Grandpa is meant to be a sustainable business.
We started in 2003 with the explicit purpose of becoming an inclusive space for people from all walks of life – we strive to be more than just a store.
Since then we’ve done our utmost to deliver service and inspiration in a unique atmosphere - and these efforts make out the pillars of our offer. We promise to offer a carefully curated selection of sustainable fashion and lifestyle products of excellent taste. Grandpa is to be conducted in an economical, social, and environmentally sustainable way. We place long-term commitment as the spearhead of all our business, whether it concerns our suppliers, our partners, or our employees.
Our take on sustainability is that the products must be of high quality – in a style that last. We always take the production conditions in the factories into consideration before moving into partnership with our suppliers.
This manifest is meant to disclose our view on the term sustainability further, and to be transparent about our commitment to it. We want it to inspire others – and ourselves – to make more conscious and sustainable choices.
The sum of all these ambitions and efforts: Good People, Good Products, Good Impact.
It doesn’t matter how much the word sustainability has been tossed around – it’s more important than ever. And no matter how often even that exact sentence has been written it’s still valid, and with every passing day, it grows even more urgent.
We’re doing our part by working relentlessly to bring a sustainable mindset into all parts of our business. It influences how we view relationships with partners, suppliers, and employees.
We’re acutely aware of the textile industry’s environmental impact, so we’re trying to offer a smarter way of shopping. By offering products with a longer life span, in terms of design, quality, and material choices we want to give our customers the opposite of fast fashion. The clothes you wear over and over again through the years will end up leaving the least environmental impact. The classic seasons in fashion make sense to some degree – the weather changes. But there are many types of garments that make sense to wear all year round, without needing a new design. And a sweater that worked just fine last fall can be used for many falls to come.
Our purchasing department’s work in this matter is paramount to our efforts. They evaluate the products’ timelessness, quality, usability, functional aspects, and silhouette among many other factors before putting an order down. Not to mention the supplier's attitude towards consumption and sustainability.
We don’t claim to know it all, or that we ever will. But we’re firm in our commitment to learning continuously, to never settle. And we hope this attitude will inspire our customers to join in on the journey and to inspire us in return. It’s a big deal, and we look forward to taking on this challenge together.
Grandpa is a community of Good People, Good Products, Good Impact. These three phrases make the headlines of our manifest.
Grandpa started with the idea of creating a meeting ground. We believe in an inclusive and equal world where we respect and inspire each other through our differences. We value accountability, and always strive for a long-term perspective when it comes to our relationships with suppliers, partners, and employees. That way we can learn from each other along the way.
We’re far from perfect, but we still feel obligated toward ourselves, the planet and the community we’ve built to do what we can in terms of sustainability.
Our customers, our employees, and our partners are Good People.
Suppliers and partners
Our supplier's attitude towards consumption and sustainability is crucial for us to be able to work together. Together with our suppliers and partners, we want to be a positive force and to keep pushing the work to lessen our mutual environmental footprint.
Some of our longest partnerships are with suppliers that have been at the forefront of the sustainability effort within fashion. But it’s not enough that the product is produced in a sustainable way – it must be worn for many years after being produced, or it was all for nothing. Sometimes that means that some of our products may include materials that aren’t necessarily considered sustainable in themselves, but actually makes the life cycle of that product much longer. This leads to a better total level of sustainability for the product in the end.
The check-list for suppliers that we want to strike up new partnerships with contains:
It’s imperative for us that what we consume today must be done so responsibly, with tomorrow in mind. So we’ve put utility and usefulness as a deal-breaker when it comes to buying products. It doesn’t matter how sustainable a product is in itself if it won’t come to use.
Grandpa should have a carefully curated assortment of products that you can shop with a clean conscience. What we offer should have good material choices, be made under good working conditions, and have the style, quality, and utility to stand the test of time. They must be Good Products.
Production
It’s the production part of a product’s lifecycle that makes for the biggest part of its environmental impact. All the way through the supply chain: moving the fibers from plant to workable raw materials, spinning them into yarn, dyeing, weaving or knitting, cutting, sewing – almost all involving transport between the different factories and enormous amounts of energy, water, and chemicals spent. It is also in these processes that the working conditions are the hardest.
We address these challenges in a step-by-step approach, which we’re constantly working to improve. One part of this is producing smaller batches, thereby ensuring that we don’t overproduce products that end up not getting sold. Another part is that we work with products that are meant to last for a long time, both in terms of style and quality – thereby partly bypassing the whole concept of seasons.
Design
Grandpa’s own lifestyle brand Grandpa Goods is low-key in its expression but with a distinct character. The products were made to be used extensively and to build up a patina with time. It’s made with timelessness as a leading idea, drawing inspiration from modern Scandinavian design and the 60ties.
Grandpa Goods, our apparel brand, is designed using vintage classics as a template. They’re inspired by garments with a long track record – meaning products that will last a long time in terms of both style and utility. These products are the pillars that hold the rest of our curated assortment.
Deliveries
DHL is using economies of scale to coordinate for multiple deliveries to be sent to pick-up points, thereby decreasing the impact per order. Read more about their work here.
Read about UPS sustainability efforts here.
Read about Fedex sustainability efforts here.
Within Sweden, we use Airmee & Instabox as our delivery partners. Since 2020 Instabox is running a fossil-free fleet throughout its entire supply chain. They’re working continuously to electrify their fleet. As a cherry on top, they climate compensates 110% of their emissions. Airmee climate compensates for all their delivery through Zeromission. They’ve got emission-free zones in Stockholm where they only deliver using cargo bikes and electrical cars.
Packaging
Our ambition is to always use recycled materials in our bags, packaging and labels. We’re working continuously to develop packaging options with our suppliers.
Some actions we’ve taken are to remove safety pins for hang-tags and remove the traditional gift-wrapping strings that can’t be recycled. We’re using a polyester string instead, which, at least, can be recycled as plastics.
Our bigger bags are now non-woven and made out of recycled PET bottles, and our smaller bags and gift bags are made out of FSC-certified paper.
Whenever possible, we’ll reuse old cartons for shipping goods. Anything to cut down any single-use plastics.
Repairs and maintenance
To encourage our customers to take care of their garments, making them last longer, we’ve provided guidelines on our website on garment care. We’ve also established a partner network of shoemakers, tailors, electricians, and dry cleaners to be able to offer our customers the option of repairs or to in other ways promote the longevity of the products they’ve bought from us.
In 2024 we launched Care & Repair - a repair service available in each of our concept stores. Read more about Care & Repair here.
We also offer a selection of clothing and shoe care products.
We want to use the influence we’ve built up over the last 19 years to inspire a positive change toward a more sustainable society. As a part of this, we set up events and get-togethers that aim to educate both ourselves and our customers on how to make wiser choices. The events can feature experts in sustainability, repair workshops, and the like.
We’ll jump on the opportunity to use our reach to benefit the greater good when possible. One example of this was when we replaced Black Friday sales with a collaboration with Suicide Zero to bring attention to mental health issues, and its victims. Through this campaign, we managed to raise 100 000 SEK that went directly to Suicide Zero’s important and life-saving work.
1% for the Planet
Grandpa Goods is connected to the 1% for the Planet initiative, where one per cent of the total turnover (not only the profits) is sent towards grass root movements engaged in projects around climate change, social injustices, clean energy, and the like. For 2023 we have chosen WWF as a partner.
We hope to inspire others and learn more for ourselves along the way.
To have a Good impact, in short.
/Team Grandpa