the subject. “It crystalised important internal conversations with our vendors as we built out our plan for 2024,” she adds.
“We’ve done lots of work behind the scenes in terms of how we roll out circularity and tick circularity even though the innovations and tech in the market is not yet there to fully close the loop. We want to do all that’s in our control from a design and development perspective, and work closely with vendors here.”
This year, there are plans to incorporate “circularity scorecards” on products to build awareness and transparency around the longevity of the items Pentland makes and sells. Going into 2023 Pentland began providing “positive business scorecards” for its vendors, allowing them to measure their ethical and environmental performance of the products they bring to market.
Last year’s roadshow is also viewed by Brennan as a catalyst for more regular conversations between the positive business function, sourcing team, brand departments, and vendors to ensure momentum remains – and to help everyone “just keep going”.
Tangible collaboration
From the vendor roadshow to the aforementioned partnerships, it is clear collaboration is central to any sort of success when it comes to Pentland building out a more positive business strategy. One of the great cliches of sustainability strategy is to say ‘collaboration is required for progress’, but then often companies don’t follow up and it becomes a throwaway line – however, Brennan argues “collaboration will be tangible” for Pentland in 2024.
For its stated goal of 100% supply chain transparency, it needs to be. Last year Pentland formalised a partnership with Segura Systems, which allows the retail group to map its entire multi-brand, multi-tier supply chain – from the first tier to raw materials – across its global operations.
It means Brennan and her team can track supplier sustainability progress and measure and manage compliance. Ultimately, the data captured via the Segura platform will also be used by Pentland-owned brands to encourage consumer buying decisions, too.
For the system to work, collaboration with suppliers is crucial as they are required to use the Segura platform to upload their documents to ensure traceability. “Segura is a positive collaboration,” says Brennan.
“Vendors feel it’s positive and in their control. The system gives access to imported documents but also helps with speeding things up and driving efficiency.”
With a growing number of UK fashion retailers now using Segura and other mapping software providers, Brennan says it is indicative of the thirst for data within the industry. As legislation arrives this year and in the coming years, particularly around carbon reporting, proving products have not been involved in illegal deforestation, and taxes on packaging and products, sight of data becomes ever-more crucial.
“It’s no longer the case that you can produce things and forget about them – this is where that circularity mindset and driving the business is being matched by the legislation,” Brennan comments.
“Getting ahead with all this work will help retailers comply with schemes coming in soon.”
Brennan also talks up the Sustainable Apparel Coalition as a positive membership body to be involved in. As well as gaining access to discussion forums and expert advice, members must adhere to standards which helps encourage continuous business improvement.
She acknowledges membership bodies are not always affordable to smaller companies, so recommends working with different experts and consultants in the positive business space to either get started on sustainability journeys or support with compliance as legislation continues to evolve.
Brennan cites former product design and development professional, Ann Prahl, who runs Circular Concept Lab, as a key Pentland partner.
“We don’t want to be checking our own homework when it comes to circularity score-carding so we’re looking to work with Anne, helping us check what we’ve done makes sense.”
Hope springs eternal
As Green Retail World returned to work after a prolonged Christmas and new year break, news emerged that 2023 was the hottest 12 months on record.
Analysis by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US’s National Centers for Environmental Information found Earth’s average land and ocean surface temperature last year was the highest recorded in the administration’s 1850-2023 monitoring. According to the scientists, Antarctic sea ice coverage also reportedly dropped to a record low in 2023.
It is against this backdrop that many businesses are changing the way they operate to play their part in reducing society’s negative impact on the planet, and to slow down the heating of it.
It can be disheartening to hear some of these climate crisis data points, but then talking to retail leaders can restore hope that things are moving in a positive direction and major change can occur to avert future climate disasters.
Brennan says: “I’ve been a sustainability professional for many years but recently it feels like now we’re really making change.
“It feels like our roles have gone from a reporting department that polices to actually playing a part in driving commercialisation. Businesses are realising that being more sustainable might be more efficient, have a cost benefit, help them get ahead of forthcoming legislation or improve trust through transparency.”
There is great momentum in organisations, including many retailers, realising there are different ways to do business with ESG as a driver of that – and that makes Brennan hopeful things are moving in the right direction despite eye-catching climate change news.
“It’s not to say the challenge isn’t huge and things might not get worse before they get better from a climate perspective, but we’re hopeful because businesses are actually talking about these challenges, putting them on the agenda, and leaning into them in many different ways.”
Brennan: a positive business director by name, and positive by nature.
At Green Retail World, we are giving retail executives and industry leaders, like Sara Brennan, a chance to explain how they are enacting environmental change within their organisations. Please contact editor, Ben Sillitoe, if you’d like to put yourself forward for an interview on this key subject. Sharing good practice can help the wider sector move in a positive direction.
[Image credits: Pentland Creative Agency]
