Our vision is to inspire mankind
to reconnect to nature”Sustainable design
is so much morethan using low
impact materials”

Our vision and reason to exist

tal aspects work hand in hand with
comfort and performance and future
generations. This is why we work hardto provide state-of-the-art products
and services designed for the great
outdoors. That is why we connect andbuild our community together withconscious, active and engaged people
like ourselves worldwide - people whowant to enjoy nature, sports, camaraderie and culture while contributing
to the world rather than causing any
negative impact socially, ethically or
environmentally.

The foundation of the Houdini design
philosophy is to do more with less. We
believe the world needs fewer but better
products. For Fall & Winter 2018 wehave reduced the number of products
in our collection by 13%. A smarter
system where fewer products provide awider range of use. More climbing, moreskiing, more hiking. Less environmental
impact.
Sustainable design is so much morethan using low impact materials andtechnologies. It’s also about designing
garments with high versatility that can
Our vision and reason to exist
be repaired, recycled
Our
to in
exist,
andaspromise
to wethebelieve
future.
In fact,a company
weand thatlast reason
long, bothtermsmethodologyof
can and must eventually move beyond
quality and style. We have a holistic
zero and become a positive and regeapproach to design, where environmen-

Planetary Boundaries Assessment 2018

This is Houdini

nerative force in society and for theplanet. It’s our obligation, or we haveno business running a business at all.
We believe our vision, and the way wework towards it with uncompromisingcommitment and speed, motivates ourexistence as a company.
We do not view sustainability as aseparate area within our operations –it is an integral part of everything we
do. There is no inherent contradiction
between sustainability and good business. On the contrary, it is a prerequisite
for good business. Nature is our mostimportant resource. It is our livelihood
and where we relax, play and feel good.
We live on a fantastic planet, and we intend to do everything we can to protect
and improve it! On the contrary, it is a

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 20181

/ INTRODUCTION

Since the early nineties, when Houdini
started to evolve from a project among
climbing buddies into a company,
res­pon­sible business has been our way.

W

ith the passion, determination,planning and execution ofmountaineers, we took on
the challenge of designing our businessto become a force for good. Never compromising. Always smiling (almost).
We have come far in the transformation we envisioned but as a company webelieve we can and must eventually movebeyond zero and become a positive andregenerative force in society and for theplanet. It’s our obligation, or we have nobusiness running a business at all.
We believe our vision, and the way
we work towards it with uncompromisingcommitment and speed, motivates ourexistence as a company. Our sense ofurgency is easy to understand when seeing
the state of the planet and the prevailinglack of will power, guts and action to truly
change course. Seeing the untapped potential, vast opportunities and abundantvalue in this transition, makes us all themore motivated.
In order to reach our vision, systemicchange will be required. We need to embrace complexity, acquire holistic, robust
and in-depth understanding of the complex
systems we are part of in order to understand how to engage in, contribute to orchange them.
The pilot study of Houdini’s impact

on the earth system using the Planetary
Boundaries framework is one example.
In order to minimize and eliminate ournegative impact on the planet we need a holistic understanding of it. How we not only
have a carbon impact but a biodiversity
impact, a novel entities impact and an impact on land-systems and fresh water, how
the different parts of the systems affect eachother and the system as a whole. How we
can adjust and transform our way of doing
business in order to eventually contribute to
the planet rather than take from it.
We are well aware of the fact that thistype of assessment is difficult and an endless project that will have to be refined and
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 20182

/ INTRODUCTION

By sharing
our thoughts,
knowledge,
methodology
and ambitionsin this report,
we hope toinspire you
to join us
in our quest.

expanded over time. This pilot represents
the starting point and an explorative study
that Houdini together with earth systemscientists at Albaeco and Mistra Future
Fashion have performed.
Our plan is to do full-scale third-party
Planetary Assessment every third year
and to go more in-depth with each assessment – moving from general LCA data to
specific data for our value chain and laterfrom past to real-time data. We will alsoneed to go broader for each assessment –adding data and analysis on the user-phaseand our impact and contribution to thesocietal system. In addition to the Planetary Assessment we will report yearly on
our key performance indicators.
In the complementary qualitative
report of our work we have included thesections Who we are – including ourcompany heritage, philosophy, values andvision, What we do – including key strategies, methodology, business models andwork flows. We have included Milestones
for the 25 years Houdini has been in busi-

ness. Last but not least, we have included
our Promise for the future – our Roadmap
Towards 2020 and beyond, our goals forthe years ahead, stretching as far as 2066
which marks the 50th anniversary of ourRoadmap Towards 2020 and Beyond
and the 100th anniversary of the Stetind
Declaration.
We are clearly not the biggest sportswear brand around. We don’t aim to be
the biggest, we simply aim to be the best.
By sharing our thoughts, knowledge,
methodology and ambitions in this report,
we hope to inspire you to join us in ourquest and welcome you to share yourthoughts with us and contribute withyour wisdom in the co-creation of a more
beautiful tomorrow!
Let’s keep moving mountains, climb others
and celebrate the beauty of nature and the
myriad of life it sustains.
Have a great read,
The Houdini TeamPL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 20183

/ INDEX

01: Who we are
Our vision and reason to exist 		 6Ecosophy, our philosophical haven		 7
Our core values forming keel and rudder		 9

02. What we do
Our core strategies for becoming regenerative
Our product and design philosophy
How we choose our fabrics and technologies
Our sourcing by geography
Our fabrics and technologies innovation
Packaging, shipping and transports
Traceability and transparency
Business model innovation
Care, Repairs and Reuse
Our recycling system
Designing product-as-a-service solutions

13
15
16
18
19
21
22
23
23
25
26

03. Milestones
The milestones on our journey so far

28

04. Our plan ahead
Our roadmap towards 2020 and beyond
BHAGs towards 2020 and beyond

32
33

05. Our promise
The Houdini Manifesto

36

06. Planetary Boundaries Analysis
A pilot study

37

Houdini Friend Joakim Johansson swimming in the deep
section of Courmayeur, Italy. Photo: Linus Meyer
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 20184

01. Who we are
Planetary Boundaries Assessment 2018

Photo: Nakshe Ghalat

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 20185

/ WHO WE ARE

Maximum
experience.
Zero impact.
And beyond.

Photo: Nakshe Ghalat

Our purpose and vision is about
inspiring and enabling mankind
to reconnect to nature, to lead ahealthier and happier lifestyle inpartnership with nature, to evolveas individuals and form a pros­perous society on a thriving planet,for us and future generations.
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/ WHO WE ARE

THIS IS WHY WE WORK HARD to provide state-of-the-art products andservices designed for the great outdoors. That is why we connect and build our community together with conscious, active
and engaged people like ourselves worldwide – people whowant to enjoy nature, sports, camaraderie and culture while
contributing to the world rather than causing any negative
impact socially, ethically or environmentally.
In fact, as a company we believe we can and must eventually move beyond zero and become a positive and regenerative
force in society and for the planet. It’s our obligation, or wehave no business running a business at all. We believe ourvision, and the way we work towards it with uncompromisingcommitment and speed, motivates our existence as a company.

Stetind, rising 1392 m out of Tysfjord near
Narvik, Norway. Photo: Oskar Kihlborg

Ecosophy, our philosophical haven

We have our philosophical haven in ecosophy and the deep
ecology movement. The Scandinavian tradition of ”friluftsliv”
is deeply rooted in ecosophy and was defined by a group of
likeminded mountaineers and philosophers, among themArne Naess, Sigmund Kvaloey Setreng and Nils Faarlund. At
the essence of ecosophy lies the understanding of the intrinsic value of nature, how nature and humankind constitute awhole and share a common destiny.
Their edition of the ecosophy was created under and on
the magnificent Arctic tower Stetind, rising 1392 m out of
Tysfjord near Narvik, in the summer of 1966. Here theybrilliantly manifested the need for a deeper and more harmonious relationship between place, self, community and thenatural world and the urgency for society to change course.
They declared the following in their Stetind Declaration:

As a company we believe
we can and must eventually move beyond zeroand become a positiveand regenerative force insociety and for the planet.
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 20187

/ WHO WE ARE

Nils Faarlund outside Oslo, Norway in 2016 as we met to bring new life into the Stetind
Declaration, fifty years after its creation. Apparently we were the first company to signit although Nils has worked for it relentlessly since 1966. Photo: Kristian Harby

The Stetind Declaration from 1966
We have gradually come to realize:
That our way of life has fateful consequences for nature and humankind, and thus for all life on Earth. The challenges we face as individuals and as a community are not merely of an economical and technological nature. They concern our basic values and our fundamental
conception of what it means to be human.
We acknowledge that:
Nature and humankind constitute a whole and share a common
destiny. Nature is the home of culture. Life is like a woven fabric ofrelations. To live is to be dependent. The value of nature and humandignity are intrinsically linked. What we do to nature, we do to ourselves. All life is vulnerable and therefore under threat.
We will:Work to promote a renewed understanding of the relationship between
nature and humankind. Strive to base our choices, both as individuals
and as a community, on this understanding. Discover the joy of living
in harmony with nature: There is no path to harmony with nature.
Harmony with nature is the path.
Humankind possesses great capacity both to create and to destroy.
At this crucial point in time we will take responsibility and commit
ourselves to thinking and living in a way that promotes life. Concern for
nature implies a concern for greater justice: Our way of life affects in particular the poorest among us, indigenous peoples, and future generations.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 20188

/ WHO WE ARE

Do good. Play
hard. Pushboundaries
and have fun.
The Houdini core values

Our core values form keel and rudder

Our core values of doing good, playing hard, pushing boundaries and having fun form keel and rudder at Houdini – indaily operations and strategic work alike. There is no parallelor hidden corporate agenda.
On the contrary, we work in accordance with our values
without compromise, across the board and at every level.
Paired with our shared passion for ”friluftsliv” and ecosophy
these values make our vision and the journey towards it”common sense” to us.

Our company culture is constantly cultivated along these lines
and one could argue that our ”common sense” and uncompromising approach makes our work self organizing, focusedand effective, hence very powerful.
EQUALLY POWERFUL IS our willingness to take on great complexity
where this is required. For Houdini this is business critical.
To drive systemic change, which is what we believe is requiredin order to reach our vision, we need to embrace complexity,
acquire holistic and in-depth understanding of a complex system
in order to understand how to engage, contribute or change it.
We have found our “common sense” to be especiallyvaluable when navigating complex systems. “The goal is not tocrack the code but to catch the rhythm”, is a quote that comesto mind when attempting to describe our ways of navigating
and staying on course. It is a quote from the essay “Practicality
in Complexity” by Nora Bateson, the researcher, writer andfounder of the International Bateson Institute who has devoted her life to systems thinking and patterns in living systems.

is the Planetary assessment of our company.
In order to minimize and eliminate our negative impact on
the earth system we need a holistic understanding of it. How
we not only have a carbon impact but a biodiversity impact, anovel entities impact and an impact on land-systems and fresh
water and an understanding of how the different parts of thesystems effect each other and the system as a whole. It canseem overwhelming as a project but on the other hand it isbusiness critical.
With this pilot we have initiated the project well aware of

ONE SUCH EXAMPLE

The Houdini team and a selected few inspiring dreamers, thought-leaders and change-makers in the beautiful
nature reserve Nordmarka, just outside Oslo in our neighboring country Norway in 2016. Photo: Kristian Harby

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 20189

/ WHO WE ARE

the fact that it is an endless project that will have to be refinedand expanded year after year. Similarly, we look upon our own
organization as an interconnected and interdependent system.
We cannot work in silos if we want to create true change. Hence
we do not view sustainability as a separate area within our operations – it is an integral part of everything we do. As we often
describe it – we have no sustainability work. Just a lot of work.

The Houdini team during a workshop at Studenterhytta
outside Oslo. Photo: Kristian Harby

challenges with great complexity a science-­
based methodology is important. We have chosen to base ourenvironmental work on the Planetary Boundaries framework
to understand the earth system and our impact and contribution within it. For the societal system and the social and ethical impact and contribution of our operations we have chosen
to base it on Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth.
In addition we find the Swedish Environmental Objectives important for our local Swedish perspective and inspirational considering its poetic descriptions of the ecosystems welove and depend upon. Although it is important to underlinethat each and every objective is equally important and that
only together they constitute a whole, brilliantly visualized in
the UN Global Goals symbol, a few examples:

WHEN ENGAGING IN

Examples of the Swedish Environmental Objectives

8. Flourishing lakes and streams (Levande sjöar och vattendrag)10. A balanced marine environment, flourishing coastal areas
and archielagos (Hav i balans samt levande kust och skärgård)11. Thriving wetlands (myllrande våtmarker)
14. A magnificent mountain landscape (storslagen fjällmiljö)
16. A rich diversity of plant and animal life (ett rikt växt- och djurliv)
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201810

/ WHO WE ARE

We have no sustainability
work. Just a lot of work.

Also the UN Global Goals are worth mentioning, as theymight become the strongest global force towards a sustainable
world and are partially based on the Planetary Boundaries
Framework and the Oxfam Doughnut.
The UN Global Goals also take the systemic perspective
and emphasizes on how co-creation is important in order toreach them, by making partnerships for the goals a goal in itself.
science-based frameworks and methodologies
we see culture and art as having an equally important role toplay to balance common sense and hard facts, the emotional
realm and scientific data.
The Norwegian artist Tone Bjordam created a sculpture
visualizing how utterly dependent the economical system ison a healthy societal system and how dependent the societal
system is on a healthy earth system. Only delicate threads holdthe societal and economical systems from falling in case of a
failing earth system. It portrays what we all know intellectually
but for some reason don’t manage to act on. The beauty andsense of urgency communicated in a work of art.

ON THE SUBJECT OF

Tone Bjordam’s Biosphere Sculpture in Nordmarka, Norway.
Photo: Kristian Harby

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201811

02. What we doPlanetary Boundaries Assessment 2018

Photo: Matti Bernitz

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201812

/ WHAT WE DO

Our core
strategies tobecomeregenerativea regenerative force we have identified
the following four core strategies:
IN OUR QUEST TO BECOME

eliminating the concept of waste.
With nature as the blueprint for the perfect circular system westrive towards designing a circular system.
We design circular products, made from recycled andrecyclable materials alternatively from organic, renewable andbiodegradable materials. We design circular business models
extending product lifetime, securing that raw materials remain
within the system and enabling product-as-a-service solutions
radically improving resource efficiency at the systemic level.
We engage with the world around us based on circularprinciples, with a collaborative mindset, open source innovation and sharing knowledge, experiences and cameraderie.
1. DESIGN A CIRCULAR SYSTEM

We engage with the world aroundus based on circular principles.
Photo: Nakshe Ghalat, Åre, Sweden.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201813

/ WHAT WE DO

Only by setting
the example
and sharing
our work we
can lead theway to change.

For a multitude of reasons we strive towards reconnecting ourselves and our community of end users
to nature. Biomimicry provides access to nature’s 4 billion
years of innovation enabling us to design smarter materials,
solutions and systems. Our products provide comfort for all
senses, for body, mind and soul enabling our end users tohave the best possible outdoor experiences.
Our hangouts create a possibility for us to invite andguide people to outdoor experiences, strengthen their senseof wellbeing and their bond with nature. Our communication
allows us to educate, inspire and speak for nature.

2. RECONNECT TO NATURE.

In order to create significant change it is notenough for us to transform ourselves but to contribute to thetransformation of the entire business community.
Only by setting the example and sharing our work we
can lead the way to change. Transparency and the sharing of
knowledge, methodology and technologies is essential. Innovation and co-creation across disciplines and in between what
would traditionally be called competitors is key.
There is no inherent contradiction between sustainability
and good business; on the contrary, sustainability is a prerequisite for good business but the world needs more examples of
it in order to reach a positive tipping point.
3. SET THE EXAMPLE.

Starting with the Houdini team, family,
friends, partners and core end-users we are building a co-creative global community to inspire to reconnect to nature, tospeak for nature, make informed decisions, design, enable andlive a conscious lifestyle.

