THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
OPENING SCENE Kalle paces the room. Ludo drums his fingers nervously.
KALLE: "Once we sign this, there's no turning back. Every. Single. Number. Goes. Public."
LUDO: swallows hard "What if our 'sustainable' ROMA has the carbon footprint of a monster truck rally?"
They exchange a panicked look
KALLE: "Five years of building our reputation... could be undone with a single spreadsheet."
Dramatic close-up on the pen hovering over the contract
LUDO: "Our competitors will be watching. Waiting. Ready to pounce on any weakness."
KALLE (confessional): "Sustainability has always been our core value, but we've been operating on faith. Getting the hard data? It's like posting a no-filter selfie after years of perfectly angled Instagram shots."
THE DECISION
KALLE: "If we're not brave enough to face the truth, how can we ask customers to trust us?"
LUDO: "And if the results are devastating?"
KALLE: "Then we work hard to make them better. That's what radical transparency means. Otherwise, it's just marketing."
LUDO: "True. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we did commit to being the most sustainable shoe brand, not the one with the best marketing spin."
They high-five
KALLE: “Let’s start gathering the data. Tara and Minna should go to Portugal — they’ll know how to turn this into a reality.”
Tara, newly crowned Sustainability Lead, and Minna, camera in hand, flew to Portugal to kick off the journey. We invited all the suppliers!
Tara opened the day by outlining our sustainability goals — starting with the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) report for 2025 — and inviting everyone who supplies anything to VIBAe to join us on this mission toward full transparency.
To our delight, the factories were already well aware of what sustainability means in practice.
José from our footbed factory and Flávio from our outsole factory, both interviewed by Tara, spoke about how they’ve always operated with responsibility and long-term thinking at the heart of their work.
We spent the day in good company, sharing ideas, filming, and wrapping it all up with a long, delicious Portuguese lunch. The work ahead is big, but the spirit is right — and we’re all in!
If you interested in our sustainability journey, you will find future journals with the tag #sustainability
