“The world does not suffer from the lack of material but the lack of mind. Being innovative and full of fresh thinking, Globe Hope came up with the idea of fabric redefined”.
These are the motivational words painted on the back wall of the Globe Hope head office. In 2003, the designer Seija Lukkala (Globe Hope CEO) started the brand Globe Hope as an early example of a fashion brand that always advocates for sustainable products. Globe Hope was one of the first consumers of EKOenergy in the fashion industry, having been buying ecolabelled energy since 2013. That’s why, for our #PassionForGreenFashion campaign, we visited Globe Hope’s head office and main store in Nummela, Finland to interview Miisa Asikainen, Designer and Marketing and Communications specialist.
Was it challenging to launch a sustainable brand at a time when the fashion industry was dominated by fast fashion?
From the very beginning, we knew that fast fashion was deeply unsustainable and we didn’t want to continue working in that spiral of extracting resources, producing, consuming and throwing away. Seija Lukkala had hope that the globe could be different and, being innovative, she became one of the pioneers in Finland thinking about fashion in a different way.
What kind of materials do you use? And how do you create something new out of recycled materials?
I think there is not any material that we haven’t tried to use: seat belts, jeans, parachute fabric, circuits, leftover leather, old uniforms of all kinds. The production process depends a lot on the material. For seat belts, for example, we contact car repair shops. Seat belts are not a cheap material even though they are trash. After purchasing them, we start a long step by step process of preparing the material for production: washing, sorting, checking the length and only then we send them to our production facilities in Tampere and Mikkeli. So the bags are really made by one person, like handicraft stuff. Working with recycled materials is not easy or cheap and it inevitably affects the final price of the product.
Do you think consumers are willing to pay additional price to support sustainable brands?
Things are changing and we are seeing people who already take environmental issues seriously and want to make conscious purchases. At the same time, of course, there are still those who prefer cheap fast fashion brands. Often, it’s because they don’t understand the price. So we are trying to explain our production process to our customers so they are more aware.
Why did you decide to choose EKOenergy labelled electricity?
We have been purchasing EKOenergy ever since it appeared on the market in 2013. We simply couldn’t let ourselves use any other energy because, from the very beginning, we wanted to be as sustainable as possible. At the moment, our main office and warehouse are using EKOenergy and when we moved to our current place in Nummela, we continued using it. Consuming electricity labelled with EKOenergy was another opportunity for us to make a contribution to saving the environment.
How do you communicate about your sustainability?
We explain directly to customers and clients the story behind each product and all the aspects that make it different from similar products on the market. Not just with the material’s history, but also the uniqueness of the product and the fact that it is produced using EKOenergy ecolabelled energy.
What is the future of Globe Hope? Do you think the fashion industry will become more sustainable in the near future?
Our customer base is becoming wider. Previously, our clients were mostly those who understood the price of sustainable goods and were willing to pay it. Now, more customers are becoming interested and want to be more conscious about their purchases. We see such changes and we are hopeful about the future of Globe Hope. We hope for a better future of the world as well, so we remain positive, keep taking small steps, promoting green fashion with our brand and staying committed to our goals.
We thank Globe Hope for choosing EKOenergy and Miisa Asikainen for her time and willingness to show us every corner of the magical Globe Hope warehouse.
EKOenergy works every day to help individuals and companies find the most sustainable renewable energy and to facilitate the transition towards a 100% renewable world. We hope that this positive example from Finland, as well as Carrera Jeans in Italy and ECOALF in Spain and Finlayson in Finland can be an inspiration for other companies in the sector.
If you represent a fashion brand and want to decrease your environmental impact by switching to environmentally sustainable energy, contact us!
Written by Glòria Monterrubio, Kristell Prigent and Maria Vediakova
Posted on 1 June 2019