4. BUILD OUR COMMUNITY.

By enabling and encouraging interaction within the community, sharing knowledge, ideas and gear, inviting others to collaborate and co-create – we want to contribute to an exponential
growth of activists for a sustainable lifestyle.
Our business model

We do not view sustainability as a separate area within ouroperations – it is an integral part of everything we do. We
can see clearly how our way of doing business, more resource
efficient solutions and new collaborative business models haveresulted in us doing better business.
Without any traditional marketing we are growing with
20-30% per year and at double speed on our 15 export markets. One reason is of course that a change maker attracts
attention. However, the trust and magnetism we experiencefrom our partners, end-users, customers and followers is sprungalso from the honest dialogue we have always had with theworld around us, how we are open about the challenges we facecombined with the fact that our products exceed expectations
creating the strongest ambassadors and a grassroots movement.
WITH POTENTIAL government policy changes designed to speed
up the transition to sustainable business practices we couldn’t
be better prepared as a company. We have built our entire
business on the basis of responsible use of resources andsocial justice.
We already take responsibility for collecting and turningworn-out Houdini products into resources for new products
and we are well prepared for a transition into an automatedrecycling process.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201814

Our products are designed to last for many years of harduse. Photo: Hampus Samuelsson, Häller, Sweden

Our product and design philosophy

In a world of fast fashion and mass consumption where quantity and frequency often seem to matter more than quality andgood design, our design philosophy stands out. We design
every product with the intention of it making a difference forthe end user and for the world, in the short- as well as longterm perspective. We see our innovation-, design and development process of each style as strategically important long-term
investment for our company, with a clear vision of what wewant to accomplish and no room for compromise.
This means we make sure to invest the adequate amountof time and effort into the ideation and product development
process and eventually end up with the perfect product. Mostof our products stay in the range for multiple years. Some coreproducts have been in the range for more than 10 years and a
few for more than 15 years.
This is a resource efficient, resilient and sustainable innovation and design process in itself, which results in a resource
efficient, resilient and sustainable system – from sourcing, production and manufacturing, throughout the entire user-phaseand to the end-of-life solution.
our strongest ambassadors calling
their favorite Houdini products ”addictive” and recommending them to the extent that advertising and traditional promotional efforts have not been needed. Although we cannot yet
present quantitative data, our qualitative estimate of average
product lifetime in terms of use is 5 years and an average daysof use per product per year is estimated to 50. (Quantitative
user data will be added to the next assessment.)
OUR END-USERS HAVE BECOME

Designer’s Checklist

The Designer’s Checklist is used in several phases during
the product development process in order to safeguard thatthe product aligns with our product philosophy.
Does this product deserve existence?
Will it last long enough?
Is it versatile enough?
Will it age with beauty?
Nothing added that isn’t needed, right?
Will it be easy to repair?
Is it durable enough for our rental program?
Do we have an ”end-of-life” solution?

Some core products
have been in therange for more than
10 years, a few for
more than 15 years.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201815

/ WHAT WE DO

Our products
must last alifetime andage with beauty.

Our Product Philopophy

Less is more – versatile performance and minimalist constructions. Versatile product performance enables a smaller andsmarter wardrobe for the end-user and one that creates possibilities rather than limitations, resulting in happier end-users
and greater resource efficiency on the systemic level. Our
designs are minimalistic – stripped from unnecessary details
and simple by construction resulting in beautiful aesthetics,
a longer product lifetime and product repairs becoming easier.
Built to last – both in terms of quality and style

The quality of our products is intrinsically linked to the factthat they must be reliable in extreme conditions but also thatthey must last a lifetime and age with beauty.
With timeless aesthetics we create styles that don’t get outdated but rather iconic and with our unique color philosophy
we stay above and beyond seasonality and trends.
Holistic comfort – for body, mind and soul

Our holistic definition of comfort embraces individuality
and includes comfort for all senses, for body, mind and soul.
The comfort of making an informed and sustainable choice iscentral in the way we define comfort.
How we choose our fabrics and technologies

In order to design circular product lifecycles our policy is tokeep the raw material as pure as possible and never mix naturaland synthetic fibres. Instead, we blend wool with other biodegradable fibres, such as silk and lyocell Tencel, making the
products both recyclable and biodegradable.

Similarly, we mix a synthetic polymer with other synthetic polymers when performance requires it. Where we can we eliminate stretch fibres, as they currently make circularity impossible. This policy and methodology is based on current recycling
technologies as well as promising technology development. If
and when there is a technology breakthrough that motives apolicy change we will act accordingly.
In addition to striving for circular materials our policy is
to always choose the environmentally, socially and ethicallysuperior alternatives. We continue our selection process bylooking at factors such as quality, longevity, geography, supplier, facility, certifications, traceability and transparency.
Our policy is to always choose the more sustainable alternative when such exists and we favour suppliers with the best
track record, the adequate internal framework and ambitions
in line with ours, hence with the best potential to develop
further in partnership with us.
earth system impact estimations performed
as well as silent considerations being made during the process.
For fabrics and technologies in the organic cycle we have for
instance opted to not use cotton because of clear performance
limitations as well as its heavy use of water and monoculture
land system use. Instead we use natural or cellulose based,sustainable and biodegradable performance fibres that support
the organic cycle. The biodegradable wool yarns and fabrics wesource were carefully selected to make sure also treatment andprocess chemicals belong in the organic cycle.
We source our merino wool mulesing free, preferably fromcertified ethically and environmentally sustainable farms with
THERE ARE NUMEROUS

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/ WHAT WE DO

Such a system
could ultimately
eliminate theneed to takecrude oil fromthe earth’s crust.

traceability from farm to product. We take geography, hence
land system use and water consumption into consideration, aswool although it is a natural fibre, can have a strong negative
impact on the environment if not farmed appropriately.
For fabrics and technologies in the technological cycle weuse mainly recycled synthetic fibres, preferably recycled polyester as the technology for closed-loop recycling enables a circular system without any loss of quality and without the need to
add virgin fibres.
, enabling continuous textile-to-textile
recycling, to be the superior alternative in terms of possibilities
for up-cycling and designing a truly circular system. Such a
WE FIND CHEMICAL RECYCLING

We use both synthetic and natural fibers, but to ensurea circular product, we never blend the two. Photo: Redasystem could ultimately eliminate the need to take crude oilfrom the earth’s crust for the production of polyester entirely.
However, the supply is scarce.
Mechanical recycling is more common but requires anunderstanding of its current systemic limitations and possible
risks, such as becoming an excuse to grow the plastic packaging industry further. Post Consumer Recycled PET-bottles iscurrently a key source. Potential for industrial symbiosis to
evolve within an emerging circular plastics industry in order torecycle products designs for longevity rather than packaging isof great importance for us looking ahead.
Where we currently need to add virgin polyester we have
implemented plans for how to transition to recycled alternatives. This is the case for the waterproof/breathable polyester
membrane we use in our shell layers as well as for a few fibre
types where demand for recycled versions is yet too low tomotivate suppliers to produce them.
There is a recent development of circular polyamide that
we are following closely, in order to transition to recycled
and recyclable polyamide as soon as this is possible. Anotherdevelopment we are following closely is the emergence of hightenacity polyesters, which could enable us to shift current
polyamide fibres to polyester, hence improving material purity
and circular efficiency further.
had to take another consideration into
account when developing and assessing our technological cycle– micro plastics. Synthetic garments shave off small fibres during production, during the user phase and at end-of-life if leftin landfills. These micro fibres travel through air and runoff

SINCE 2013 WE HAVE

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201817

/ WHAT WE DO

systems, often ending up in the ocean where they eventually
move into the food chain.
Our ambition in this field is clear: to minimize and eventually eliminate our contribution to micro plastics. By recycling worn-out garments and keeping them from ending up in
landfills we limit the release of micro plastics but as the releasecan occur throughout the cycle, we tackle this challenge in
multiple ways:
1. The material choice down to polymer and construction
is key. Where a poor quality polyester fabric will quite
rapidly deteriorate when washed, a high quality will look,
perform and weigh almost the same after 10 years of use,
hence micro fibre release is low.

date we have developed alternatives such as C9, a novel
3-layer synthetic filament fibre construction, as well asorganic and biodegradable alternatives, such as Wooler.
We engage with academia and across sectors in various
research projects with the ambition of developing solutions and standardized measuring methods for increased
data precision and transparency.

5.

We keep developing
next generation fibres
and fabrics together
with our partners.

Our sourcing by geography

Fabric and technologies sourcing at Houdini is based on ahighly selective partnership strategy, with long-term relations
with world leading fabrics and technologies supplier partners

Through our Care Guide we educate and encourage
our end users to discover the advantage of airing theirgarments rather than washing them as frequently. We haveintroduced a laundry guide and laundry bag collecting
micro fibres that potentially release during the wash cycle.

2.

We are collaborating with a home appliances firm in
the development of improved care instructions and wash
cycles to minimize micro fibre release and extend productlifetime further and possibly a filter solution that would
capture stray fibres in the washing machine.

3.

We keep developing next generation fibres and fabrics
together with various partners in order to minimize andeventually eliminate the occurrence of micro fibres. To

4.

Organic, renewable and biodegradable Wooler Houdi. Pure enough to fit in our circular system
where worn-outs can be composted and become fertile soil. Photo: Nakshe Ghalat
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201818

/ WHAT WE DO

Our value chain
is global and thenumber of supplierpartners very few.

and manufacturers. Fabrics are sourced mainly from Japan,
Italy and the US. This enables Houdini to provide the highest
quality and best practice while also maintaining the highest
environmental, social and ethical standards. Equally important, the partnership strategy results in improved trust andtransparency, making analysis of current practices possible, improvement plans easier to implement and innovation projects
comfortable to invest in.
Our value chain is global and the number of supplierpartners very few. Most of them produce their fabrics in developed countries where high social standards are regulated by
GERMANYCHINA 1%
3%

CHINA
3,50%

POLAND
24,48%

Garment origin
GARMENT ORIGIN
Fall/Winter2018:
FALL / WINTER 2018

PORTUGAL
8,39%

96,5% within EU

ITALY
15%

US
14%

LITHUANIA
17,48%TAIWAN
11%
LATVIA
16,78%

Fabric origin
Fall/Winter
2018:
FABRICS ORIGIN
FALL within/ WINTERJapan,
2018
64%
Italy and USSWEDEN10%

Our fabrics and technologies innovation
JAPAN
35%

LITHUANIA
8%

ESTONIA
29,37%

law, legal requirements environmentally are strict and federal
control functions are in place.
Manufacturing at Houdini mainly takes place at selected
and specialized European manufacturing partners in Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. This manufacturing network
close to our global distribution center in Sweden (which could
be considered “local” in a textile supply chain perspective)
enables us to have a lean set-up with tight collaboration andan efficient way of working, meeting and shipping. In addition
EU social and environmental standards apply, legal requirements and government control functions are in place, meaning
our sustainability efforts are at a high level even at baseline.
Local manufacturing has multiple benefits and we see
great potential in developing our local value chain further.
On the other hand Houdini has the ambition to export its
high social standards and practices to manufacturers elsewherein the world, as we then would be able to push boundaries,
especially social and ethical boundaries, further and on a global scale. We recently initiated a pilot with manufacturing at aselected Chinese manufacturer.

POLAND
2%
KOREA
1%

Sourcing at Houdini for the Fall/Winter 2018 range, based on our partnership strategy with a selected few world leading supplier partners andmanufacturers, enabling us to provide the highest quality products while pushing environmental, social and ethical standards to the next level.

Our circular principles as well as our drive to radically enhance product performance and sustainability often resultin innovation projects, development of entirely new fabrics
and technologies or improvements of existing qualities - fibre
compositions, treatments and production methods.
These innovation processes broaden our horizon andenable us to question conventions and design superior solutions. The result is often advancements in multiple areas
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201819

/ WHAT WE DO

even though our focus might have been in one specific area.
For instance, the focus might have been material innovation
for circularity but the end result is a circular lifecycle plus
improved product performance, a smarter design of the value
chain or the business model. Here are a couple of examples:
and the development of our merino wool
range is one example. While conventional merino is often
mixed with synthetics and various treatments are based onsynthetic polymers and other chemicals that do not belong
in nature, we envisioned a circular system with merino garments pure enough to be composted and beneficial in thecomposting process. The project ran for four years before thefirst garments were launched. Since then the range has grownsignificantly and improved further.
To celebrate the beauty of the system we grew vegetablesin the composed soil and had a star chef in Stockholm servea fine dining menu to a few of our end users.
THE HOUDINI MENU

Voilà, a fine dining
menu made fromworn-out base layers.

Gunnar Eriksson, composting expert, helped us compost wool baselayers for the Houdini Menu project. Photo: McCann Stockholm

is a similar project, where we questioned the chemical intense and linear technologies conventionally used for waterproof/breathable shells.
Whilst sustainable alternatives were readily available forseveral key improvements such as polyester based membranes
enabling circular product lifecycles, innovation was needed
elsewhere, for instance to develop sustainable Durable Water
Repellent treatments (DWR) enabling the phasing out of
PFC-based DWR’s. After extensive field-testing we decided
to use only pure and circular alternatives, featuring polyester
membranes in combination with recycled polyester fabrics. In
SHELL LAYERS FOR THE FUTURE

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201820

/ WHAT WE DO

the shell layer innovation and development process we also
refined and redefined the aspect of shell layer comfort,
moving from stiff, static and noisy to soft, resilient and silent.
Open source innovation and co-creation

Most of our innovation projects are performed in partnershipwith leading innovation hubs and universities in addition topartnering up with our suppliers. Interdisciplinary collaboration across sectors has proven successful and we often partner
up with likeminded conscious companies in various industries
when searching for superior solutions to common challenges.
We believe in the power of reconnecting to each other, totechnology and to nature in order to stay open, curious andconstantly evolving. Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion who
performed the Planetary Boundaries Assessment for us are two
examples, Chalmers University of Technology, Swedish Schoolof Textiles, Sunfleet and Rosendals Trädgård a few othersof our partners for co-creation. Our co-creative platforms inthemselves are in constant evolvement with hubs, hangouts,
co-creation labs and fireside talks. This is where we meet,
co-create, innovate, plan, progress and hang out.
We prefer open source innovation as it aligns perfectlywith our core values. When dealing with sustainable innovation open source is our policy, as we believe sustainable technologies should be shared for the common good.
Packaging, shipping and transports

Considering our global supply chain we need to assess, reportand improve further in packaging, shipping and transportation. We will include assessments in these areas in our next

Open source isour policy, as we
believe sustainable
technologies should
be shared for thecommon good.

Made to Move brings the design process closer to how
and when we wear Houdini gear – in movement among
mountains, rivers or wherever our adventures take us.
By creating a 3-dimentional shape, using the natural
diagonal stretch of the fabric and avoiding seams infriction areas, we managed to take the level of comfort
and freedom of movement to a different level while
enabling circular product life cycles.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201821

/ WHAT WE DO

The Wooler Houdi value chain: Merino wool sourcesfrom two beautiful ZQ-certified NZ farms, shipped
to our supplier partner in Italy.

report. So far we have designed every product value chain aslean and effective as possible, reducing complexity in assembly, reducing the number of legs in the value chain and being
selective in our choice of transportation. We use low-impact
shipping alternatives ranging from regenerative local shipping
solutions such as MovebyBike and Urb-it to shipping by sea,
train and truck, avoiding air freight almost entirely.
When designing packaging we apply the same criticalthinking, including the designer’s checklist, as we do when
designing our products.

HOUDINILATVIA

Bluesign partnership

Textile processing and finishing is a critical part in our sourcing, production and innovation processes. In order to accessexperts in the field for knowledge, guidance, monitoring anddevelopment we are a Bluesign Systems Partner since 2009.
The basic idea behind Bluesign is to combine the use of chemicals, air and water emissions, consumer safety and occupational health and safety under a single standard.
The Bluesign Input Stream Management method provides
an efficient solution by stating the principles and monitoring
the implementation of the Bluesign System. It guarantees thatapproved facilities, fabrics and processes do not contain components that are harmful to people or the environment and it
guarantees the application of responsible chemistry in a clean
process. Similarly, Bluesign Technologies guides and facilitates
us in our innovation processes to push boundaries further.

ITALY

Traceability and transparency

Our Wooler Houdi
value chain is an
example of what
we intend to reachfor each and every
one of our products.

NEW ZEALAND100%
ULTRAFINE

We strive towards a completely traceable and transparent value
chain. We conventionally engage with our suppliers from tier
1 all the way to tier 3 or 4 but have our Wooler Houdi value
chain as an example for what we intend to reach for each andevery one of our products.
Furthermore, we have taken a stand against green washing
generalization and have strict and transparent principals on
what we call circular, recycled etc. For instance, we communicate recycled content in a transparent and detailed way. If
a garment is made from only 45 % recycled fibres, we describe the garment “partly made from recycled fibres”. Only
if a product is made from more than 50% recycled fibres we

BROAD
17,5 μPL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201822

count it as “recycled” in our range statistics and describe it
as “primarily made from recycled fibres”. Exact data is madeavailable in various ways – from product range sustainability
specification, to assessments such as the Planetary Impact
Assessment and direct at request.
a great benefit for us as a company to be transparent, as it enables us to continuously build trust. The way
we see it, it is also our obligation as a company to be transparent. We owe it to ourselves, our end-users, customers, ourcolleagues in the business as well as to the general public sinceat the end we are all interdependent in the local as well as
global and planetary perspective.

WE BELIEVE IT IS

In our Houdini Hubs, like this one in Oslo, we offer rentals,
repair services and second hand sales. Photo: Kristian Harby.

