So, Carlos, thank you for being with us today. Give me three words or adjectives that best describe your company.

“Hi Giuseppe, thank you for inviting me. I would say the three words that more represent Karün is circular, innovative and conscious.”

Can you briefly tell us the concept behind such an innovative eyewear business as Karün? When did the idea come to mind?

“Well, so the idea came up ten years ago from our founder Thomas Kimber. And he started with one question which is: “what would the world look like if we understood that we are all nature?” And that’s a, I would say, our purpose today, which is a question and it’s an invitation to understand that we have to make things different if we want to, for example, start doing things in a different way so we can address climate change, for example. We need to understand that we are nature and everyone is part of the ecosystems and companies are also part of that. So companies needed to work in a different way: more circular, more innovative, to be more conscious with the environment. And Karün started with a work understanding that we are in Patagonia and we are part of the territory. So our model is based on that, based on making things different, working with local communities, working helping on protecting the environment by collecting materials, and also making a product that it’s useful and also circular.”

Usually when speaking of sustainability reporting, we talk about stakeholders such as investors, regulators or even suppliers. Did you notice some advantages to communicating your sustainability achievements in such a clear and consistent way?

“Yes, I would say that today communication is all there, it’s fast. So you need to be transparent and people is willing you to be transparent and companies to be transparent. So I would say that our model, which is a complex model in terms of its value chain—which is starting from communities, from the environment, until a product it’s done, from discarded materials to a recycling process—all that we needed to communicate it to stakeholders because that complex model, it can be explained in a correct way, in a transparent way through the Impact Report. So I think we wanted to be as much as transparent and clear and simple also in how we work, and that also can be for all our stakeholders a valued information so they can also understand the model behind Karün and understand how they are impacting or they are supporting and collaborating with our company.”

As a customer, when you enter the website, the first thing you notice is the eyewear offer, but then the focus goes directly to your commitment to sustainability. Was it difficult to make your sustainability report “pop” for your online consumer?

“I mean, we wanted to be as much as visible to consumers because what mainly consumers see is our eyewear, a recycled brand, but there is a lot of things happening behind that. So how we can explain that without giving too much information, making it too complex, was making and having like a road trip for the consumers through our website. So they can see our catalog, they can see our brand, our models and our eyewear, but they can also travel through our value chain, our model, looking how we’re working on the territory, how we’re working with local communities. It is still complex and still a lot of thinking behind that on how to make an experience in terms of product, but also an experience in terms of model. And we wanted to people not only love our eyewear collections but also love the way we work. So we’re always trying to make the best way on doing some things, then changing it and having new communications through our website so people can also engage with our model, with our purpose, with our vision of the world.”

Another interesting aspect of all your products is the possibility of tracing the path of the materials used to craft the sunglasses or the glasses. Can you tell us more about your traceability system?

“Yes, absolutely. The traceability system, I think, is the way on we have all this model, all our purpose, what we want to do, but we need to be very serious on how we do it. So the traceability system, it is on how we put in numbers, in metrics, in a follow-up of all this value chain. There is a lot of information going around in terms of sustainability and impact all around the world, so we need to be very transparent and people trust us that that’s real and that we are measuring and that we are following up our process. So the traceability system, it is going from a model to a real process, real decisions, real data. Every step of our value chain it’s on our traceability system. So I think that in this more demanding world for a better impact, we need to have collaboration. I think that’s one of our main collaborations and partnership is working with ECONYL®, so we ensure that we have a good quality material and a circular material for our eyewear collections.”

Sustainability reporting nowadays is becoming more and more central. Was it difficult to enter a market where such importance has not been given to sustainability reporting and transparency before?

“So I would say not really because from Karün, part of our purpose, of our way of working, it is telling this story to the people, trying to inspire people. So the Impact Report—and not only the Impact Report, it’s one part of all the work that we do every year—through the Impact Report or another communication strategies, we want to share this with people, share it transparently, telling the good things, the not so good things, what we are working in.
Karün is based on a sustainable model, so we needed to share it with people. So consumers are demanding information, and on Karün we are expecting on giving as much information as we can. Things that happen, very, would say, the romanticism, the story behind, but also data and metrics that we get every year, the outcomes, the impact outcomes every year. It was every year it was getting more data, getting more metrics, establishing more processes, collaborations, and all that until we have a couple of years ago a lot of information that to make an Impact Report that people, I think, can have a good time reading it.”

Could you also provide insight into the evolution of Karün’s sustainability reports, specifically what they were like in the initial stages?

“Yes, so at the beginning we didn’t have an Impact Report, a formal Impact Report that we shared to the people all around the world. So we had some communication strategies internally within our team and also some specific information shared to stakeholders through presentations, through some small reports or to the people through social media with some metrics. But at the beginning Karün was a lot of effort, a lot of purpose, but not still a lot of formal processes and data and impact metrics. So we were trying to give as much as information, useful, to the people from our carbon footprint, our discarded materials and raw material collection, our education program, our collaboration. We wanted to give as much as information to the people but also metrics and to show that we are not only working with a lot of conviction, but that we’re also measuring every part, every phase of our sustainable programs, our value chain. It was every year it was getting more data, getting more metrics, establishing more processes, collaborations, and all that until we have a couple of years ago a lot of information.”

What recommendations do you have for individuals who are starting their sustainability journey and may not have strong sustainability metrics initially?

“That’s a very good question. I would say there’s no company in any stage of its evolution that has all their sustainable programs or their impact metrics in the best way they can. So every company has their pain or the things that they need to fix and a lot of things that they’re doing in the best way possible. So from when starting, I would say that being transparent and showing the good things you are doing and in the other things what’s your plan to improve that, I would say that’s the best way possible.”

As the last one, what advice or recommendations would you give to other brands trying to bring their sustainability reporting to the next level?

“The more important thing it’s to make something that people want to read. I would say that’s the first thing. Once we start gathering all the information, we’re saying: “okay, this is gonna have 150 pages, we cannot do something of 150 pages with a lot of data.” So it was “okay, we need to pick the more important information, the most useful information, not what only we want people see Karün.” No, we want people to make an image about Karün and share all the information but we want to pick the most useful information on how people can make an image about the brand. And also we want to have very good images, photos, the visual part, the design, and a story. So people can not only get data, they can get good stories, they can see the people behind that. So you have to see as every book you read, you want to give something that people gonna start in page one and they want to see page two and then start going and building a story behind that.
When you want to put everything in an Impact Report, it doesn’t work. If you are doing it fast without giving the important aspect to communications and visual, it would also doesn’t work. So you have to take some three, four months working with design, building a story, building language, providing information of what’s happening in the world today on how what’re working on, aiming and trying to collaborate in those world challenges, and also providing at last data that it’s easy to catch.”