RESPONSIBILITY

“I first realised that the environment is screwed when learning about the prisoner's dilemma, limits to growth and triple P accounting alongside game theory while studying Business Economics and Philosophy over 20 years ago. My eyes were opened to the huge extent that humans are exploiting the Earth, and I questioned who will pay for that in the future. Climate action requires cooperation. Changing human behaviour and the economy operating within environmental limits just didn't seem compatible to me, and I saw no hope. So for a long time, I wrote ‘Doomsday’ emails to my friends and family. As you can imagine I wasn’t a favorite at dinner parties. My moral dilemma continued when Ditte and I founded GANNI. We were running a fashion brand and I was still talking about the climate crisis. Friends would ask me, ‘Why are you still in the business of fashion. Why not just stop?’

After much debate and lengthy conversations with myself, I realised that we’re never going to be a sustainable brand. That would be a huge contradiction in itself. First and foremost we’re a fashion brand, driven by newness - which is inherently bad but actually fashion isn’t going to go away overnight. If you are going to be ‘in it’ then strive to be the most responsible brand you can be every day."

- Nicolaj Reffstrup, Founder, GANNI