ESG
our primary hard goods factory is in China . Really cleaning up a supply chain is one of the greatest challenges a product brand has because of the complexity of the chain .”
Peak Design has invested significant resources into its ‘ Tier One ’ facilities to ensure compliance of its high social and environmental standards .
“ Our goal is to continue working through our supply chain tiers to implement these standards throughout , but it is going to take time and significant resources .”
As a certified B Corp , Peak Design ’ s Fair Trade process was relatively low lift , due to having a strong and engaged partner in Vietnam .
“ Our partner had been subcontracting out factory space to manufacture our products and because they didn ' t have full control over those factories , the audit findings consistently came back very bad ,” explains Nyborg . “ We attempted to support those factories and invested in capacity building to bring them up to our standards , but were unsuccessful .”
Operating consistently out of factories that failed to meet Peak Design ’ s environmental and social standards wasn ' t going to work for Nyborg , so the company ’ s Vietnam partner proposed building a brand new factory that Peak Design would manage directly and see to it that its standards were met .
“ That factory construction was completed about three years ago ,” says Nyborg . “ When we engaged with Fair Trade to certify the factory , our partners were able to relatively quickly implement the necessary changes to meet Fair Trade standards .”
Environmental and social standards in the supply chain During her time at the company , Nyborg has navigated several big challenges at Peak Design . “ I ' m not sure if there is
46 December 2022