What We Would Have Spoken About If We Were at Copenhagen Fashion Week
The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Impact: Why Your Margin Calculator Is Lying to You
What if I told you that the product you're celebrating as your bestseller is actually costing your business more than you realise? Not in six months. Not when compliance catches up. But right now—in reputation, in risk, and in real margin erosion you can't see because your departments aren't talking to each other.
Copenhagen Fashion Week leads the world in sustainability standards, yet even here, the gap between sustainability ambition and commercial execution remains frustratingly wide. We’ve spent over four decades in fashion retail, and we've watched this pattern repeat itself across brands of every size: buyers are under pressure to deliver margin, ESG teams are scrambling for compliance, finance wants profitability, merchandising wants sell-through, and marketing wants compelling stories to tell. The problem? These conversations happen in silos, often after the purchase order is signed. The cost? Reactive fixes, compliance scrambling, reputational risk, and margins that look good on paper but don't account for the full picture.
The Siloed Decision-Making Crisis
Traditional margin calculations are incomplete, and we all know it. Buying teams optimise for speed and margin. ESG teams audit compliance after the fact. Finance measures profitability without lifecycle impact. Merchandising plans sell-through without risk visibility. Marketing tells a sustainability story they can't always substantiate.
The consequences are real and expensive: products that hit margin targets but fail compliance audits, costing you in rework, delays, and reputational damage. "Sustainable" ranges that don't perform commercially because impact wasn't balanced with profitability from the start. Reactive firefighting when supply chain issues, material sourcing problems, or greenwashing accusations emerge. And perhaps most frustratingly, lost opportunities to leverage high-impact, high-margin products that would have performed brilliantly if positioned correctly.
Your traditional buying margin doesn't tell you what this product actually costs when you factor in lifetime value, what risks you're inheriting with this supplier or material, or how this product supports—or undermines—your brand's sustainability commitments.
A Different Approach: Bringing Everyone to the Table
Together with Jo Ward and our partners at Brand Conscience we've developed The Impact Margin Calculator—a tool born from our combined 40+ years of retail experience. It's designed to get everyone in the room before sign-off, not after the damage is done.
The concept is straightforward: bring all departments into one conversation at the point of placing an order, when decisions can still be influenced. The tool combines traditional buying-in margin with product-level impact calculations, enabling businesses to see true profitability when lifetime value and environmental impact are considered together. It integrates seamlessly with existing systems, provides a collective view that supports proactive decision-making, and creates a shared language across departments.
For buyers, it means a clearer picture of true margin and the confidence that selected products won't come back to haunt them in compliance or reputation issues. For ESG teams, it's finally having a seat at the table during buying decisions, not just conducting post-purchase audits. Finance gets visibility into lifetime value and risk-adjusted profitability. Merchandising can plan assortments that balance impact and performance. Marketing gets authentic stories backed by data, with no risk of greenwashing accusations.
Why This Matters Now
The stakes have never been higher. The EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, greenwashing crackdowns, and transparency legislation globally are changing the game. Gen Z and Millennial shoppers demand proof, not promises. Sustainability is both a purchase driver and a dealbreaker, and brand trust is fragile and hard-won.
The competitive advantage goes to sustainable brands that also perform commercially. Early movers on integrated impact-margin thinking will lead the market, and Copenhagen Fashion Week brands, already held to the highest standard, have the opportunity to exceed it.
The cost of inaction? Reputational damage from compliance failures, margin erosion from reactive problem-solving, and lost market share to competitors who get this right.
Moving Forward
If you're running a sustainable brand, you need alignment across departments, proactive decision-making rather than reactive firefighting, commercial credibility for your sustainability commitments, and tools that help you move faster and smarter than the market.
The Impact Margin Calculator isn't about adding complexity. It's about using what you already have more intelligently—integrating with your existing tech stack, pulling data you're already collecting, and displaying impact margin alongside traditional margin at the point of decision.
Because the truth is, your margin calculator isn't lying to you. It's just not telling you the whole story. And in 2026, the whole story is the only story that matters.