Business model innovation

Apart from material and product innovation, which comesnatural to most forefront outdoor companies, we have invested and continue to invest heavily in business model innovation, mainly within the field of the collaborate economy.
Our over arching idea is to find smarter solutions in thefield of consumption that will keep Houdini garments in aslow, ever-extending and resource efficient circular system
where our offering and growth is decoupled from the use ofresources. Up until now this has lead to the introduction ofseveral services catering to the extension of product lifetime
such as Care, Repair and Reuse and ”product as a service”
solutions such as Rental.
The main platform for our business model innovation has
so far been through our direct channels – the Houdini Hubsand eCom. Our hubs, as we call our brick and mortar retaillocations, are physical hubs in our community and much
more than commercial spaces.
Our hubs are key in innovating and co-creating our offering together with our customers and users. The retail hubs
themselves are developed in line with the forefront of green
building design and we apply the same design philosophy aswith our products – less being more, built to last and providing comfort for all senses, body, mind and soul.
Care, Repairs and Reuse

We extend product lifetime by inspiring, assisting and guid-Through collaborative business models
we can decouple
growth from the useof resources.
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201823

/ WHAT WE DO

We are committed to having
our garments last as long as
they’re meant to.
ing to better product care, by providing repair service and bycreating a marketplace for reuse, vintage yet fully functional
Houdini products that deserve a 2nd or 3rd life companion.
we educate and encourage our end users
to discover ways to take better care of their products – fromairing as an alternative to washing, to providing a laundry anddetergent guide, to instructions for how to re-boot water-repellent performance.
Regarding Repairs, we are committed to having our
garments last as long as they’re meant to, even if that sometimes involves a repair or two. Should a customer happen totear their favourite hoody or jacket when skiing or climbing,
all they have to do is visit a Houdini hub and have it repaired
there or contact us for repair support.
Furthermore, with Reuse we challenge the norm of fast
fashion and seasonality. By selling second hand clothing in
our retail hubs, we provide entry-level price points without
developing an entry-level product line where compromises toquality, performance and sustainability would be inevitable.
Simultaneously we visualize how our products age with beautyand can become companions for life and emphasize the valueof long lasting products.

THROUGH HOUDINI CARE

Morten Christensen putting our Mr Dunfri to the test
during a winter of skiing and sailing in Norway.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201824

/ WHAT WE DO

We choose to see Houdini as the custodian of resources, responsible
for handing them back to the planet in good shape.
Our recycling system

We choose to see the resources we use as resources borrowed
from the planet and Houdini as the custodian of these, responsible for handing them back to the planet in good shape.
A take-back system for all Houdini products is therefore a given.
Together with our end-users we treat worn-out garments
as they were intended when designed - as a resource to recycle
rather than as waste.
As the first European brand we became partner in
Eco-Circle, Teijin’s closed-loop system for polyester recycling
in 2006. The system enabled us to provide products madefrom recycled fibres that at end-of-life can go back into thesystem and become a resource for new garments. The system
has since scaled and other solutions have been added inorder for us to recycle all products. For the few products where
we currently do not have a recycling solution we are working
to get them in place and meanwhile store these garments.
is clearly a field that has the opportunity todevelop further. The evolution since 2006 has been extremely
poor. As an example, for the chemical recycling of polyester westill need to ship to Japan.
Considering the pricing of virgin compared to recycled
polyester, where substantial planetary costs for virgin polyester
are externalized, the incentive for further development is weak.

S17

S18

S19

37%

30%

46%

Circular styles Spring/Summer
F17

F18

F19

53%

50%

74%

TEXTILE RECYCLING

Circular styles Fall/WinterShare of completely circular styles in Spring/Summer 2017, 2018 and 2019 (top) and Fall/Winter 2017, 2018 and2019 (bottom). Our goal is to reach 100% circular in 2022. (Definition of circular: styles designed to be recycled at
end-of-life and made from recycled or organic, renewable and biodegradable fibres.)

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201825

/ WHAT WE DO

The conventional
way of selling andconsuming goods
has created business models andbehaviours thatare unsustainable
and often
unattractive.

Designing product-as-a-service solutions

Rent
this
jacketHoudini believes sharing and services could and should playa larger part as an alternative in the near future. The conventional way of selling and consuming goods has created business models and behaviours that are unsustainable and often
unattractive for all stakeholders involved. Looking to nature
for answers – we are designing alternative solutions where
resources are used more effectively and resilience is build into
the system to properly match supply with demand.
Apart from sustainability advancements, the product asa service business model is one where the customer and user
experience has potential to radically improve in comparison
to the conventional. The success depends entirely on how wellthis novel and alternative system is designed and we are onlyin the early stages of this development.
has been in place for five years. It’s a great
way of providing access to products as an alternative to ownership and to make life simpler for the end user while eliminating unnecessary resource use for garments that may not be
used frequently. Also, being able to rent otherwise expensive
gear offers a smart financial solution for individuals and families who might not have the possibility or desire to invest in
owning their outdoor gear.
Looking ahead we will soon make rental available online
and through selected partners. In parallell, we are developing
additional product as a service solutions to be launched within the next couple of years.
OUR RENTAL INITIATIVEWith the rental program, we are reinventing our businessmodel with access as an alternative to ownership.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201826

03. Milestones
Planetary Boundaries Assessment 2018

Photo: Nakshe Ghalat

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201827

/ MILESTONES

The milestones
on our journeyso farLate 80s: We’re a group of Swedish ski- and climbing buddies

traveling the globe in search of good skiing, good climbing
and good fun. Gear improvements linger in our heads. Houdini, the escape artist, is our ”House God”.
Early 90s: On a trip to NZ we pioneer the development ofprogressive precision insulation garments that won’t weigh you
down or overheat you yet provide addictive comfort and exceptional freedom of movement. They soon get the name “thegreat Houdinis”.
1993: The Houdini garments spread like wild fire within themountaineering community, the brand is born and we open
a small office in Stockholm. We continue spending most of
our time in remote places and travelling the globe, leaving theoffice empty.

Houdini founder Lotta Giornofelice on the leftduring a climbing trip in the Himalayas.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201828

/ MILESTONES

We launch “Dunfri” along with the statement that
we don’t believe in stealing birds’ feathers but dobelieve in the advantages of modern technology.

T-shirts. By moving to recycled polyester we manage to reduce
CO2-emissions by +60% and energy consumption by +60%.
2007: Our first products designed for circularity are intro-

duced along with recycle units and the infrastructure for our
garment recycling take-back system. Finally we can start collecting worn-out Houdini garments for recycling.
2008: We launch “Dunfri”, synthetic down jackets featuring

1995: We introduce Houdini Repairs to extend productlifetime of all Houdini gear. We develop the early stages of the
Houdini layering system with lighter weight performance baselayers and precision wind block garments.

PrimaLoft, along with the statement that we don’t believe in
stealing birds’ feathers but do believe in the advantages of modern technology. Dunfri is down-free, awesome and circular.
2009: We become Bluesign system partner to intensify our

2001: Our quest to keep the great outdoors great begins. We

decide to either become part of the solution rather than the
problem or shut down business, no compromise.

work on chemicals, energy and water use. As we source fabrics
mainly from our partner suppliers in the US, Europe andJapan and have 100% EU manufacturing we start out at an
already high level.

2003: We launch the Power Houdi, a state-of-the-art mid layer

featuring Polartec Power Stretch Pro - an iconic style that sincehave been claimed to be ”addictive” by many. The Power Houdi is built to last, both in terms of quality and style.
2005: We are the first European brand to form a partnershipwith Teijin, the disruptive Japanese textile supplier. Now we canfinally move from virgin to recycled polyester and to the circularsystem we had envisioned for closed-loop garment recycling.
The Dunfri
synthetic
down jacket.

2006: Our first products designed for circularity are developed– progressive and stylish performance base layers, tops and2010: After more than four years of innovation we introduce

Airborn, a lightweight and luxurious range of merino woolsilk garments. Possibly the most advanced merino base layer
around at the time and pure enough to put on the compost
at end-of-life.
2011: We initiate Reuse, our program to bring vintage Houd-ini products to life. We introduce a platform for our customers to buy and sell their vintage Houdini gear in an effort
to extend product lifetime, create awareness and enable entrylevel price points.
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201829

/ MILESTONES

We finally reachedour goal 100%fluorocarbon-free.

2012: We open our first Houdini Hub in Stockholm and start

2014: We introduce shell layers for the future – our state-of-

exploring how we together with our customer and end-user canshape retail for the future and contribute to conscious consumption. We launch Rental, our first product-as-a-service solution.

the-art waterproof/breathable shell layers with circular lifecycles. We win the ISPO Sustainability Award and begin thequest to transform the outdoor industry standard from polluting to contributing.

2013: With the Cloud Nine project we are the first brandglobally to introduce an air-permeable synthetic down featuring migration resistant PrimaLoft insulation. This is our firststep in developing solutions to tackle microfiber pollution.

2015: As the first company globally we take the decision to use

the Planetary Boundaries framework as the scientific base forour environmental work and to perform a pilot study in partnership with earth system scientists to assess our company footprint.
2016: The Houdini Menu project is initiated, putting ourorganic products to the ultimate test. By composting them we
could prove they are pure enough to contribute to fertile soil
for growing food. Voilà, a fine dining menu made from wornout base layers.
2017: With Rollercoaster, we take on the holy grail of shelllayers, introducing the Made to move concept, a progressive
way of designing and cutting garments, creating groundbreaking freedom of movement and enabling us to eliminate
stretch fibers.
2018: We finally reach our goal 100% fluorocarbon-free!

After 8 years of innovation and co-creation, lab- and fieldtesting, transitioning and implementation we have succeededwith this critical transformation and joined forces with ourpartners to make it happen.

Field testing shell layers in the Andermatt backcountry. Photo: Linus Meyer
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201830

04. Our plan ahead
Planetary Boundaries Assessment 2018

Photo: Erik Nylander

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201831

Our goal is to have 100% circular products in our collection
by 2022. Photo: Linus Meyer, Romsdalen, Norway

Our roadmap
towards 2020and beyond
we finalized a roadmap for our journeyahead. The final details to the plan, including some big, hairy
and audacious goals, were co-created by the entire Houdini
team and a selected few inspiring dreamers, thought-leadersand change-makers in the beautiful nature reserve Nordmarka,
just outside Oslo in our neighboring country Norway.
We left Nordmarka with a bold plan and a promise to the
future and to ourselves that will keep us busy the next few years.

AT THE END OF 2016

in the transformation we envisioned – to eliminate our negative footprint while enabling and inspiring ahealthier and happier lifestyle on a thriving planet, for us andfor future generations. Along the way we have come to realizethat in order to reach our vision, we will have to break freefrom the status quo of the current system and co-create a newone, where our core values of doing good, playing hard, push-WE HAVE COME FAR

ing boundaries and having fun form keel and rudder. Oursense of urgency is easy to understand when seeing the stateof the planet and the prevailing lack of will power, guts andaction to change course. Seeing the untapped potential, vast
opportunities and abundant value in this transition, makes us
all the more motivated.
Honoring our commitment to the Stetind Declarationand saluting its co-author and our friend Nils Faarlund, we
will move towards our vision with uncompromising speed.
We will keep moving mountains, climb others and celebrate
the beauty of nature and the myriad of life it sustains.

We left Nordmarkawith a bold planahead and apromise to the
future and ourselves.
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201832

/ OUR PLAN AHEAD

Our big hairy audacious
goals towards 2020 andbeyond:Mimic nature in a digital eco system

By 2022

In order to eventually reach our circular and regenerative vision we are building a digital eco system, mimicking the natural system. Only with an accurate and transparent flow of data
can we build a value chain catering to the exact demand as
well as assess value chain impact in a transparent and automated manner. By enabling an equally effective flow of products
being accessed and shared rather than owned, we can provide
a viable and truly superior alternative to ownership.
By enabling an all direction sharing of knowledge andideas customers and end-users can turn into activists for thesocietal transition we envision.

l We will provide 100% value chain traceability andtransparency.
l We will have an IoT solution in place to guide to productcare, reboot and repairs and automate recycling.
l We will have a 100% integrated inventory solution in place.
l We will enable a100% connected community for end-users
to turn activists.
Reconnect humanity to nature

For a multitude of reasons we will strive towards reconnecting
to nature – starting with ourselves and our community offriends and partners, inspiring society to do the same. We willdevelop our business in partnership with nature and technologies mimicing and supporting nature.
We will inspire and guide people into nature, spreading
the tradition of ”friluftsliv” and the spirit of ecosophy andprovide access to our products making the experience of thegreat outdoors great. We will manifest mankind’s freedom toroam just as we will speak for nature and its intrinsic value andawe-inspiring beauty.
By 2022l We will have 100 000 end-users, followers and fans turned

activists.
l We will have enabled exponential growth in the number

By 2025 we aim to have eliminated all waste throughout our
entire value chain. Photo: Anna Öhlund, Rapadalen, Sweden.

of experiences of nature with the same use of resources
through product-as-a-service solutions.
l We will have local hangouts to guide, educate and inspire
to reconnect to nature worldwide.
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201833

/ OUR PLAN AHEAD

By 2022:
The circular system of nature itself is our biggest inspiration. Photo: David Kvart, Kiroro, Japanl 100% of our products will be circular – made from recycled

or biodegradable fibers and recyclable or biodegradable
at end-of-life.
l We will have initiated the use of novel regenerative textile
fibers such as ocean, land and air PCR waste.
l We will have designed a next generation industrial symbiosis
solution turning waste to resource.
By 2030:l 100% of our value chain will be circular.

0% of our resources will be taken from the earth’s crust.
l We will have eliminated the concept of waste throughout
our value chain.
l +20% of our textile fibres will be novel regenerative, suchas ocean, land and air PCR waste or from next generationindustrial symbiosis solutions turning waste to resource.
l 100% of raw materials used for trimmings, dyestuff, process
and treatment chemicals in our value chain will be recycled
or renewable.
l We will have eliminated our contribution to micro plastics.
l 100% renewable energy will be used across our value chain.
l We will move beyond net zero towards a regenerative value
chain in symbiosis with nature.
l

Go 100% circular with nature as the blueprint

We will develop
our business inpartnership withnature.

We choose to see the resources we use as resources borrowed
from the planet and Houdini as the custodian of these, therefore responsible for handing them back to the planet and future
generations in good shape. Therefore we intend to go 100%
circular with nature as the blueprint for our circular principals.
By 2020:l 100% of what we have identified as transitional fibres will betransitioned into recycled alternatives.

By 2066:

Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Stetind Declaration and the 50-year anniversary of the Houdini roadmap
towards 2020 and beyond, we have disrupted the old andmoved on to a new system where nature and society are inharmony and life flourishes.
PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201834

05. Our promise
Planetary Boundaries Assessment 2018

Photo: David Kvart

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201835

/ OUR PROMISEThe Houdini Manifesto
Stockholm, November 2017

We are driven by a deep love for natureand the experiences it gives us. We also
believe that nature has an intrinsic value,
regardless of human needs.
We acknowledge that human activities havecreated a dire situation for the planet we live
on. Companies have a big part in this, andtherefore a big responsibility.
The current system, where products areproduced, used and discarded at an ever-increasing pace, is not working. Our mission
is to transform into a circular system inharmony with our world. Nature itself
is the blueprint.

Every resource we use is borrowed fromnature and we will therefore treat it carefully.

Environmental, social and economic
factors are interdependent and systemchange depends on all of them.

We will fight overconsumption.
We will contribute to the development andimplementation of sustainable technology.
We will collaborate with others and share
our knowledge. We will speak for naturewhen no one else does.
We will question our own way of working
and evolve to address the challenges we face.
We will encourage free thinking and individuality among ourselves.

Our work is fueled by passion and therefore
we take our passions seriously. We will keep
exploring the world around us. When it
snows, we will go skiing. When there’s surf,
we will go surfing. We will keep falling inlove with nature, and we will bringour friends with us. We will never stop
having fun.
We will keep working to minimize our negative footprint, move beyond zero, and leavean entirely positive impact on the world.

PL ANETARY BOUNDARIES ASSESSMENT / 201836

Planetary Boundaries analysis for
Houdini Sportswear – a Pilot Study
Assessment of company performance from a planetary boundaries perspective

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion. Authors: Marika Haeggman, Fredrik Moberg, Gustav Sandin
A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

37

CONTENT

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

Content:

1. Introduction
2. Background
2.1 About Albaeco
2.2 About Houdini
2.3 About Mistra Future Fashion
2.4 The science behind theplanetary boundaries
2.5 Planetary boundaries andthe outdoor clothing industry
1. Climate change
2. Novel entities
3. Stratospheric ozone depletion
4. Stratospheric aerosol loading
5. Ocean acidification
6. Biochemical flows
7. Freshwater use
8. Land-system change
9. Biosphere integrity
2.5 Social boundaries and the
UN global goals
3. Analysis
3.1 Current sustainability work at
Houdini from a planetary

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

boundaries perspective
3.2 Houdini’s current fibre use
3.3 Selection of materials for thisanalysis
3.4 Environmental impact of theselected materials:
CottonOrganic cotton
Polyester
Recycled polyester
Chemical recycling
Mechanical recycling
Wool
ZQ-wool
Polyamide
Lyocell/Tencel®
3.5 Impacts of the fibres along
the value chain
3.6 Data inventory
3.7 Comparison of Houdini’s fibreuse from a planetary boundaries
perspective

4.2 The comparison of different fibres
4.3 Comparison between boundaries
4.4 Scaling down the boundaries
4.5 Interactions among the planetary
boundaries
5. Conclusions: The way forward
6. References
APPENDIX I: Existing methods forassessing the clothing industry’s impact
on planetary boundaries
APPENDIX II: Social boundary aspects
APPENDIX III: Suggested steps of atentative 5-step methodology for a planetary
boundaries analysis
APPENDIX IV: Examples of the next
generation value chain questionnairethat has been developed.

