We are Storydoers not Storytellers – Ecoalf

Ich habe in einem Mantel von Ecoalf geheiratet. Er hat zwei Layer, einen neongelben Untermantel und einen dünnen, grauen, trenchartigen Übermantel aus recycelten PET-Flaschen. 70 solcher Flaschen ergeben einen Meter an Stoff, steht auf dem Ärmel zu lesen. Schon bald nachdem ich begonnen habe, mich intensiv mit Slow/Fair/Responsible/Sustainable Fashion zu beschäftigen, stieß ich auf das spanische Label Ecoalf. Es zählt zu den Pionieren nachhaltiger und recycelter Mode. 2009 von Javier Goyeneche gegründet und seitdem Schritt für Schritt auf dem Weg der Nachhaltigkeit unterwegs. Ohne Perfektionsanspruch, aber konsequent in die richtige Richtung. Heute ist Ecoalf eines der Referenz-Unternehmen, wenn es darum geht, zu zeigen, dass Mode nicht nur erfolgreich sehr viel besser und verantwortungsvoller produziert werden, sondern dabei auch cool und ästhetisch zeitgemäß aussehen kann. Seit 2018 ist die Brand eine B Corp und wurde vor zwei Jahren von B Corp unter die Top 5 % der besten Unternehmen weltweit aufgenommen. Die lange Liste der Awards könnt ihr auf der Website nachlesen. Herausheben möchte ich die Auszeichnung der Schwab Foundation, eine Schwesterorganisation des Weltwirtschaftsforums, an Javier Goyeneche als „Social Innovator of the Year 2020“ für die Revolutionierung der Modeindustrie und den Wandel hin zu einer nachhaltigen Zukunft.Ihr lest es hier regelmäßig, aber ich kann es nicht oft genug wiederholen: Es gibt von allem zu viel. Überproduktion und Überkonsum sind die großen Themen der Modeindustrie. Aber nicht nur die Unternehmen, auch wir müssen unser Mindset verändern, indem wir weniger konsumieren, und wenn wir etwas Neues kaufen, dann von Marken, die Nachhaltigkeit ernst nehmen.

Letzte Woche war Ecoalf-Gründer und CEO Javier Goyeneche in Bozen und hat im Kauri Store unter den Lauben über sein Unternehmen und das, was ihn antreibt, gesprochen. Ecoalf war von Beginn an im Kauri-Portfolio und ist bis heute eine der Marken-Säulen. Auch neue gemeinsame Pläne für den Waltherpark werden gerade geschmiedet. Die Veranstaltung war gut besucht, DJ und Drinks sorgten für Stimmung. Es sei ihm wichtig, sagt Kauri-Co-Gründer Daniel Tocca, dass im Shop nicht nur verkauft werde, sondern auch interessante Veranstaltungen zum Thema stattfänden. Ich habe eine komprimierte Fassung unseres Talks für euch zusammengestellt. Javier, what motivated you to start Ecoalf?

I wanted to create a sustainable fashion brand. It was back in 2009, my two sons were born, Alfredo and Alvaro, the name alf is because of them. I thought the most sustainable thing to do was to stop using natural resources, but recycling was an option. So that was part of the philosophy. Basically, everything I wear today was waste a few months ago. Unfortunately, when we started, there were no cool recycled fabrics, so we had to start creating these fabrics. So far, we have come up with about +600 recycled fabrics from different waste materials, fishing nets, cotton, wool, cashmere, plastic bottles, post-consumed coffee grounds, recycled tires… 

Ecoalf was founded in 2009 and has been a B Corp since 2018. Can you explain what it means to meet the criteria of a B Corp?

When we started the company, we also started telling how we did things. And some people, especially Germans, said I believe you, but I don’t believe you. So, we wanted to get audited. We looked at different options and B Corp was the most complete, it measures a lot of things about a company. Two years ago, they measured us again and now we are in the top 5% of B Corps in the world. There are only two fashion B Corps in the 5%, Patagonia and Ecoalf.What challenges have you faced along the way?

A lot. When we started, sustainability wasn’t cool. At least in Spain, sustainability was something of a hippie thing. Everything is much more complicated when you try to do things differently. The way you produce, your fabrics, your yarns…

Tell us more about your materials.

