“We must do away with the throw-away culture and find inspiration from the time when we patched our woolen socks”

Kristina Vigen grew up in the countryside with older generations who, back then, took care of the things they had acquired and made them last as long as possible. This meant repairing quality wool socks – especially because it made sense financially.

Now the primary incentive for preserving the products is perhaps something else, namely the global consumption of scarce resources. 

With today’s technology and innovation, repairing socks must of course also be seen in a figurative sense. Even if there is a hole in a piece of clothing, perhaps the rest of the product can be used, or parts can be used for other purposes instead of it ending up in the incinerator in many cases. 

We simply have to recycle to a greater extent the products or parts of products that have already used energy to put into the world. But first of all, it’s about getting every product to last and, not least, to be used for as long as possible, says Kristina.

Therefore, as Head of Corporate Responsibility at MASCOT, she, together with the entire organization, has set out to pave the way for work clothes that are created so that they can be used, repaired and last as long as possible – MASCOT’s approach to the most sustainable clothing today.

Sustainable business rhymes with Jutland business flair

MASCOT is an international yet Danish family-owned company with its own production, employing over 3,000 employees in Vietnam and Laos.

“I work in a private company with Jutland roots. We focus on what we invest in being profitable and ‘selling goods’. Not necessarily or exclusively in the short term – often in the very long term, which is in excellent line with the sustainable business mindset, ” explains Kristina Vigen, who has been part of the workwear manufacturer MASCOT for more than 23 years.

To see the meaning behind their CSR initiatives, MASCOT views them from both a responsibility and a business angle. “Reducing or eliminating packaging is not only good for the use of resources, it is also sensible for the cost “, elaborates Kristina, who before she was given formal CSR responsibility, was head of the company’s PR and communications.

MASCOT has always been a company where decisions are made based on data and solid knowledge. A natural next step has therefore been to go one step further by also adding non-financial key figures (ESG) as additional measuring points.

At the same time, MASCOT needs to involve its customers, which have put CO2 footprints, recycled resources and take-back schemes on the agenda. By listening to what customers demand, MASCOT has been able to live up to its DNA of responsible business conduct, while gaining a competitive advantage by being ahead of the sustainable business curve.

“Brand manager” and change manager for CSR

Precisely this involving others in her work with strategic sustainability is something Kristina will take with her after completing the practical Sustainable Business Change Manager certificate programme (SBCM) in 2020.

“The certification programme’s emphasis on the business-driven and the methodology in change management was an good match with my company. And when we were faced with a change process, it perfectly coincided with the theory we were learning,” explains Kristina Vigen.

Kristina works together with the entire organization, including MASCOT’s salespeople in 15 countries, the colleagues at the production sites in Vietnam and Laos, warehouse staff, designers, buyers and the executive board.

“I sometimes think that I am a kind of “Brand Manager for CSR”: I try to locate and initiate initiatives that make sense either in business operations, concerning upcoming legislation or in relation to customer requirements – usually in a combination. I follow the initiatives from idea to implementation, where it is not only about project management but to a large extent getting the business process changed and understanding that sustainability initiatives often involve integration into the operations so that they become a natural part of the work going forward. It also involves creating a basis and structures to be able to store and use – the new – ESG data”, says Kristina Vigen and continues.

“At the same time, I try to create ownership in the organization by training the salespeople so that they can share the latest knowledge with the customers, and by feeding the marketing department so that we get a mix of marketing materials that can be used with our stakeholders.” 

Patience is the change manager’s key

 With inspiration from the training, Kristina prepared her own “change manager checklist”, which she still uses as a daily reminder to make sure she stays focused (see link at the bottom of the article). 

The Sustainable Business Change Manager certificate programme gave me a formula to handle change management and perhaps a motivation to stand more confidently in the change – even when it’s windy. Patience is a necessity and that it must be a natural part of the change manager’s toolbox, even if it is not a natural part of the change manager , says Kristina with a twinkle in her eye.

However, the result of the process was not only a certification with a diploma for Kristina, but also a concrete CSR strategy for MASCOT – grounded in the customers’ challenges and the company’s values.

 The training has therefore not only been an investment in training for a single employee, but an investment in a development process for the entire company.

Kristina’s four good tips for sustainable change management:

Tip #1 – Get the strategy aligned all the way around before you get started. Toil (nice word) – but toil in the right way. Safely choose the right one based on your well-developed and approved strategy 

Tip #2 – Be open about your work with CSR within the organization – both about the small successes and about the difficult things. It serves several purposes. Partly, you get to flush out the CSR story out piece by piece, and there are also colleagues ready to help when something goes beyond their own abilities.

Tip #3 – Be specific when you tell the CSR story internally (and externally) – try to translate the story into simple calculations. For example, talk about waste sorting by coming up with concrete calculations of how much paper you have thrown away converted to the number of new envelopes that can be produced from the paper.

Tip #4 – Understand your colleagues’ starting points and measuring points. For example, when you need help calculating non-financial key figures in the finance department, understand what drives their professional motivation. Explain how calculating the CO2 figure is a decisive parameter in DKK for future operations and growth; e.g. based on future legislation.

More about Mascot’s CSR efforts
See Kristina Vigen’s practical change manager checklist

The Sustainable Business Change Manager Online certificate programme is provided by TANIA ELLIS – The Social Business Company®, a leading Scandinavian-based speaking, consulting and training company. The programme is supported by B Corp Movement in the Nordics and endorsed by Henley Business School Denmark. Sign up to our Academy newsletter to learn more about our training opportunities.

Learn more at www.sustainablebusinesschangemanager.com