4. Discussion
4.1 General discussion

38

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

1. Introduction
This is to our knowledge the first evercorporate Planetary Boundaries analysis.
It is an explorative collaboration between
Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra
Future Fashion with the long-term ambition
to create an open-source approach that will
provide Houdini and other similar companies with a more holistic view on theirsustainability efforts. Albaeco is closely tied
to the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC)
an international research centre for sustainability science at Stockholm University,
known among other things for its work on
planetary boundaries, resilience and ecosystem services.
This report aims to operationalize
the Planetary Boundaries framework in abusiness context. The framework was established in 2009 when a group of scientists(Rockström and others, 2009) identified
nine global environmental boundaries weshould remain within so that our societies

can continue to develop in a positive way.
As such the Planetary Boundaries provide
a holistic way of analysing sustainability
that has acquired international recognitionand contributed to the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). Rather than anarrow focus on for example water, chemicals or energy use, a planetary boundaries
approach implies covering a larger set ofcritical environmental factors.
The manufacturing and consumption ofclothes, like every other industry, plays a role
in relation to all of the nine boundaries. For
example, cotton is one of the most pesticide
and water demanding crops grown; chemicals used when treating fabrics risk polluting
water downstream from factories; and shelllayer garments are often produced using
compounds that stay in the environment indefinitely and accumulate in the fatty tissuesof wildlife and humans.
Albaeco, Houdini and Mistra Future
Fashion believe that analysing the textile industry from a Planetary Boundaries perspective is an important part of a larger ambition
to integrate scientific analysis and resilience
thinking into projects focused on accelerating
business solutions for sustainability.

2. Background
2.1 About Albaeco
Albaeco has been working since 1998 withstrategic environmental communication,

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

science communication, consulting andenvironmental training for companies.
The organisation is connected to an extensive network of international researchers
from both the natural and social sciences,through close collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre, based at Stockholm
University. Albaeco is an active partner of
the Centre and communicates research findings to the media, politicians, government
agencies and resource users at local, regional
and international levels. For more information: www.albaeco.se.
2.2 About Houdini
Houdini Sportswear is a Swedish company
that designs, markets and provides gear andservices to enable great outdoor experiences.
The company is built around a passion forthe outdoors and a commitment to preserving it. Houdini aims to meet challenges likeglobal warming, novel entities pollution andbiodiversity depletion head on, striving tocreate solutions. Houdini draws inspirationfrom nature and the circularity of ecosystems, and are working to become a regenerative company, with fully circular operations
and production throughout the value chain,including everything from design andproduction to sales and distribution to use,reuse, remake and recycling.
2.3 About Mistra Future Fashion
Mistra Future Fashion is a research programon how to make the fashion industry moresustainable by a systemic change of design,
production, use and recycling processes.
Guided by the principles of the circular
economy model, the program operates
cross-disciplinary and involves 50+ partners
from the fashion ecosystem. Its uniquesystem perspective combines research on
business models, policy, consumer behaviour, life cycle assessments, systems analysis,material chemistry, engineering, and more.
Mistra Future Fashion is funded by Mistra, The Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, and coordinated by RISE
Research Institute of Sweden, a leadinginternational research institute. For more
information: www.mistrafuturefashion.com.
2.4 The science behind theplanetary boundaries
The Earth we live on and the world we live
in are inextricably interconnected – though
we might not always see the connections
very clearly (e.g. Folke and others, 2011). In
the urbanized and globalized world fewer
and fewer people directly experience theirfundamental dependence on a functioning
Earth system (see box 1. for explanation) ona daily basis – yet there are no people who
do not rely on ecosystems and the services
they produce. Today it is also a fact that
there are no longer any ecosystems that havenot been affected and shaped by people (e.g.
Steffen and others, 2011; IPCC 2013).

39

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

In 2009 a group of 28 prominent scientists(Rockström and others, 2009) identified
nine global environmental boundaries weshould remain within so that our societies
can continue to develop in a positive way –A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future FashionNqu o glan obtifi al
ca
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ozone depletion

A

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Beyond zone ofuncertainty (high risk)

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The nine Planetary Boundaries processes identified are: (1) climate change, (2)pollution by novel entities, (3) stratosphericozone depletion, (4) alteration of atmospheric aerosols, (5) ocean acidification, (6) perturbation of biogeochemical flows (nitrogenand phosphorus inputs to the biosphere),(7) unsustainable freshwater use, (8) land-­system change, and (9) changes in biosphere
integrity (or destruction of ecosystems andbiodiversity).
Out of the nine global processes they
identified, the research team initially
proposed boundaries for seven. For climatechange, for example, they argue that carbon
dioxide levels should not rise above 350
parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere
if we are to remain in what they term the“safe operating space.” This boundary is
consistent with a stabilization of global temperatures at about 1.5 degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial levels. At this level researchsuggests that humanity faces climate adaptations, but that the risk of catastrophic shifts
is not imminent. However, carbon dioxide

rity
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There is no longer scientific doubt thathuman activity is causing the Earth’s bio­
geophysical systems to change. Geologists
are arguing that humanity’s impact on the
Earth is now so profound that a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene (the age ofhumans) – needs to be declared (Waters andothers, 2016). The epoch of the last 12,000
years, the Holocene, has been characterised
by stable climate since the last ice age during
which all human civilisation developed.
Science tells us that we for the first timeever face catastrophic environmental risks
on a planetary level, but also that there
seldom has been such great potential for
shifting mindsets, transformative change
and innovations that can allow us to avoid
serious threats and change the world for the
better (e.g. Figueres and others, 2017).

Climate changeeswithout facing catastrophic threshold effects
in the environment and climate. Whenthe updated version of the framework was
published in 2015 the nine boundaries
remained the same, though some were given
new names, and the research shows that
we have crossed four of them (Steffen andothers, 2015; see figure 2. below).

se
ru
ate
shw
Fre

The term “Earth system” refers to Earth’s
interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes. The system consists of
the land, oceans, atmosphere and poles.
It includes the planet’s natural cycles –the carbon, water, nitrogen, phosphorus,
sulphur and other cycles – and deep Earthprocesses. Source: www.igbp.net

n
atio
dific
i
c
a
Ocean

In zone of uncertainty(increasing risk)

Below boundary(safe)

Source: Steffen et al. Planetary Boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet, Science, 16 January 2015.

Figure 2: Planetary Boundaries The light blue zone is the safe operating space (below the boundary), medium blue
represents the zone of uncertainty, with an increasing risk of disrupting Earth system stability; and dark blue is thehigh-risk zone, pushing the Earth system out of a stable Holocene-like state. The Planetary Boundary itself lies at thedotted line (Steffen and others, 2015).

40

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

levels have already risen into the more risky“zone of uncertainty.” Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are currently
about 400 ppm and growing at about 3
ppm per year.
But it is not just about the climate. In
the updated planetary boundaries analysis
Steffen and his colleagues (2015) point out
that the boundaries for loss of plant and animal species and nutrient concentrations in
the oceans and land, as well as the boundary
for land system change through for example
deforestation, have also been crossed. The
researchers also emphasize that the boundaries are strongly interlinked – crossing one
boundary is likely to threaten the ability
to stay within safe levels for several of theother ones.
In the analysis from 2015 Steffen andcolleagues also identified two boundaries,
climate change and biosphere integrity, as“core boundaries”. These core boundaries
are affected by and drive changes in all theother boundaries, making them central tothe concept.
The planetary boundaries concept is based
in resilience theory and Earth system science(e.g. Folke and others 2011; Steffen andothers 2011), and provides a new understanding of the most pertinent global environmental challenges by analysing the risk of crossing critical thresholds in the behaviour of the
Earth’s climate and ecosystems. The criteria

for identifying planetary boundary processes
was that they can be associated with somekind of threshold, or “tipping point”, beyond
which the planet and its ecosystems mightenter new states, some of which are likely tobe less hospitable to our current societies,
and that this process is possibly irreversible. Boundaries were then set at what wasconsi­dered to be a “safe distance” from theestimated threshold, using the best available
science and the precautionary principle.
It is worth noting that the planetary boundaries framework is still evolving and that it
has triggered some scientific and broader debates, where some criticisms have been presented (e.g. Lewis, 2012). Nevertheless, theplanetary boundaries concept is increasingly
perceived as a useful integrating framework
for illustrating the risks of human interference with the Earth’s climate, ecosystems
and natural cycles through our patterns ofconsumption and production (WWF, 2016).
One benefit of working with the planetary boundaries framework is that it offersa more holistic approach than many othertools for analysis. Rather than focusing
solely on for example water, chemical or energy use, a planetary boundaries assessment
needs to cover a multitude of critical factors.
It also sets new frames for what should beassessed and how. If the goal is, as we believe
it should be, not simply to minimize negative impacts but rather move into a “regener-

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

ative economy” where human activity can bea positive force on the planet, the planetary
boundaries can be seen as mapping out
crucial space for such action.
2.5 Planetary boundaries and theoutdoor clothing industry
The planet’s climate and environment are ofcourse affected by how we produce, transport, wash, dye and dry, as well as recycleand dispose, our clothes. In one way or
another, the clothes we wear are connectedto each of the nine planetary boundaries(e.g. Roos and others, 2015; Zamani, 2016;
Roos and others, 2017).
Different materials will relate differently
to the nine boundaries. Take for example at-shirt or a pair of trousers, made of cotton.
Cotton is one of the most pesticide (boundary 2) and water (boundary 7) demanding
crops grown. To produce the large amountsof chemical pesticides and fertilisers (boundary 6) used in conventional cotton cultivation, generally requires a lot of fossil fuels.
Crude oil is also used in the production ofsynthetic material like polyester, polyamide
and acrylic. The resulting carbon dioxide emissions not only affect our climate(boundary 1) but also lead to increasing
ocean acidification (boundary 5) and potentially increased concentrations of aerosols in
the atmosphere (boundary 4). Since cotton
farming is often very intense and based on
genetically modified cotton grown in large

monocultures, it also affects biodiversity(boundary 9) and land use (boundary 8). It
is the same with many other fibers grown for
manufacturing clothes. The use of fertilisers might also entail increased emissionsof laughing gas (nitrous oxide), which has
become the most important ozone-depletinggas (boundary 3) after chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs) were phased out in the late 1990s.
In addition to all this, and specifically linked
to outdoor clothing, some textiles have beentreated with substances like perfluorooctane
sulfonate (PFOS). PFOS gives the garment
water- and stain repellent properties, but
is also a persistent pollutant (boundary 2).
In the European Union, production anduse of PFOS is illegal for most applications
since 2006, but it has since been replacedwith compounds with very similar chemical
structures, whose potential environmental
impacts are not fully known.
The clothing industry’s effects on thenine planetary boundaries are further
elaborated below:
1. Climate change
Climate change is accelerated by the emission of greenhouse gases, notably carbon
dioxide and methane, from land use change
and the burning of fossil fuels in for example industries, agriculture, homes and thetransport sector. The increasing concentra-

41

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

tion of greenhouse gases traps heat in theatmosphere and is causing global warming.
Every year the global textile industry delivers close to 100 million metric tonnes of
new products to the market (Roos, 2016).
The sheer size of the textile industry andthe high-intensity production of materials
imply that textile manufacturing is one of
the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases,
accounting for nearly 10 percent of global
emissions according to some analyses (Zaffalon, 2010). In Sweden, however, Roos andothers (2016) come to the conclusion that
Swedish consumption of clothes accountfor about 2.5 % of the country’s carbon
footprint. Climate effects from the clothing
industry are complex and happen in manydifferent places along the long and varied
supply chains of production, raw material,
textile manufacture, clothing construction,
shipping, retail, use, recycling, and disposalof the garments. Most of the greenhouse gas
emissions come from the fossil fuels used to
produce energy along the supply chains.
Fast fashion and the enormous increasein the consumption of clothes means thatthe impact on climate (and impacts on theother planetary boundaries) is growing. The
number of garments produced annually has
doubled since the year 2000 and exceeded
100 billion for the first time in 2014: nearly
14 items of clothing for every person onearth (Remy and others, 2016).

2. Novel entities
Chemical pollution causes large scale disturbances in ecosystems worldwide. Major
sources of pollution are industries and agriculture. The effects of the chemicals emitted
and the levels at which they become toxic
to humans and other organisms are often
unknown, and taking synergy effects fromdifferent chemicals into account the lack ofdata is even bigger. Novel entities include
chemicals emitted, but also particles such as
micro plastics.
A range of chemicals are used in the
production of clothes. Other than emissions to the environment, workers along
the supply chain in the industry are also atrisk of being exposed to toxic substances.
(e.g. Munn, 2011). For example, several
allergenic and carcinogenic dyes that arebanned in EU are still used in many partsof Asia. Several potentially toxic substances
are also used in the cultivation and spinningof fibres and in the weaving or knitting of
fabrics. Fabrics are also treated with chemical substances to produce desirable properties in fabrics such as flame retardation
and water and dirt resistance. To protect
the fabrics during transport different kindsof anti-mold agents are also often added.
Some of the most highlighted textile chemicals that might be toxic to humans and theenvironment are per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances (PFAS), nonylphenol ethoxylates(NPEO) and phthalates (Roos, 2016). In ad-

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

dition, chemical pollution by plastic waste,from e.g. micro plastics, tiny plastic particles
released when washing synthetic fabrics(e.g. acrylic and polyester), is emerging asa serious human-driven disturbance to the
Earth system. Plastic waste in the marine environment has become a global, ecologicallysystemic problem, and even though knowledge about the impacts on ecosystems is still
incomplete, it is clear that both direct andindirect effects are causing damage (Persson
and others, 2013; WWF, 2016).
3. Stratospheric ozone depletion
The ozone layer has an important functionin that it absorbs harmful UV rays from thesun. In the 1980’s researchers discoveredthat the ozone layer was thinning, and thecause could be traced back to the emissionof chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) at the timecommonly used in cooling elements in
refrigerators. The Montreal protocol banned
the use of CFCs in 1987 and they have since
been phased out, but certain compounds
that have an ozone depleting effect are stillin use today.
Synthetic fertilisers are often used in
the production of textiles. As fertilisers arebroken down by soil bacteria nitrous oxide(N2O) is produced. Since the phasing out
of CFCs, nitrous oxide has become themost ozone-depleting substance emitted byhumans (Ravishankara and others, 2009).
However, food production is responsible formost (80%) of the increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) in recent decades(Ciais and others, 2013). Since the late
1990s, Earth’s ozone layer – both the polar
hole and the atmospheric layer aroundthe whole planet – has been on the mend.
But the emission of nitrous oxide, which
is not regulated by the Montreal Protocol,
could reverse those gains – and could evenmake the situation worse. Another potential ozone depleting activity relating to thetextiles industry is when clothes are drycleaned, since dry-cleaning agents might stillcontain CFCs.
4. Stratospheric aerosol loading
Aerosols are small particles in the air that
harm human health and affect the climate(Ramanathan and others 2005). They are often sulfur-based and are formed in particularin the combustion of coal.
All processes in textile production that
require energy input, including transports,
can to some degree emit aerosols. Importof clothes produced in countries where
electricity is still produced from coal ordiesel ultimately might mean that the dirty
production has left the country where theclothes are consumed and that environmental impacts of aerosols and other emissions
have moved far beyond the consuming
country’s borders. For instance, a largepart of global textile production takes placein China where energy is often produced

42

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

from coal causing severe human health andenvironmental problems. China’s coal use
has, however, decreased in recent years andits national carbon emissions are reported toalso have decreased as a result.
5. Ocean acidification
The world’s oceans are home to a vast
number of species, produces half of theoxygen in the atmosphere and are important
carbon sinks. As such, marine ecosystems
maintain many vital functions that humans
rely on. Carbon dioxide and other gases in
the atmosphere are absorbed by the ocean
to create an equilibrium between concentrations in air and water. As carbon dioxide
is dissolved it forms carbonic acid, making
the oceans increasingly acidic. This acidification can have detrimental effects on marine
species and cause disturbances in marine
ecosystems. The more acidic the oceans
become, the harder it will be for corals andother organisms to build their skeletons orshells from lime. If carbon dioxide emissions continue at the same pace as now theoceans will become so warm and acidic that
coral reefs will disappear almost entirely by
2050 according to some scientists’ forecasts(Hoegh-Guldberg and others 2015).
As mentioned above, production of textiles
tends to lead to large emissions of carbon
dioxide and other compounds that could
contribute to ocean acidification.

