Buying and Sustainability Internship at a Denim Brand Part 2

 Hej everyone,

It is nearly half-time in my internship. The time has been passing by very fast, probably because I have been learning so much every day over the last few weeks. As promised in my latest entry, I will give you an update on my projects at work as well as the report. Well, the progress of the latter can be summarized quickly, because there is not much to say about it yet. I was able to take a lot of notes while participating in various meetings and discussions during my work with the company. Sighting and structuring these notes, with the status quo of the literature in the field of supply chain partnerships for sustainability in mind will be the next step. To do so I will however have to review the literature first which is what I am currently focusing on regarding the report.

My projects at work have been progressing much more. I was strongly involved in the placement of production orders and the entailing follow up processes. Next to deciding which styles to produce the task involved determining the required quantities, the definition of the size breakdown of each article, the finalization of each style from a design point of view and summarizing all information for the suppliers. Alongside the production orders I was working on the collection orders which involved less work on quantities and more creative work on the styles. The entailing follow-up processes further involved the placement of fabric and accessory orders. Even though I have worked as a buyer before for a fast fashion company, I had to realize that there is still a lot for me to learn as a small brand works very differently and is facing much different problems than a large fast fashion corporation. This realization was very interesting for me and made me recognize that even though I can use a lot of my previous experiences I certainly have to adjust it to another setting. The work with the collection and production orders gave me a lot of insights in the current structures of the production and product development processes which will enable me to develop the structure further according to the requirements of the brand.

Furthermore, speaking to my co-workers and getting in touch with various suppliers I was able to get a better understanding of where the brand finds itself on its sustainability journey – I must admit they are much further than I expected in the first place. This showed me that communicating sustainability and being sustainable are not the same. In the case of the brand, I am working for, working to become more sustainable is a continuous process which has a bigger priority than communicating it. Looking especially at the social pillar of sustainability I found out that the suppliers are already taking active measures ensuring the compliance with the amfori BSCI code of conduct. All sourcing and buying decisions are made with the aim to decrease the negative social and environmental aspects and in the best case to foster a positive change. Currently the aims are however not clearly defined and collected in a strategy. As the decisions are made by a very small team who all agree on the same underlying values, criteria, and goals, not having a clearly defined strategy is not an issue. Especially as the resources to develop such a strategy are currently put into measures fostering sustainability, which I consider much more effective. In the long run however, the next step should be to dedicate some resources to the development of a strategy to continue the work towards sustainability and to uphold the values and rigorous criteria while the company is growing. A task I will not be able to tackle during my time with the company, which is why I will focus on smaller measures the company can take to move forward on the sustainability journey.

Have a great start into the week!