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Icebug

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This is An Open letter To Our Industry About Air Freight And Walking the Climate Talk


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As South Vietnam is starting to re-open after months in lock-down, we're put to the test: What's the real value of our climate commitment?
Like many other footwear and apparel brands that have production in the Ho Chi Minh city area, Icebug is missing a lot of products. In our case, about one-third of what we had planned to sell during this fall and winter. It hurts, and we have had to cancel a lot of customers' orders. In this situation, the first business instinct is to switch to air freight instead of sea freight, cutting at least a month lead time and still catching most of the season.
But before running with the first instinct, it's necessary to pause and think. Switching to air freight is not something you have to do. It's a choice to make.
Because there is one huge problem. Air freight causes at least 20 times more carbon emissions. For an average shoe from Icebug this means that the carbon footprint would double. From 10 to 20 kilo CO2e per pair.
When following the climate reporting, I always find it hard to wrap my head around this paradox: We know what must be done, still global carbon emissions increase.

That's why this case is so interesting to put in the spotlight.
It's an apparent conflict of interest. The pros of air freight weigh heavily: Servicing your customers better, being able to bring products to end-users that you think they need, increasing sales and profit. This will undoubtedly be beneficial for you in the short term.
The cons are really just one major: Not taking your share of the responsibility for carbon emissions. Long term, everybody will bear the cost of the looming climate crisis.
Are we ready to do the right thing when nobody's looking, and there's a significant cost for us here and now attached to it?
Maybe I'm kicking in open doors here. Maybe you, who are our colleagues in the footwear and outdoor industry and are facing the same tough choice, already decided that it's worth to walk the climate talk. As a part of the industry, it would make me proud, and as one of the inhabitants of this planet, it would make me happy.
It's a painful decision, but not a very difficult one. After the latest IPCC report, none of us can say we don't know that we're in a man-made climate emergency. To take our commitments about sustainability and responsibility seriously, we need to get on the roadmap of the Paris agreement. Then we can't double emissions now on the way to halving them in 2030. We have a limited carbon budget left to spend.
In a climate emergency, no brand should deliberately cause avoidable emissions at scale.
The possible exception would be small brands that are just getting started and wouldn't survive without the sales from air freighted products. As they're small, they will have a very marginal impact anyway. We don't have that excuse for the rest of us, where it will rather be a question of a few percentage points profit. Going forward, it will be impossible to combine using air freight at scale with a position as a responsible brand with a serious sustainability agenda and climate commitment.
The biggest impact will be the decisions of the biggest players. We see ourselves as a footwear and an outdoor brand. So starting with the biggest brands, from footwear, Nike and adidas, and from outdoor, The North Face, a VF Company and Salomon: Will you use air freight from Vietnam?
David Ekelund, co-founder and co-CEO ICEBUG
A little more background about Icebug related to the situation:
Apart from not using air freight, we have also decided not to cancel orders. After several months without income, the factories really need the business. For those that don’t catch this winter season window, we will use it as an early delivery for next year.
We don’t use inbound air freight as part of our business model. For the past five years, we have not used any air freight from the factories to our warehouse.
  • Ingmar Rentzhog

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    176 w

    Great. I love when companies are outspoken on what needs to be done!

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