6. Biochemical flows
One of the major threats to oceans and lakes
around the world is eutrophication, which,among other things, is causing algal blooms
and dead (oxygen-deprived) zones (e.g.
Carpenter, 2005). The textiles industry’s
impact on this boundary is mainly in therunoff of different nitrogen and phosphorus
compounds from fertilisers used to growdifferent kinds of fibre crops. However, thewashing of clothes can also be problematic,
as laundry detergents sometimes containphosphates. In response to the deteriorating
health of the Baltic Sea Sweden and manyother Baltic countries have banned detergents containing phosphates. Other thanagriculture, transportation is another sourceof nitrogen as nitrogen oxides and ammonia
are produced when fossil fuels are burned.
This contributes to the formation of smog
and acid rain, but excess nitrogen in the atmosphere is also deposited back onto land,
where it washes into nearby water bodies.
7. Freshwater use
In many places in the world fresh water
is a scarce resource. By 2050, at least one
in four people is likely to live in a country
affected by chronic or recurring shortagesof fresh water (UN, 2015). The water thatis used for cooking, drinking, washing andother household needs constitutes only asmall share of the water we use and actuallywater for irrigation in agriculture constitutes

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

one of the greatest pressures on freshwater
resources. A balanced diet, for instance,
represents a water use per capita which is 70
times more than the 50 litres per day used toindicate the basic household needs of water(SIWI-IWMI, 2004).
Producing the cotton needed to make a single small t-shirt requires, on average, morethan 2000 litres of water. That is, typically
7,000 to 29,000 litres of water (averaging
about 10,000 l) are required to grow one
kilogram of cotton (Cherrett and others,2005). How such extensive water use can affect the water supply in an area was severely
felt by the people around the Aral Sea in the
1960s when the then Soviet leadership gavea directive that the region was to expand its
cotton crops. To get enough water to irrigate
the cotton cultivation two rivers, that had
been supplying the lake with water, were
diverted. The Aral Sea was since the fourthlargest lake on Earth but by the 1960’s it
had decreased in size by 90%. As the waterlevels recede the salinity in the remaining
water has risen, causing problems in thelake’s ecosystems. Though some restoration
efforts have been successful, in 2014 theentire eastern basin of the lake had dried up
and become a salt desert. Other fibres also
require water, of course, but cotton is thethirstiest of them all (Defra 2010). According to Roos and others (2016) an effective
intervention to reduce water consumption isto replace cotton with either forest-based or
recycled regenerated cellulose fibres.
8. Land-system change
Across the planet land is increasingly being
converted for human use. Forests, wetlands
or grasslands are turned into farmland,
shrimp-ponds or cities. In the updated planetary boundaries report (Steffen and others,2015) the research team could conclude thathumanity has moved out of the safe operating space for land use change. This meansthat we have reached, or even crossed, apoint where further deforestation and expansion of agricultural land and urban areas
could seriously threaten biodiversity, climate
and water resources at the global level.
Large-scale cultivation of textile fibres
is one factor that drives land use. Cotton
cultivation is one example where the impact
is rather clear: cotton is often grown inlarge monocultures that require chemical
pesticides, fertilisers and irrigation, creating
a land system very different from what wasthere before, most often low in diversity andwith few other values than the crop that isgrown. Other fibre production may have aless clear impact on land systems. For example, wool production also requires large areasof land, but grazing sheep can in fact contribute to conservation values and restorationof grasslands if the production system is wellmanaged. Wool and merino wool sourced
from sustainably grazing animals can in that43

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDYOLO

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A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

2030 Development Agenda for Sustainable
Development in September 2015 (United
Nations, 2015). The agenda outlines 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and 169 associated targets. Both the goals
and the targets can be seen as a network,in which links between goals are reflectedclimatechangeRE

2.5 Social boundaries and the
UN global goals
As a further development to the Planetary
Boundaries, and to visualize sustainable
development, the development economist
Kate Raworth complemented the framework with ‘social boundaries’ to emphasizethat realising the human rights of all is anequally important aspect of human flourishing. Raworth added the social boundaries
to the planetary boundaries framework, so
turning its circular ‘safe operating space’
into a doughnut-shaped ‘safe and just spacefor humanity’. The planetary boundaries
delimit the ecological ceiling within whichhumanity’s collective activity must remain,
and the social boundaries provide the basisof dignity and opportunity for every person.
The 12 social boundaries, which were
derived from the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals, have been analysed for the
textile and clothing industry and the results
show that the most significant social risks are
related to wage, child labour, and safe working conditions (Zamani and others 2016).
This study of Houdini Sportswear froma planetary boundaries perspective does not

explicitly focus on the social aspects, butsome basic social indicators for the company’s suppliers were included in the questionnaire and are presented in Appendix II.
Building on the outcome from theRio+20 conference the 193 countries of
the UN General Assembly adopted the

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9. Biosphere integrity
Today, the extinction of plant and animal
species is at least 100 to 1,000 times fasterthan the natural, baseline levels (Pimm andothers, 2014). Many local species of plants
have been lost and with them important
ecosystem services and properties which
could strengthen agriculture’s chances
to cope with environmental and climaticchanges. Our clothes are one of the culprits.
Not least, cotton plantations, often basedon a few varieties of cotton grown in large
monocultures. Biodiversity conservationand textile production can, however, be
combined. One example is the often cited
collaboration between Patagonia, The
Nature Conservancy and Ovis 21 between
2011 and 2012. The original idea was that
Patagonia would commit to buy sustainablemerino wool as long as it was certified andthe producers were keeping and restoring
the biodiversity of the natural grasslands.
This pilot project was never implemented
in full-scale, but the intentions were promising and similar projects would certainly
be worth exploring in the future. Shippingof clothes can also indirectly lead to the
spread of invasive species in ballast water,that may cause ecosystem and infrastructuredamage, economic losses and may poserisks to human health. Impacts on all of theother planetary boundaries have indirect
effects on biodiversity, relating for example
to habitat loss due to land system changeor negative effects from climate change andemitted pollutants to land, air or water.

air pollut
ion

way even have a positive impact on land use
as important and valuable landscapes might
be preserved (e.g. Kviseth, 2011).

r
ate lshw
fres rawadwithFigure 3: “The doughnut” illustrates the planetary boundaries humanity must remain within and the social floor whichshould be steady beneath everyone’s feet. (image from: Oxfam, inspired by Rockström et al (2009)44

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

in targets that refer to multiple goals. As
such, the SDGs as a whole make up a more
integrated system than their precursors, theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs),
did. Hence, ecological and social goals are
increasingly viewed as interlinked and partof inseparable social-ecological systems.
Another difference between the MDGs andthe SDGs is that the latter are universal
goals and targets which apply to the entire
world, developed and developing countries
alike. The SDGs call for a new view on whatdevelopment needs to be, and redefines all
countries as developing countries.
Moreover, the SDGs explicitly call on
all businesses to use their creativity andinnovation to solve sustainable development
challenges (United Nations, 2015). In orderto guide companies in taking a strategic
approach to the SDGs a tool called the“SDG Compass” has been developed jointlyby (Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), theUN Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development(WBCSD).
To clearly show that all human development must respect the planet’s boundaries,
Stockholm Resilience Centre has proposeda new way of viewing the economic, socialand ecological aspects of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). The resulting
conceptual figure (see below) divides the 17
SDGs in a way that clearly illustrates thatthe goals associated with our economies andsocieties are embedded parts of the planet’s biosphere (represented in the figure byGoals 6 on freshwater, 13 on climate, 14 on
oceans, and 15 on biodiversity).
This figure changes our paradigm fordevelopment, moving away from the current
sectoral approach where social, economic,
and ecological development are seen as
separate parts. It calls for a transition toward
a world logic where the economy should
serve society so that it evolves within thesafe boundaries of the planet’s climate andecosystems. In this worldview we talk aboutsocial-ecological systems as integrated, rather
than about socioeconomic systems on the
one hand and ecosystems on the other.
In Sweden companies also need to takethe 16 environmental quality objectives into
account. These objectives have been adopted by the Swedish Parliament and describe
goals that are crucial to our welfare, and thatare intended to guide the Swedish efforts tosafeguard the environment. To attain theseenvironmental objectives, everyone has apart to play – individuals, companies andauthorities at every level.
As stated by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (2012): “Efforts bybusiness to improve environmental performance – in terms of production, transport
and technology development – are crucial tothe prospects of realising the environmental
objectives”.

Figure 4: The 17 SDGs divided in a way that illustrates
that the goals associated with economies and societies
depend on the planet’s biosphere (represented by Goals 6
on freshwater, 13 on climate, 14 on oceans, and 15 on
biodiversity). (Illustration: Azote Images for Stockholm
Resilience Centre)

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion45

globallthe com

2016
The Houdini Menu is launched manifesting our project to recreate the pure, circular and
PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR– A PILOT STUDYway of working with merino wool on an industrial scale.
sustainable

Bortt

x

Komm
grafisk

The 16 environmental quality objectives are:
1. Reduced Climate Impact
2. Clean Air
3. Natural Acidification Only
4. A Non-Toxic Environment
5. A Protective Ozone Layer
6. A Safe Radiation Environment
7. Zero Eutrophication
8. Flourishing Lakes and Streams
9. Good-Quality Groundwater
10. A Balanced Marine Environ­ment,
Flourishing Coastal Areas andArchipelagos
11. Thriving Wetlands
12. Sustainable Forests
13. A Varied Agricultural Landscape
14. A Magnificent Mountain Landscape
15. A Good Built Environment
16. A Rich Diversity of Plant and Animal LifeIn addition to the 16 environmental quality
objectives there is an overarching goal in
Swedish environmental policy, the so-called
Generational Goal: “to hand over to the next
generation a society in which the major environmental problems in Sweden have beensolved, without increasing environmental andhealth problems outside Sweden’s borders”.
Figure 5: Outline of a circular economy framework, as
depicted by Ellen MacArthur Foundation. This is thekind of business model that Houdini aims to be a part ofstriving for a 100% circular business focused on recycling,reuse, repair and rental.

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

Figure 5: Outline of a circular economy framework, as depicted by Ellen MacArthur Foundation. This is
the kind of business model that Houdini aims to be a part of striving for a 100% circular business focusedon recycling, reuse, repair and rental.

46

Komm
varianekosysThe first five of the efforts in the table are Houdini’s main strategies for reducing impacts:
repair, reuse, rentals, creating long lasting products and styles, and using recycled fibres. All
PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR– A PILOT
STUDY
these
five
strategies impact on all of the boundaries as they lower the pressure on resource
extraction. We, however, consider the positive impact of using recycled material as lower
than that of repair, rent, reuse and long-lasting products, since recycling doesn’t necessarily
lead to a lowered use of natural resources and reduced emissions. We also base this

3. Analysis

3.1 Current sustainability work at Houdini from a planetary boundaries perspective
Houdini Sportswear is already engaged insustainability issues and view this work as
an integrated part of their business model.
Below we briefly describe a selection of theirefforts, such as certification, rentals, repairs
and recycling, and assess them qualitatively
from a planetary boundaries perspective(table 1).
We base our assessment of the intended
impact of a tool or method as relevant/positive (+) or very relevant/very positive (++) on
the measures included and the stated intent.
Bluesign®, for example, has as its statedpurpose to decrease chemical use and energy
and water consumption. Decreased chemical use reduces the pressure on the novel
entities boundary and energy savings leadto lowered carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,which impacts the climate and ocean acidification boundaries. However, the label does
not specifically take measures to protect
biodiversity or minimise impact on nutrient
flows or land-use change. As the boundaries
are all connected, impacts on one will often
have an effect for others as well, however
we do not consider these kinds of positiveby-effects enough to reward a positive impact
in this qualitative assessment.
The first five of the efforts in the table
are Houdini’s main strategies for reducing

ClimatechangeNovelentities

Stratosphericozone depletion

Atmosphericaerosolloading

Ocean
acidification

Biogeochemical
flows

Fresh
water use

Recycled fibres*

+

+

+

+

+

++

++

++

++

Repairs

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

Rental

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

Reuse

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

Long lastingproducts (style andendurance)

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

++

BlueSign

+

++

+

?

+

Biosphere
integrity

++

+

++

++

pH Pure™
Higg Index

Landsystemchange

++

++

++

+

Table 1: A selection of Houdini’s sustainability efforts and their relevance for the different planetary boundaries. The intended impact of a tool or method is assessed as relevant/positive
GRI**(+) on the measures(+) included and(+)the stated intent. (+)
(+)
(+)
(+)
(+) or very relevant/positive (++) based* Depending on what type of recycling, mechanical or chemical, and how transport effective the type of collection is.
** The guidelines for GRI recommends to refer to the following environmental impacts: materials, energy, water,
biodiversity; emissions, effluents, and waste, but the focus is on more reporting, not necessarily better reporting or more
usable or actionable reporting.
using recycled material as lower than that ofassumption that the recycling is done
impacts: repair, reuse, rentals, creating
repair,
rent,
reuse
and
long-lastingproducts,
according to best practices as research has
long lasting products and styles, and using
since recycling doesn’t necessarily lead toshown that poor mechanisms for recycling
recycled fibres. All these five strategies
24
a lowered use of natural resources andmaterials can in fact cause them to be more
impact on all of the boundaries as they
reduced emissions.
energy demanding than the production oflower the pressure on resource extraction.
We
also
base
this
assessmentonthevirgin materials (Zamani, 2016).
We, however, consider the positive impact of

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47

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

3.2 Houdini’s current fibre use
As seen in the pie chart and table below
virgin and recycled polyester (from PET
bottles) constitute 33% each of the total
fibre use (in kg), polyamide is the second
largest with 20%, followed by wool with13%. Elastane use constitutes 5% of thetotal use. These numbers are used below
when choosing which fibres to focus on in
the further analysis.
3.3 Selection of materials for this analysis
A total of six fibres were included in thispilot study. Three fibres were chosen on

account of being the most used in Houdini’s
collections: virgin polyester, recycled polyester and polyamide. In addition to these
we also chose to focus on fibres that havebeen identified by Houdini as potentiallyinteresting for the future, to investigate what
an increase of use would mean: lyocell andFigure 6: Pie chart showing the most important materials Houdini use (2014.05.01-2015.04.30). Houdini labels 27%
out of the 33% polyester ”transitional”, since they are currently converting from virgin to recycled fibres. Similarly, 15%
out of the polyamide is being converted.

1,36%

Table 2: Total consumption of fibres in kg and percent for Houdini during the period
2014.05.01-2015.04.30.

0,08% (Kevlar)
0,69%
0,13% (Wool)

12,94%

wool. As a reference fibre, we also include
cotton in the analysis, as it is often depicted
as an environmental villain and Houdini
has taken an active stand to not use it in anyof their garments.

4,92%

4,06%

KevlarElastanMerino wool
Lambswool
20,23%

20,60%

FIBRE

Kevlar

44,72%

0,08%

KevlarElastan

2846,14

4,92%

ElastanMerino2347,37

4,06%

MerinoLambswool

396,240,69%

Lambswool

75,5

0,13%

Wool

Polyamide

Polyamide

11697,22

20,23%Polyamide

Polyester

Polyester

19401,34

33,55%Polyester

828,13

1,43%

PTT Polyester

Chemical recycled polyester

11911,83

20,60%

Chemical recycled polyester

Mechanical recycled polyester

7484,64

12,94%

Mechanical recycled polyester

Silk

787,85

1,36%

Silk

Mechanical recycled polyesterSilk

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

CONSUMPTION (%)

Wool

Chemical recycled polyester

33,55%

CONSUMPTION (KG)

Wool

PTT Polyester

1,43%

FIBRE

PTT Polyester

48

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

3.4 Environmental impact of theselected materials:
CottonThe environmental effects of cotton farming
are notorious and have been investigatedin a large number of previous studies (e.g.
Cherrett and others, 2005; van der Velden
and others, 2014). Conventional cotton isgrown in large monocultures that cover vast
areas of land and are treated with chemical
pesticides and fertilisers to prevent crop losses to disease or pests and promote growth.
Cotton is also a water-intensive crop often
requiring extensive irrigation, and often
grown in areas of the world where water
scarcity is an issue.
When it comes to the release of greenhouse gases, LCA studies have reported
considerable differences between different
conventional cotton farms. For example,
Wang and others (2015) studied farming insix different provinces in China, with impact
per functional unit (“fibres for pure cotton
shirt of weight 0.28 kg”) spanning from 1.5 to
16.2 kg CO2-eq. Other LCAs report numbers
as low as 0.6 kg and as high as 6 kg CO2-eq
per kg of cotton (Muthu and others, 2012;
Bevilacqua and others, 2014), and an attempt
for a global average lands on about 1.9 kg
CO2-eq per kg (Cotton Incorporated 2012).
Organic cotton
In recent years several initiatives haveemerged to find ways of producing cottonwith a lower environmental impact. Organic
cotton is produced from non-genetically modified seeds and without the use of pesticides
or synthetic fertilisers, often using practices
that aim to enhance biodiversity. Crop rotation and mixed cultivation are examples ofmethods that are used to increase soil fertility
and decrease the occurrence of pests.
The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)(bettercotton.org/) has attracted many larger
clothing chains and other retailers who want
to help move the industry towards moresustainable practices. BCI is not strictly
organic, but is a step away from intensive
conventional cotton farming. BCI promotes
the adoption of Integrated Pest Management
strategies, minimising input of synthetic
pesticides and fertilisers but not necessarily
eliminating them altogether. BCI-farmers
are also required to care for the health of
the soil, conserve natural habitats, use water
effectively and promote decent work while
promoting the quality of the fibre produced.
LCA studies have shown significant
differences in impact between conventionaland organic cotton. One study found thatenergy demands are reduced by 62% andthe global warming potential, measured as
CO2 equivalents per tonne produced fibre,
is lowered by 46% in organic compared
to conventional cotton (Textile exchange,2014). The acidification potential of organically grown cotton is also significantly lower,

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

with a 70% decrease of SO2 equivalents
emitted, this could have implications for theocean acidification boundary.
The same study (Textile exchange,2014) concluded that water use, if rainfall
is excluded, is reduced from 2120 m3 per
tonne cotton fibre in conventional cotton to
182 m3 per tonne cotton lint fibre in organic
production. As is stated in the study however, the need for irrigation is by and largea result of climatic factors and cannot be
attributed only to organic farming methods.
However, the big difference in irrigationshows that the geographic location of the
production matters.

down long chains of hydrocarbons (cracking) in crude oil to make shorter and more
useful chains; separating the different products of the cracking and chemically treatingthem to obtain desired polymers; andfinally spinning the polymers into filaments,
threads of fibre that can be used in fabricproduction.
Recent studies have highlighted potential
dangers of microplastic emissions causing
pollution in marine environments (e.g. Law
and Thompson, 2014), for instance fromtiny particles of polyester garments as they
detach during laundry and are too small tobe picked up in water treatment facilities.