We have developed a lot of recycled material. Now, as the company moves forward, we also want to create regenerative agriculture, so we are investing in that. Now we always measure how much water we save with this single T-shirt compared to this T-shirt. We do not want to be less bad, but we also want to create a positive environment. Regenerative agriculture is amazing. You have these soils with no life, and then they start to regenerate. But now we have to start convincing our customers that this is the future because the yarn from these crops is not as good as the ones we used and they have to be patient. How optimistic are you about the industry finally taking action?

I think the fashion industry is a beautiful industry, but unfortunately it has a lot of problems if you look at carbon emissions, water consumption, waste, everything. And we see that the business model of the last decades is not working. It’s about buy and throw, buy and throw… that creates billions of garments that go to landfill. This is a terrible disaster. We have to change the way we produce and the way we consume. 

In 2022, you published your first sustainability report to be accountable and transparent about everything you do and how you do it. Most labels are afraid to disclose what they do. Do you have any suggestions on how best to approach this?

When you come to the Ecoalf office, the first thing you read is our principles. And the first one is: We are not perfect and we don’t claim to be. Traceability and transparency are very important to us. For example, our bestseller in 2014 was a poly-fleece. And we discovered that every time you wash it, over 20,000 microfibers are released into the ecosystem, so we decided to stop. Finally, this year we launched a product with a rate of only 0.07. That is a huge improvement. You don’t have to say you’re perfect, but you can say this is much better compared to this. You have to be transparent. We have an external company that audits every product.Let’s talk about the Ecoalf Foundation, which was born in 2015 with 3 fishermen, and now there are more than 4000…

This is probably Ecoalf’s most ambitious project and the one we are most proud of. We have been recycling fishing nets for many years, one day a fisherman said to me, come out with me and see how much waste gets caught in the nets. And I saw it, it’s a lot of waste. You may feel that the ocean is clean, but at the bottom it is not. We started by putting a container in the small port of Alicante (in Spain) to collect the waste. Now we are in 72 ports, in Spain, France, Greece, one in Italy… the port authorities in Italy are quite challenging. And the great news is that we just arrived to Egypt this year with a port in Alexandria, as it’s one of the countries that contributes the most to the pollution of the Mediterranean. Now we want to go to North Africa. Our goal is to work with over 10,000 fishermen by 2025 and collect about 1700 tons of waste from the bottom of the ocean. Of that, we will use 68% of the waste we take out, unfortunately the rest has to go to landfill.

This year you celebrated your 15th anniversary and released a manifesto “Because there is no planet B”, what was the purpose of the manifesto?

We did it this year firstly because of our anniversary and secondly because we saw that for many years there was a big movement towards sustainability and in the last years, we saw that it was decreasing. We do a lot of talks at universities and we found out that there are 3 types of people at the university, young people who are very activist and the next day they buy 4 t-shirts for a few euros. That’s not possible, you are one or the other, you have to make a choice. You have to buy less; you don’t have to buy so much. Then there are those who are very convinced and very coherent, and then there are those, and I think they have the most dangerous attitude, the one that says, whatever I do has no effect, what is the point, nothing is going to change. We think that everything we do has an impact and when we do it collectively the impact is huge. So that is why we did the manifesto, to try to shake people up a little bit. We are at a crucial moment, we need to do more, we need to be faster. Sometimes people ask me how do you see 2050? Well, I don’t know, it depends on what we do between now and 2050. If we continue like this, it won’t work.Looking back on 15 years, can you share some of your insights?

If we all work together in one direction, we can achieve a lot. What you do is no longer enough. Anyone can make a building or a t-shirt. But what is your footprint in the world? I think it is not so much what you do. It is how you do it.

Schaut unbedingt hinein in das Ecoalf Manifesto. Der Satz aus dem Video „We are Storydoers not Storytellers“ hat sich mir eingeprägt. Denn genau darum geht es. Lasst uns zu Storydoers werden. 

Fotos: (1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13) © Kauri Store; (2) © Nicoló Degiorgis; (3) © Susanne Barta; (7, 8, 10) © Ecoalf.

>> Supported by Kauri Store (M), Oscalito (L) und meiner Freundin Kristin << 

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