Haglöfs’ growth puts its climate commitment to the test

Last year, Haglöfs set a climate target to halve its carbon emissions in ten years. A boom in interest in outdoor activity during 2021 contributed to record sales and the most successful year for Haglöfs in a decade. The growth in sales and therefore production makes it more challenging for the company to reach its climate commitment.

Today Haglöfs releases its 2021 sustainability report. The report compliments Haglöfs’ Financial Statement and exposes a conflict of interest relevant not only for Haglöfs, but for the whole industry. The increased outdoor activity triggered by the pandemic contributed to industry growth and Haglöfs reached its highest profitability in ten years. During 2021 Haglöfs produced significantly more outdoor gear than in previous years, leading to an increased environmental footprint.

With a continued roll out of renewable energy and switch to hybrid cars for the company fleet, Haglöfs has reduced the emissions from its own operations despite increasing activity as pandemic related restrictions reduced. However, by far the largest part of the total footprint comes from the manufacturing of Haglöfs gear and here is where an increase in production drove an overall rise in emissions. At the product assembly stage, the emissions per product manufactured decreased and the impact from materials also fell per kg produced. Even so, these gains were offset by increasing volume and therefore the overall footprint increased.

The company’s growth over this past year now makes it more challenging to reach its climate commitment. But Haglöfs will keep the committed target.

“We recognize that as a growing company we also have a growing responsibility. We will keep our climate commitment to halve our emissions by 2030. However, the gap between where we are today and were we want to get to has increased, so we need to accelerate efforts in the areas that will have the greatest impact,” says Fredrik Ohlsson, CEO of Haglöfs.

The company’s climate commitment is to halve emissions across its operations and manufacturing footprint by 2030, compared to 2020, and to reach net zero by 2030. Along the way Haglöfs also compensates for all the emissions in their own operations and across their supply chain. To reach the targets on time, it will be more important than ever to focus on the area of biggest impact, which is the manufacturing of their gear. This is why the company is increasing the amount of lower impact materials that are used in their collections, transitioning to more efficient factories and production processes while phasing out the use of coal and increasing the use of renewable energy in their supply chain. Cooperation with competitors will be vital in shared supply chains to accelerate change and support suppliers in the transition. Here projects such as the Supply Chain Decarbonisation Project coordinated by the European Outdoor Group are helping model how such collaboration could work.

It will also become increasingly important for Haglöfs to look into expanding alternative business models such as Haglöfs Restored, where the company can continue to grow without always having to produce more products.

Read Haglöfs Sustainability Report 2021 here.

Watch Haglöfs’ CEO-statement here.

Find out more about Haglöfs’ climate commitments here.

For more information, please contact:

Sara Skogsberg Cuadras

CSR and Corporate Communications Manager

sara.skogsberg-cuadras@haglofs.se