PolyesterIn the textiles industry polyester is one of
the most produced and used fibres. The
fibre was produced for the first time in 1941and because of properties such as stretch
resistance, durability and low water absorption it has since then become a favourite
synthetic fibre in fashion as well as industry.
Polyester is used in everything from plastic
bottles and tyre reinforcements to underwear and performance fabrics.
Virgin polyester is produced from crude
oil through a process that is highly energy
demanding and often causes emission ofchemicals to both air and water, impacting
several of the planetary boundaries: water,
climate, aerosols, ocean acidification, andnovel entities. The process includes breaking

Recycled polyester
Most recycled polyester is produced fromplastic bottles. The general idea is to use
plastic bottles that have passed through several cycles of consumer use and then been
handed in and taken care of at a recycling
station. In certain instances, however, it
has been revealed that polyester recycling
facilities have placed orders for unused plastic bottles to be delivered straight from theproduction industry (Oekotextiles, 2009).
Needless to say, in this unfortunate casethe environmental benefits of the recycledmaterial are lost, and the resulting material
has a worse environmental impact thanvirgin polyester due to the added production
loop. There are two main ways of recycling
polyester, mechanically and chemically.

49

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

Chemical recycling
DMT stands for dimethyl terephthalate,and it is the intermediate chemical in
manufacturing of polyester. Patagonia hasdone a quantitative comparison of threepossible “DMT manufacturing scenarios”
together with Japanese supplier Teijin. The
comparison evaluated the energy use andgreenhouse gas emissions that result fromthe following three scenarios: (1) Virgin
Process: Teijin’s production of polyester
from virgin materials; (2) Locally Recycled
Process: Teijin’s production of polyester
using chemically recycled garments that werecollected locally; and (3) Recycled Capilene
Process: Teijin’s production of polyester using Patagonia’s chemically recycled Capilene
garments that were collected in the US.

into a polymer, without the use of chemicals.
According to an LCA carried out by the
ICEA (Institute for Ethic and Environmental
Certification) this allows significant savingsin energy use (60%), water consumption(94%) and CO2 emissions (60%) comparedto virgin polyester fibres production (see illustration matrix below; numbers given for the
production of 1 kg of polyester fibre) (Newlife, 2017). Others have also found environmental benefits with bottle-to-fibre recycling(Shen and others, 2012; Spathas 2017).
Though recycled polyester uses significantly less energy than virgin polyester, andalso does not to the same extent contributeto extraction of non-renewable resources
there are some issues with the material froman environmental point of view. The colourof recycled polyester before being dyed will
vary, making it more difficult to achieve
consistency in colour in the produced material. This can lead to a more excessive useof chemicals in the dye process or repeated
re-dyes to achieve the desired result.
With current technology polyester
fibres can be recycled numerous times, but
not infinitely, and if not recycled they will
eventually end up as waste in landfills or

Figure 7: The results from an LCA carried out by the Institute for Ethic and Environmental Certification, comparing
virgin and recycled polyester fibre production.

Their results for the productionof fibres were:l Virgin Process = 4.18 metric tons CO /2
metric ton of DMTl Locally Recycled = 0.98 metric tons
CO2 /metric ton of DMT
l Recycled Capilene Process = 0.98 metrictons CO2 /metric ton of DMT
Mechanical recycling
For mechanically recycled polyester, most of
the material Houdini used 2014-2015 comesfrom the supplier Newlife in Italy (54% in2014). Newlife’s recycling is based on a mechanical process to transform plastic bottles

incinerators, or in nature. Moreover, the factthat fabrics are often blends, mixing polyester with other fibres (such as polyamide orelastane), makes recycling significantly moredifficult. Mechanical recycling of polyester
cannot yet separate different kinds of fibres
to make new recycled yarn of 100% polyester (Oekotextiles, 2009).
Wool
The story of wool from a planetary boundaries perspective is complex. Even thoughwool is a natural fibre, in every stage of production, from breeding sheep to mothproofing garments, the wool industry does have anumber of impacts on land, climate, air, andwater. Most LCAs show that the greenhousegases released from wool production, mainly
as methane produced from the sheep’s
digestive system, by far exceed the numbers
for other fibres (e.g. Wiedemann and others,2016). As far as industry responsibility goes,the emissions should be divided between
wool and meat production, but even so theyremain high.
While the release of methane fromsheep is not from a fossil source, but rather
biogenic and, in a way, part of a natural carbon cycle, the question could be raised how
many sheep there are room for in the worldfrom a climate change perspective – andwhether the many benefits of wool outweighits climate impact. There is also a numberof concerns when it comes to ethics, since

Figure 7: The results from an LCA carried out by the Institute for Ethic and Environmental Certification, comparing virginand recycled polyester fibre production.
A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

Others have also found environmental benefits with bottle-to-fibre recycling (Shen and others,
2012; Spathas 2017).

50

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

a number of cases of animal cruelty havecome to light in the wool industry, for example through mulesing, a practise that aims
to prevent infection from parasitic blowflies
known as “flystrike”, by removing skin fromthe sheep’s buttocks. In addition, unsustainable grazing in very high stock numbers cancause vegetation change and soil erosion.
On the other hand, combining grazing withconservation efforts could become a way forbusinesses to not only decrease their negative impact, but in contrast have a positiveeffect on landscape, biodiversity and the ecosystem services it produces (Kviseth, 2011).
Hence, sustainable levels of sheep farming
can contribute to keeping landscapes open
and even restore degraded grasslands. Such
revival of grasslands could also be beneficialfrom a socio-economic point of view, e.g.
help keep sheep ranching alive as an important, but currently threatened, livelihood.
So, it is crucial to make sure that the scale ofthe operations does not outgrow the abilityof the land to sustain them.
Given that wool is produced with highanimal ethical standards and in a way thatallows grazing and trampling to regeneratesoils, strengthen ecosystem services andbuild biodiversity, a trade-off still has to bemade between these benefits and the emission of the potent greenhouse gas methane.
ZQ-wool
ZQ is an accreditation programme designed

to assure a higher standard of environmental,social and economic sustainability as well asanimal welfare. The accreditation is awarded
after an audit process that is performed byAsure Quality New Zealand Ltd, a government owned 3rd party auditing body.
To receive the accreditation, farmers
are required to provide the ZQ organisation
with land management plans that address
water, soil and hazardous waste for a 3rdparty audit. ZQ also requires that farmers
provide for five animal welfare freedoms:
1. Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition; 2. Provision of appropriate
comfort and shelter; 3. Prevention, or rapid
diagnosis and treatment of injury, diseaseor infestation with parasites; 4. Freedom
from distress; and, 5. Ability to display
normal patterns of behaviour. Mulesing is
prohibited, as is international shipping oflive animals, and the farmers are required tohave an animal health plan.
Polyamide
Polyamide has long been seen as a cheap
alternative to natural fabrics. Since it wasinvented some 80 years ago, it has been usedin everything from violin strings to fabrics
to automobile tires. However, manufacturing polyamide products depends heavily onlarge amounts of crude oil. This means that
production of polyamide is energy and water
intensive with impacts on the climate, water,
aerosol and ocean acidification planetary

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

boundaries. Another main ingredient is
Lyocell/Tencel®
adipic acid. Producing the acid was once
Tencel, one of the trademark names of lyocell
the largest source of industrial nitrous oxidefibres, is produced by Lenzing. The raw(N2O), a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times
material for Tencel and other lyocell fibres
more potent than carbon dioxide. Since theis cellulose from wood. Wood is turned into
phasing out of CFCs, N2O has become one
wood chips and then to wood pulp mechanof the most ozone-depleting substances. Adically. The cellulose in the wood pulp is
ipic acid emissions were reduced by 61% bethen extracted using a solvent, in the case of
tweenLyocell
1990 andTencel®
2006, according to the U.S.
Tencel the solvent used is a water soluble, bi- Formaterat: En
Borttaget: Tenc
Environmental
Agency(2008).
odegradable,
calledN-MethylmorphoTencel, oneProtectionof the trademark
namesof lyocell fibres,
is producedsolvent
by Lenzing.
Therawmaterial
for Tencel
and otherfor
lyocellfrom wood.
Wood
is turnedprocess
into wood
But thechemicalstill accounts
5-8%fibres
of is cellulose
line N-oxide.
The
extraction
results Formaterat: En
chips
and
then
to
wood
pulp
mechanically.
Thecellulose
in
the
wood
pulp
is
then
extracted
global human-caused emissions of N2O.
in a solution from which water is evaporated.
using a solvent, in the case of Tencel the solvent used is a water soluble, biodegradable,
Anotherproblemisthatpolyamideistheir tencel
in a closed
solvent called N-Methylmorpholine N-oxide. TheLenzing
extractionproduce
process results
in a solution
from loop
which
water
is
evaporated.
more difficult to recycle than polyester. After
process in which they manage to recycle more
years of research, development, and testing,than 99% of the solvent used.
Lenzing produce their tencel in a closed loop process in which they manage to recycle more
there thanare nowsomerecycledpolyamide
fibresThe production process for Tencel is
99% all of the solvent used.
that are suitable for apparel (Patagonia, 2017). described by Lenzing in the diagram below:
The production process for Tencel is described by Lenzing in the diagram below:

FigureThe production
process
Tencelasasdescribed
described bylenzing.com,
2016-09-27)
Figure 8:
The8:production
process
forforTencelby Lenzing.
Lenzing.(Image:(Image:lenzing.com,
2016-09-27)

3.5 Impacts of the fibres along the value chain

51

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

3.5 Impacts of the fibres along
the value chain
Houdini’s impact on the planetary boundaries occurs along the many steps of thevalue chain:
DesignRaw material
Fabrics and yarn production
Garment production
Transport
Sales
Use
Recycling
In this planetary boundaries analysis wehave concentrated on the first parts: raw material and fibre production, trying to assess
whether fibres are sustainably sourced andproduced. It is, however, important to notethat for e.g. climate, the customer care, garment production and transportation steps
can have as large, or even larger, impact thanthe other steps. Thus, it is crucial for future
strategies to also include these steps in orderfor Houdini to be as sustainable as possible
from a planetary boundaries perspective.
Regardless of what fibre is chosen, certain steps will be taken to turn the fibre into
garments. These steps include for instanceyarn spinning, weaving or knitting, dying,assembling and sewing the garment. These
steps are important to consider in trying
to decrease the impact on the planetary
boundaries processes. For instance, yarn size

FIBRE

CLIMATE

BIO-DIVERSITY

PHOSPHORUS/NITROGEN

LAND

WATER

OZONE

OCEAN ACIDNOVEL ENTITIESProxykg CO2 eq/kg
ﬁbre

Happy/ neutral/sad (q)kg phosphateeq/
kg ﬁbreHappy/ neutral/sad (q)Litres water/
kg ﬁbrekg CFC11 eq/
kg ﬁbreConventional cotton

1.9 (p)0.0038 (a)0.022 (b)2130 (a)3.1E-7 (n)?

?

Organic cotton

0.98 (a)0.0028 (a)182 (a)?

?

?

Virgin polyester

8.5 (d)0.0012 (b)130 (b)0.7E-7 (b)?

?

Chemicallyrecycled polyester

0.98 (f) – 2.59(o)0.0023 (o)

?

?

?

?

Mechanicallyrecycled polyester

0.96 (o) - 3.88(k)

0.0008 (o)

?

?

?

?

Wool

7-37 (c)0.012 (n)279-721 (h,g)

5.1E-7 (n)0.6-1.8 (g)?

ZQ wool

11 (c)

?

?

?

?

?

Polyamide (6/66)

9.5 (i)0.007-0.008(h)663 (h)0.9E-7 (m) (N6)?

?

Lyocell

1.1 (b)0.0018 (b)263 (b)265 (j)1.1E-7 (b)0.07-0.11 g (b)?

?

kg CO2/ kg ﬁbre Happy/ neutral/sad (q)AEROSOLS?

Table 3: A summary of the data inventory, showing the impact of each fibre on the respective boundaries according to selected proxies. References are given in brackets for each measurement and listed below the table.The happy, sad, and neutral faces represent a potential positive, neutral or negative effect, according to the qualitative analysis. NB: this is a pilot study,
meaning that the data and the qualitative assessments are preliminary and subject to discussions and future refinement. For polyester production the impacts on land use change are primarily linked to oil extraction. Unless it is produced from tar sands or fracking, oil extraction generally does not occupy vast tracts of land, in comparison to for example cotton or sheep
farming. For biodiversity, some of the effects of polyester are linked to land use, but in addition there are issues to consider regarding the release of non-degradable waste and microplastics. These aspects are important both in the case of virgin and recycled polyester, at a later stage in the life cycle. The full scope of effects from microplastic waste is still unknown, but the
research field is growing and there is good reason to adhere to the precautionary principle. In the qualitative analysis of these two boundaries we have considered the land use impact of all
three types of polyester to be “neutral” or rather “intermediate”. In comparison to the other fibres the production does not stick out, however it cannot be said to be beneficial either.

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A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

PLAN
ETA
RY

3.6 Data inventory
Initially the aim was to base this analysis
on data specific to Houdini¹s suppliers. A
value chain questionnaire was designed andsent out to the suppliers of the materials selected. The data returned from the suppliers
were however deemed to be incomplete andnot sufficient as a basis for this analysis.
To account for impacts as accurately as possible, the comparisons below are based on an
inventory of data in external reports, mostoften life cycle assessment (LCA) studies.
However, not all boundaries are accounted for in a sufficient manner in theexisting data, and therefore some boundaries were qualitatively assessed and some had
to be excluded from the assessment (see figure 9). Parallel, a next generation questionnaire was initiated to enable a more efficientand secure way of acquiring, processing andanalyzing data.
Examples are presented in Appendix IV.
The complete questionnaires can be madeavailable at request.
Table 3 presents a summary of the results

Novel
ES
entitiesI
R OzoneDA acidiﬁcation

Water
accessAerosols

Incomeand work
Education

Ozone

Networks

DATION
OUN
LF
CIA
SO

as well as production model (knitting or weaving) will lead to different impacts. A study byvan der Velden (2014) found that knitting,overall, is a better option than weaving froman environmental point of view, but also thatthe total impact of yarn spinning and weaving/knitting is a function of yarn size. The
thinner the yarn the higher the impact.

BO
UN

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

Figure 9: The figure
shows which fibres andboundaries that havebeen assessed in thereport, qualitatively or
quantitatively, as well as
which steps of the value
chain have been covered
for the respective fibres.

Political
voice

Water

Land

Housing

EnergyaccessP/N

SocialequityBiodiversity

ClimateGender

HealthFood

DesignRawmaterial
Fabricproduction

Recycling
Garment
production

Transport

VAL
UE CH

AIN

Sales

Use

Quantitative assessment
Qualitative assessment
No assessment

53

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

from the data inventory and the qualitative
assessment. The numbers presented in thetable are those deemed most suitable for thisanalysis based on the assessed accuracy of the
LCA studies and their applicability to the caseof Houdini. For example, the data on climate
impact from wool production is a global
average, as Houdini imports wool from morethan one country, whereas that for ZQ wool
represents wool from New Zealand, as the ZQ
certification scheme is based there.
Two boundaries were excluded from theanalysis: ocean acidification and aerosol loading. This was done due to a lack of data bothon what the proxy for the boundaries should
be and on impacts from the textile industry.
For ocean acidification one possible proxy
would be the same as for climate change, as
CO2 is the key compound in the process.
However, other emissions also play a partand were deemed significant enough to makediscounting them in an assessment problematic. The assessment of impact on threeof the boundaries (biosphere integrity, landsystem change and novel entities) are qualitative in nature, for a number of reasons:
Biosphere integrity: There is no known
adequate LCA proxy, or collection of proxies
for the boundary. Synergy effects of different
impacts can be assumed but remain unknowable in size and significance. The qualitative
assessment is a combination of insights anddata around land transformation, farming
practices and chemical use.

Land system change: A straightforward
proxy might seem to be hectares/tonne fibre
produced, however it is more complex thanthat. Wool provides an illustrative example:
If sheep are kept on large enough areas ofland, in an extensive production fashion,
their grazing and trampling can serve torestore degraded land and even contribute toincreasing biodiversity.
If, however, they are kept in narrow enclosures the impact on the land, long-term, ismore likely to be negative. The reality is thenthe inverse of what the proxy hectares/tonne
fibre would tell us.
Similarly, for cotton or lyocell production, extensive rather than intensive production could produce more benefits and be lessharmful. Impact, in other words, depends
largely on the management of the production system.
Novel entities: The novel entity planetary
boundary has yet to be quantified. There is
still great uncertainty regarding how muchchemical and particulate pollution the Earthsystem can cope with.
However, it is known that chemical pollution is a growing problem. Therefore, thereasoning is that the precautionary principle
should apply, and though no exact measurement can been found on the sum total of all
toxic effects, the fibres have been assessed
based on a qualitative estimate from the literature of how severe chemical pollution they
contribute to.

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References:a) Textile Exchange, 2014.
b) Shen L, Worrell E, Patel MK, 2010.
c) Wiedeman et al. 2015.
d) Ecoinvent, 2016.
f) Patagonia: Patagonia’s Common Threads Garment Recycling Program: A Detailed Analysis.
g) Wiedemann, S.G et al. 2016h) DEFRA, 2010.
i) Van der Velden, N. M., Patel, M. K., &Vogtländer, J. G. 2014.
j) Textile Exchange. 2016.
k) Newlife 2017m) Roos et al 2015 + databas Ecoinvent 2.2n) Ecoinvent, 2017. Ecoinvent 3.3 database.
Characterised in GaBi 6, using ReCiPe 1.08
Midpoint (H).
o) Shen L, Worrell E, Patel MK, 2010.
p) Cotton Incorporated, 2012.
q) These are qualitative assessments made by
the authors of this report and based on aliterature review and interviews with key
stakeholders (scientists and practitioners).
Key references include: DEFRA, 2010 (bio­diversity, land-use and novel entities); Textile
exchange, 2014 (novel entities, land use);
Van der Velden and others, 2014 (land use,novel entities); Wiedemann and others, 2016
(land use); Roos and others, 2015, 2016,2017 (biodiversity, land use, novel entities).

54

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

3.7 Comparison of Houdini’s fibres froma planetary boundaries perspective
This section has compared the effects ofdifferent fibres on planetary boundaries,
based on the inventory data presented in theprevious section. This data serves as a proxy
for the different fibres’ potential large-scale
impacts on planetary boundary processes,
but does not make it possible to analyse thelocal level environmental effects of the actual

fibres used in Houdini’s own value chains.
The analysis is limited to the productionof fibre. Where sufficient and specific data
has been found, the fibres are compared
quantitatively. For three of the planetary
boundaries (novel entities, land-systemchange and biosphere integrity), the impact from fibre production is complex andcurrently not satisfactorily represented in
LCA measures, in these instances we haveconducted a qualitative comparison basedon a range of information sources (see table3). Two boundaries (atmospheric aerosol
loading and ocean acidification) have been
excluded from the analysis as data was insufficient and indicators not adequately known.
Impacts that result from transportation
or garment manufacturing have more to
do with decisions related to the choice ofcontractors; where should production takeClimateplace and under what conditions? This is
not necessarily directly related to the type offibre and has therefore been excluded fromthis analysis.
The bar charts below (Figure 10-13)
illustrate the data from table 3, comparing
the fibres’ impact on the four boundaries forwhich quantitative data was available. In the
instances where the data presents a numericspan we have used the average in the table.

Phosphorus / Nitrogen

25

Figure 10: Bar chart comparing
the climate impact of the nine analysed fibres in kg CO2 eq/kg fibre.

20
15

0,014

Figure 11: Bar chart comparing theeutrophication of the nine analysedfibres in kg phosphate eq/kg fibre.
Data missing for ZQ wool.

0,012
0,01
0,008
0,006

10

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A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

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Figure 13: Bar chart comparing theozone depletion impact of the nine
analysed fibres in kg E-7 CFC11 eq/ kg
fibre. Data missing for organic cotton,chemically recycled polyester, mechanically recycled polyester and ZQ wool.

5

lye

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Figure 12: Bar chart comparing thewater use (blue water withdrawal) of
the nine analysed fibres in litres water/kg fibre. Data missing for chemically recycled polyester, mechanicallyrecycled polyester and ZQ wool.

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55

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

4. Discussion
4.1 General discussion
Being the first of its kind, this pilot study
must by necessity be considered only a firststep towards a more robust method foranalysing corporate impacts on planetary
boundaries. A next generation value chain
questionnaire based on block chain has
been developed, enabling a more efficientand secure way of acquiring, processing andanalyzing data. Examples are presented inAppendix IV.
Another important realisation is that it
is at present very difficult to get sufficiently
good and reliable data from all suppliers to
conduct a complete quantitative comparison of the actual fibres in use in Houdini’s
production. From the data that was gathered
it was clear that suppliers are not used toproviding the kind of quantifiable data that
was asked for in the questionnaire. The answers provided often contained incomplete
data or inconsistent metrics. Because of
these difficulties, we have in this study had
to rely on data from external reports whenanalysing a selection of the fibres Houdini
use. Even such data has proven difficult tofind for metrics relevant to some of the planetary boundaries, and this will be elaborated
further down in the discussion.
Nonetheless, it is clear that Houdini has
already implemented an ambitious sustainability strategy. From a planetary boundaries

perspective, it is promising that Houdini isincreasingly implementing circular lifecycle
approaches as these tend to have an overall
positive effect, decreasing the company’s
impact on more or less all the planetary
boundaries.
These circular economy strategies, whichmost often are positive for all the planetary boundaries, include: using recycled or
renewable fibres, a closed-loop garmentrecycling program; offering services such as
rental and repairs as well as second handresale (reuse). Timeless, durable design for
multi-functionality is another key ingredient in this kind of thinking, which might
contribute to more “slow fashion”-thinking
and customers who prefer to buy a few
loved garments, instead of promoting “fastfashion”-consumption as a way of living.
The environmental benefits of prolonging
the service life of clothing have been shownin numerous LCA studies (see e.g. Farrant
and others, 2010; Roos and others, 2015;
Schmidt and others, 2016; Dahlbo and others, 2017). It is, however, important to notethat recycling of fibres does have effects on
the planetary boundaries (e.g. water, novel
entities, and climate change) every time
the fibres go through the recycling loop ofcollection, transportation, manual/chemical
recycling and fabric and garment production(see e.g. Zamani, 2016).
One benefit of using the planetary
boundaries framework in assessing environ-A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

mental impact is that it makes visible factors
and aspects that have often been forgotten.
Each one of the nine boundaries highlights
an area to consider, and the addition of thesocial boundaries indicates what conditions
are acceptable for people working along the
production chain.
4.2 The comparison of different fibres
From this pilot study it is clear that nofibre is perfect from a planetary boundaries
perspective. For example, virgin polyester
tends to require small amounts of water toproduce, but is very energy intensive anduses non-renewable crude oil as raw material.
Using recycled polyester significantly decreases the use of energy as well as the emissionsof greenhouse gases (as long as the “recycled”
polyester is not made from unused bottles
directly from bottle producing companies,
which has been reported in some cases).
Likewise, wool can be produced in a mannerthat contributes to enhancing biodiversity.
However, from a climate perspective carbon
dioxide and methane emissions are still high.
Throughout this study we have analysedfibres with data from various LCAs andit is worth noting that the world of LCAs
includes differences and disagreements one.g. metrics and system boundaries. Kviseth(2011) even claim that “LCAs can be manipulated within acceptable methodologicallimits to give a wanted result. You get what
you pay for.” Overly unjust manipulations

are, however, supposed to be stopped by
the commissioner if the LCA study follows
the ISO standard in terms of transparency.
Moreover, not all differences reflect disagreements. There is often a reason for different
metrics and system boundaries in various
LCAs, as they reflect different goals andscopes of the studies.
Moreover, LCAs might also underestimate the overall benefits of some natural
fibres, as some ecosystem services provided
by their cultivation are difficult to quantify.
For example, “annual fibre crops such as
flax or hemp, are valuable break crops inarable rotations and, with the exception ofcotton, help to reduce the overall burden of
agricultural production on the environment,
as they have lower fertiliser and agrochemical requirements than most arable crops”(DEFRA, 2010).
Kviseth (2011) also points out that an
LCA is dependent on specific scientific competence and data tools and is not a convenient tool for designers and small companies.
Moreover, LCAs tend to be used to compare
negative environmental impacts rather
than as a basis for improvements and new
designs. Another drawback is that differences in individual company performances are
not necessarily visible in LCAs, since they
are mainly performed with global data andindustry averages. For example, energy-intensive fibres, such as polyester, are prone tovariations in the means of electricity pro-56

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

duction (fossil fuels vs renewable) between
different geographical locations. Similarly,
natural fibres, such as cotton, are prone tovariations in land management practices
and water scarcity.
Some LCAs assess “abiotic depletion”,
that is the depletion of non-renewable
resources, e.g. fossil fuels. For polyester, thismeans a divide between virgin and recycledmaterial. The use of crude oil products
as a basis for polyester production meansthat fossil resources are extracted from theground. The use of a non-renewable resource in virgin polyester production is inother words an important factor, alongside
the reductions in CO2 emissions, water
use and energy that recycled polyester canachieve compared to virgin, provided thebest available recycling practices are adopted(as in the case of Newlife for example).
Another interesting result of this pilot
study is the effect on land use from wool
production. Using the simplistic metricof total land use/kg product results in ahigh value assigned to wool products madefrom the fibres of extensively grazing sheep.
However, other important measures of land
use may give very different scores, e.g. use ofarable land. Often sheep can use land thatis not suitable for crop production, and may
even have a positive effect on biodiversity
and ecosystem services from the land beinggrazed (e.g. Ripoll-Bosch and others, 2013).
There is also the matter of emission

allocation. A study by DEFRA (2010) statesthat “[w]ool has a very high land demand,
but wool is also a by-product of meat production and utilises land that is unsuited
to crop production, particularly in extensively grazed systems”. They refer to otherstudies that suggest that both energy inputs
and land demand could be allocated by up
to 60% to meat production. This significantly reduces the proportion allocated towool production, but compared to fibres
from other plant-derived sources, the landdemand for wool is still very high. The study
by DEFRA suggests that lyocell/Tencel and
PLA (polylactic acid fibres; bio-based polyester replacements made by e.g. corn, sugar
beets or wheat) would deliver the highest
saving in CO2 emissions/hectare because of
their high productivity per hectare and theirrelatively low energy demands.
It is however important to note thateven though lyocell production is associatedwith a relatively low land use requirement
per tonne produced fibre, compared towool production, this simplistic measurefails to include other important qualitative
aspects of land use. DEFRA (2010) points
out that “increasing eucalyptus plantations
is not without problems as such plantations
commonly have little other biodiversity
value, and the leaf litter can be a potential
fire hazard in dry climates.”Also, this measure does not capture
time, which is a flaw for some measures of

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productivity used in LCA studies. When
comparing different annual or bi-annual
crops, this is not a problem, but when comparing for example regenerated man-madefibres made from wood pulp (e.g. viscose,
Tencel) with cotton, time must be considered. For cotton, harvests are at least annual,
whereas eucalyptus trees take several years ofgrowth before they are harvested, and trees
from temperate or boreal forests can take up
to 100 years. Therefore, if a simple productivity-based metric is used to compare such
fibres, it should be in terms of kg product/hectare/year.
The ability to satisfactorily measureland use, and particularly the subsequent
impact on biodiversity, is in fact one of themain gaps in LCA methodology. There aremany reasons for why it is difficult to measure biodiversity in an LCA framework, forexample the fact that there are many kindsof biodiversity (diversity of species, genetics,
functions, ecosystems), which do not necessarily correlate, and the inherent difficulty infinding universal metrics for impact that is
local in nature and caused by a multitude ofstressors (Curran and others., 2011; Koellner
and others, 2013). Therefore, there is still
little consistency and consensus in how tomeasure biodiversity in LCAs. Because of
the lack of methods for accounting for land
use change and biodiversity loss in LCA, it
may be neglected in corporate sustainability
decision-making (Egorova and others, 2014).

Eventually, biodiversity might need to beassessed through a broad and diverse set ofindicators. Another option is to settle with“mid-point indicators” (e.g. land-use or nutrient pollution) which influence biodiversity.
The climate effect of wool is also worth
discussing in further detail. The effect islarge because of the release of methane,but comparing it to the release of carbon
dioxide from virgin polyester or chemicalfertiliser production in conventional cotton
is sometimes argued to be unfair because
there is a difference between the greenhousegases released from grazing sheep and thoseemitted when burning fossil fuels. Sheep actively participate in the carbon cycle by eating plants that have captured carbon dioxidefrom the air through photosynthesis. The
burning of fossil fuels, on the other hand,adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere that
otherwise would have stayed in the ground.
However, though grazing sheep are naturally
occurring in landscapes, drastically increasing industrial wool production around theworld would vastly increase the number ofsheep with effects on global greenhouse gas
emissions. Thus the climate impact fromwool production is very much a question ofscale; what could work at a limited scale is
not necessarily a viable large-scale solution
for the clothing industry. Thus the sustainability of wool use in an individual company, such as Houdini, cannot be assessed57

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

solely based on a simple metric compiled
at a certain moment in time. It must becontinuously evaluated based both on thecircumstances surrounding a specific wool
producer (the local perspective) and thedevelopment of the wool industry as a whole(the global perspective).
4.3 Comparison between boundaries
One of the strengths of a planetary boundaries approach in an impact analysis is its
holistic nature, as has been pointed out
before. It accounts for a range of processes
and systems that have been identified byresearchers as key to the stability and resilience of the Earth system. Having said that,prioritising between the boundaries might
still be an important step in making strategic
decisions for the future. In this analysis, wehave compared the impact of nine fibres
relative to one another, rather than assessing
their quantitative impact on each respective
planetary boundary. We chose this approachfor several reasons: Several boundaries have
not yet been quantified meaning that wewould be at a loss in trying to position an
impact against a boundary. There is also
great difficulty in awarding “fair shares” tonations, industries, companies or individuals – rather than positioning a view on what
Houdini as a company is “entitled to” wedecided to compare the fibres to find theone with the lowest impact on each boundary. This also makes sense in light of Houd-ini’s expressed goal to have zero or a positive
impact in the end, and not to appropriate
their entitled share of impact.
However, there is also a point in comparing the magnitude of the impacts andaccounting for the urgency of each boundary. For example, the climate boundary has
already been transgressed and has also been
identified as a “core boundary”, impacting
on and being impacted by all the others.
The impact on the climate boundary fromthe textiles industry also appears to besignificant in a global perspective. We are
however still in the “safe operating space” ofthe ozone depletion boundary, and the textile industry appears to be a relatively small
contributor globally. Given this, a trade-off
should be made when making decisions on
investments for future production, taking
into account not only the relative impactsof the fibres but also the relative urgency todecrease pressure on a boundary and theimpact of the textiles industry as a whole on
the boundary. Taking measures that result in
decreased pressure on the climate boundary
might then be prioritised over decreasingpressure on the ozone boundary.
4.4 Scaling down the boundaries
The planetary boundaries are just that –planetary. The boundaries are given on a
global scale, and while some of them aretruly global, for example climate change,others need to be looked at also on a more

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

local scale. The boundary for freshwater use
is an example:
On a global scale the Steffen and others’(2015) paper on the updated Planetary
Boundaries concludes that we remain within
the safe operating space for freshwater use.
However, the water boundary is one that differs greatly on local scales, and though theworld as a whole remains within the boundary, water scarcity and droughts are facts oflife in many places on the globe. This is alsoemphasised by Steffen and others, whose(2015) paper features a world map of moreregional water vulnerabilities associated withhow much water can be claimed for humanuse at the river basin scale without risking
irreversible ecosystem degradation.
In textile production, different steps inthe production chain will lead to different
kinds of impacts. In wool production for example, impacts on climate, biodiversity andland use are the biggest in rearing sheep,
whereas impacts related to novel entities
are bigger in the scouring and dyeing of thewool. Water will be required all throughout
the chain, and for this boundary it becomeskey to geographically trace and quantify theuse. For a local assessment of the impact on
the water boundary there are accounting
tools, such as the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct, which can be useful andcomplemented by additional measurements.
Where water is taken from and used isimportant as it impacts both ecosystems andpeople locally. Even though company targets
can benefit from using Sustainable Development Goals (such as SDG6 on water) asa reference point, it is crucial that they also
account for the scientific understanding ina specific local basin. Such “context-specificwater targets” must for instance take into
account if company activities jeopardise theaccess to improved drinking water or adequate sanitation for people who rely on thesame water source as the fibre production,
garment manufacturing or dyeing of clothes.
Hence, corporate water targets must not
only be based on best available knowledge
on hydrological and ecological conditions at
the basin level, they also need to be informed by local people’s needs, and alignedwith local to global public policy objectives(CDP and others, 2016).
One result of this analysis was findingthat this type of locally specific data is noteasily accessible. While suppliers were generally cooperative in answering the questionnaire we sent out, gathering coherent data forcomparison was a difficult task. It is obviousthat there is currently no common practice ofgathering or sharing this type of information.
Not having access to complete data from
Houdini’s suppliers we chose to use information found in LCAs and other externalreports for our analysis. This type of LCA
data do provide a first estimation of Houdini’s impact on the planetary boundaries on
a global scale, but does not make it possible

58

(e.g., stabilising the climate system requires sustainable forest management and stable ocean
ecosystems)”.
PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR– Acourse
PILOT has
STUDY
This ofimplications for the clothing industry’s impact on the planetary boundaries

to look at the specific impacts of the actual
fibres used in their own value chain.
4.5 Interactions among theplanetary boundaries
On a planetary scale, there are many interactions among the different planetary
boundaries (see figure 14 where biosphere
integrity [biodiversity] and climate change isplaced in the middle to show the numerous
linkages among boundaries). Steffen andothers (2015) emphasise that the planetary
boundaries research shows that Earth is asingle, complex, integrated system where theboundaries interact in ways that can createstabilising or destabilising feedbacks. They
go on to conclude that “this has profound
implications for global sustainability, because
it emphasises the need to address multiple
interacting environmental processes simultaneously (e.g., stabilising the climate system
requires sustainable forest management andstable ocean ecosystems)”.
This of course has implications for theclothing industry’s impact on the planetary
boundaries as it shows that it is not enoughto only concentrate on a few of the boundaries like climate, water and novel entities.
While there may be a need to prioritise
between boundaries this needs to be done
based on an understanding of not only
impact on and status of specific boundaries,
but also of the interactions between boundaries. A narrow focus of the sustainability

as it shows that it is not enough to only concentrate on a few of the boundaries like climate,water and novel entities. While there may be a need to prioritise between boundaries thisneeds to be done based on an understanding of not only impact on and status of specificboundaries, but also of the interactions between boundaries. A narrow focus of thesustainability efforts of an industry might lead to unintended trade-offs if strategies are not
effortsof on
an aindustry
might lead to ofuninmanyboundaries
as possible
the comparibased
holistic understanding
the full set ofboundaries(including
social in
aspectsoftendedtrade-offs
if strategies
are not
basedon minimising
son of different
fibres.
course).
For example,
fervently
focusing
the carbon
footprint of a garment
leadunderstanding
to increased water
use fullor negative
effects on biological diversity. This is why thison amight
holisticof theset
pilot study has tried to include as many boundaries as possible in the comparison of differentof boundaries (including social aspects offibres.

course). For example, fervently focusing on
minimising the carbon footprint of a garment might lead to increased water use or
negative effects on biological diversity. This
is why this pilot study has tried to include as

5. Conclusions: The way
forward

According to the literature, the choice offibre (once conventional cotton is takenout of the equation) tends to be lessimportant from an environmental pointof view than how the fibre is then turned
into fabric and garments. However, as
indicated by this study and others, it does
matter which supplier you choose. Hence,parts of the production chain where
Houdini could really make choices thatmake a difference are in choosing fibre
suppliers and whether the material is knitted or woven, how it is dyed, what coarseness of fibre is used and how the garments
are sewn together. In general, the thinner
the fibre the higher the impact, and knitting has lower impact than weaving.
l The ambition of Houdini’s work on
planetary boundaries and overall sustainability should be to do more good, rather
than to simply minimise the negative effects on planetary boundaries. Fibres thatare climate positive (sequestering more
CO2 than is being released) are being developed, and in light of Houdini’s historyof driving processes for new materials(such as the PFC-free shells) a logical next
step might be to see how Houdini could
contribute to the development of fibreslBased on this pilot study of Houdini Sportswear’s sustainability efforts from a planetary

Figure13: Theinterrelations
betweenplanetaryboundaries,
biosphere
integrity(biodiversity) and climate
Figure14: Theinterrelations
betweenplanetaryboundaries,
withwithbiosphere
integrity(biodiversity)change inthe centre.
and climatechangein the centre.

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

boundaries perspective we see a number ofimportant areas for future investigation andimprovement. They include the following
recommendations:

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PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

that are biodiversity positive or to finding
ways to remove excess nutrients or plastic
particles from the oceans.
l In choosing between materials it may
become necessary to make trade-offs
and prioritise between boundaries. We
suggest prioritisation is awarded to:o The core boundaries: Climate change
and Biosphere integrityo Boundaries that have been crossed orare close to being crossed
o Water, in the sense that water demanding activities should be located to areasthat have sufficient water resourceso Boundaries on which the textile industry as a whole has a large impact
l It is crucial to combine any future strategy to improve company performancefrom a planetary boundaries perspectivewith improved analysis of how eachaction contributes to reaching social
boundaries. One way of doing this is to
use Oxfam’s doughnut approach and/or
the newly developed SDG-compass which
relates company performance to the global Sustainable Development Goals.
l Houdini should continue developing its
circular/collaborative business model
as circularity tends to reduce the overall
impact on all planetary boundaries. The
development of this business model
should include a continued analysis of
the effect of each new strategy on theplanetary boundaries, e.g. how muchbetter is a rental system from a climatechange perspective?
l Looking more into planetary boundaries
seldom covered by the clothing industry,
like biosphere integrity and nitrogen/phosphorus flows, could give Houdini
a competitive advantage when well-informed consumers start demanding
better performance in these respects.
l By continuing to develop the questionnaire for suppliers (in dialogue withthem) a full planetary boundaries analysis
could eventually be conducted, basedon the actual fibre, fabric and garment
production of Houdini’s value chain.
This work will include a dialogue withthe suppliers to follow up in various way
and motivate why Houdini wants moreelaborate answers. This is an importantpart of a co-learning process for Houdini
and their suppliers in order to improvesustainability performance in the coming
years. It could hopefully also trigger achange in the industry with regards totransparency and data accessibility.
l It is important to address all parts of
the life cycle in order to improve futurecompany performance from a planetary
boundaries’ perspective. This pilot study’s
analysis for climate impact, for instance,
focuses on fibre production, but fabricand garment production, consumer care(washing and drying) and transportation are also important from a life cycle

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

perspective when seeking to minimise theclimate impact from textiles. The user’stransportation to and from the store canbe as significant as fibre production andfor some fibres the consumer care of thegarment can sometimes (e.g. in countries
with a CO2 intensive electricity mix) havea larger impact than the fibre and fabricproduction. In a further development of
this pilot study, it would thus be important to assess not only fibre production,
but also subsequent life cycle processes.
l Using renewable fibres like wool and lyocell instead of polyester is indeed worthwhile, but even these fibres can have large
effects on some planetary boundaries.
This should be further investigated indetail by Houdini before phasing out allpolyester. Polyester garments can be madeto be very durable, and if the potential
for longevity is realised polyester could
be good from a planetary boundaries
perspective.
l For polyester, it is important to do more
research on the impact of different ways ofrecycling fibres and to continue the efforts
to minimise the leakage of plastic particles
into the oceans, all the way from production to customer care and recycling.
l Considering that polyamide is one of
the worst fibres from a climate change
perspective, and climate change is one of
the core planetary boundaries that has
already been transgressed and should beprioritized, Houdini should look into
how to replace polyamide and/or develop
polyamide recycling on larger scale.
l Houdini should continue its efforts todesign garments in a complete life cycle
perspective, and the choice of materials
must be related to function, aesthetics,
expected life-time, care and end-of-life.
l From a novel entities perspective Houdini should continue their work to becomecompletely fluorocarbon-free, e.g. by
only selling shell layers that are weatherproofed with biodegradable components.
l As a large part of Houdini’s collection isstill polyester the issue of novel entities
and microplastics is one to prioritise.
Houdini should continue their work on
developing methods to reduce the releaseof microplastics through, for example,
improving fibres so they remain intact
through wear and tear, and developing
new washing instructions, filters andwashing bags to decrease friction and potentially collect the released microplastics.

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PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

6. References
Barber, A., Pellow, G., 2006. Life Cycle Assessment: New Zealand Merino Industry, Merino
Wool Total Energy Use and Carbon Dioxide
Emissions. Report by The Agribusiness Group,
New Zealand.
Bevilacqua, M., Ciarapica, F. E., Mazzuto, G.,
Paciarotti, C., 2014. Environmental analysis ofa cotton yarn supply chain. Journal of Cleaner
Production 82, 154-165.
Carpenter, S. R. 2005. Eutrophication of
aquatic ecosystems: bistability and soil phosphorus. Proceedings of the National Academyof Sciences 102:10002–10005.
Cherrett, N., Barrett, J., Clemett, A., Chadwick, M. and Chadwick, M.J. 2005. Ecological
Footprint and Water Analysis of Cotton,
Hemp and Polyester. SEI and Bioregional.
http://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Report-EcologicalFootprintAndWaterAnalysisOfCottonHempAndPolyester-2005.pdf
Ciais, P., and C. Sabine (Co-ordinating Lead
Authors), G. Bala, L. Bopp, V. Brovkin, J.
Canadell, A. Chhabra, R. DeFries, J. Galloway,
M. Heimann, C. Jones, C. Le Quéré, R.B. Myneni, S. Piao, and P. Thornton (Lead Authors),
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A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

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A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

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63

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDYAppendices
APPENDIX I: Existing methods for assessing
the clothing industry’s impact on planetary
boundaries
This pilot study is an attempt to connect
recent findings in Earth system science withefforts for impact reduction at the productscale in the clothing industry.
As a first step in our effort to study Houdini’s operations from a planetary boundaries
perspective we have conducted an inventoryof existing methods and tools for measuring
the clothing industry’s impact on individual
boundaries as well as bundles of boundaries(see Table 4). Some of the available tools aim
to guarantee a certain standard, whereas others
are ways of understanding the extent of acompany’s impact.
Clothing companies have the option ofpurchasing materials that are in different ways
certified or labelled as organic or otherwise“environmentally better”, by for example Bluesign® or GOTS. The certification schemes list
different criteria in line with their respective
goals, and the label on a certified product ormaterial shows the customer that these goals
are being met.
Companies can also conduct their own
sustainability reports and assessments within
existing frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative or the Higg Index, or conduct life
cycle assessments to learn about the impact ofa product. These reports can be made public toshow sustainability efforts to customers, or they
can be used as internal reviews or evaluations
to gage performance (see e.g. Houdini, 2013).
While we haven’t been able to find aframework that takes all nine boundaries into
account, there currently exists a plethora ofdifferent tools that address different planetary
boundaries processes, and bundles of boundaries, knowingly and, we think, sometimes as anunintended bonus.
Each boundary identifies a key aspect to account for, however, they are also inextricably interlinked, and while labels or certifications may
state a rather narrow focus, measures that affectfor instance climate can have an impact onother boundaries as well, for example aerosols:
Each process step of textile production causes
air emission. As mentioned above, productionof fibres like cotton and the manufacturingof polyester and other synthetic fabrics areenergy-intensive processes, often utilising large
amounts of fossil fuels and releasing emissions
like greenhouse gases and aerosols. This implies
that tools for measuring and reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases from the clothing
industry will in many respects be applicable
also when it comes to aerosols.
The Bluesign® system is a certification
scheme for materials that aims at reducing air
pollution by directly targeting at the basis: theselection of the raw materials and the chemical
products. It specifies strict selection criteria for
substances and components having an emission impact, but the overall aim is to reduce

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

carbon dioxide emissions rather than otherair emissions, even though it specifies that“exhaust air has to be cleaned and recycled
by adequate environmental technology”. The
Higg Index 2.0 complements this by also
including the emissions of sulphur dioxides in
its self assessment tools.
Another boundary that is closely linked
to climate and emissions of carbon dioxide isocean acidification. CO2 emission is the main
driver of ocean acidification and decreasing
emissions will in other words have a positiveeffect on this boundary as well.
One of the tools with the broadest reachis the certification scheme Global Organic
Textile Standard (GOTS). GOTS certifies
products rather than materials meaning that
their quality controls run along the whole
production chain. For organic material, woolor cotton for example, they have two levels ofcertification, “made with organic” contains aminimum of 70% organic raw material and“organic” a minimum of 95%. GOTS prohibits the use of toxic chemical compounds
that can damage consumer’s health and places
demands on social and working conditions.
Wastewater treatment as well as target goals
and procedures for reducing water and energy
use are also required.
In textiles production water is used inmany different phases from growing natural
fibres such as cotton or other cellulose fibres toprocessing synthetic materials or dyeing fabrics.
As water security is an issue on local scalerather than global the impact of these processes
will differ depending on where they are placed
geographically. Other than water use, pollutionof runoff water is also an issue for the textile industry and relates to the novel entities boundary and the emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus (the biogeochemical flow boundary). The
Bluesign® system aims to control emissions towater, reducing it to a minimum by specifying
requirements for water pollution control.
An example of a tool that helps businesses
navigate their water consumption and impact
on the water boundary is the Aqueduct Water
risk Atlas. This tool was developed by theWorld Resources Institute and is a tool formeasuring, mapping and understanding water
risks. The mapping tool draws on data fromscience and climate models included in theFifth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2013)
to provide metrics for developing business andinvestments strategy.
The map allows the user to see the overallwater risk of an area, and also to look moreclosely at different types of risks, such as
physical risks related to for example droughts,
seasonal variability or groundwater stress,or regulatory and reputational risks related
to for example media coverage, threatenedamphibians and access to water (www.wri.org/
our-work/project/aqueduct). The footprint
approaches aim at clarifying and quantifying abusiness’ dependency on a resource, the water
footprint focuses on water and the carbon

64parenthesis. We can conclude that though a few of the reporting tools come a long way
towards covering the planetary boundaries, none of them effectively does so completely. It is
PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEARA PILOT thatSTUDYwhile a boundary might be addressed as an aspect of environmental concern,
also –clear
measurements or reporting is seldom, or never, done in relation to a quantification of impact
related to a set boundary.
Table xx: Summarising table showing a selection of existing methods or certification schemes for assessing
sustainability performance and their relative applicability for the nine planetary boundaries processes.

footprint on carbon and CO2 emissions.
Life cycle assessments aim at determining
a product’s environmental impact from cradle
to grave, meaning they should account for all
stages from raw material to waste management.
LCAs typically account for different environmental impacts, such as water consumption,use of non-renewable resources, land use andnutrient flows. Certain aspects are however
rarely or less extensively covered in LCAs, forexample biodiversity. And though CO2 emissions might be a focus area, ocean acidification
might not be mentioned specifically.
The table below lists a number of different reporting tools and certification schemes
and the planetary boundary processes theytarget. Processes that relate to the Planetary
Boundaries and covered by the tools/certification schemes are marked with an x. Boundary
processes that are not specifically or extensively
targeted (but still in some way addressed) aremarked in parenthesis. We can conclude thatthough a few of the reporting tools come a long
way towards covering the planetary boundaries,
none of them effectively does so completely. It
is also clear that while a boundary might be addressed as an aspect of environmental concern,
measurements or reporting is seldom, or never,done in relation to a quantification of impact
related to a set boundary.
APPENDIX II: Social boundary aspects
Below is a selection of the questions posed by
Albaeco and Houdini to Houdini’s suppliers,

1

ClimateNovelentities

BlueSign1x

Global Organic
TextilesStandard

Ozone
layer

Aerosols

Ocean
acidification

Biogeochemicalflows

Freshwater

x

(x)

(x)

x

x

(x)

(x)

x

x

Oekotex

x

x

(x)

x

x

Carbon footprint

x

Land
use
changeBiodiversity
loss

x

x

Water footprintx

Aqueduct waterrisk atlasxLife Cycle
Assessment

x

x

x

(x)

(x)

Ecosystem
Services Review

xGlobal Reporting
Initiative (GRI)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

Higg Index

x

x

x

(x)

x

x

x

x

(x)

x

x

x

(x)
(x)

(x)

(x)

x

BlueSign only measures processing of the fibres, not origin, use or end of life.

Table 4: Summarising table showing a selection of existing methods or certification schemes for assessing sustainability performance and their relative applicability for the nine planetary
boundaries processes.
1

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

Bluesign only measures processing of the fibres, not origin, use or end of life.

65

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES ANALYSIS FOR HOUDINI SPORTSWEAR – A PILOT STUDY

regarding social aspects and working conditions. The selection shows the questions towhich most of the responding companies provided answers that reflect that they interpreted
the questions in the way they were meant to beinterpreted.
The majority of the responding companies
have a standard of not hiring persons under
the age of 18. Company number 7, with theminimum age for employees of 16 is based in
Taiwan where as a comparison the legal voting
age is currently 18.
All who responded to the question follow
national or industry standards for minimum
wage, offer their employees health care andpaid sick leave. Employees are also allowed tojoin or form unions. Most also appear to offersome form of paid parental leave, at least for
women.

Figure 15: Examplesof Houdini’s next
generation value chain
questionnaire that has
been developed to enable
a more efficient andsecure way of acquiring,processing and analyzing
data. The questionnaire
reflects the holistic perspective and consists of
550 questions covering
environmental, socialand ethical aspects in its
entirety.

APPENDIX III: Suggested steps of a tentative
5-step methodology for a planetary boundaries
analysis
Step 1: Select the scope (where in the value
chain to focus)
Step 2: Identify priority planetary boundaries
Step 3: Analyse company impact on priority
boundaries and interaction with social
boundaries
Step 4: Identify business risks and opportunities
Step 5: Develop strategies for addressing risks
and opportunities

APPENDIX IV: Examples of the 550-question
value chain questionnaire that Houdini hasdeveloped in partnership with tech partner

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

TrusTrace, who are designing a blockchain powered collaboration platform to establish productand value chain transparency and traceability.

66

The more the merrier
WHETHER YOU’RE SAILING a boat, pitchinga tent or starting a revolution, youwill have better luck if you bring somefriends. All people are different andthat’s why we’re so good together.
Together with an odd band of scientists, artists, designers and engineers,
we’re pushing the boundaries of how

A cooperation between Houdini Sportswear, Albaeco and Mistra Future Fashion

outdoor clothing is made. Together withour customers, we are recycling, renting,repairing and reusing our way to a new,sustainable outdoor industry.
Marika and Fredrik
at Albaeco, Ola and C-J at Coest,
Gustav at Mistra Future Fashion, Nils
SPECIAL THANKS TO

Faarlund, Göran at Naturakademin
Learning Lab and Kate Raworth foryour contributions to this report andperspectives gained.
Let’s climb a mountain. Run a mile.
Eat a cake. Start a band. Save the world.
Call your best friend, your mom and all
your cousins. The more the merrier!

67