Jakob Lau (WAY Cph)
Normally, when you would go to a hotel or a beach club you would always be given two towels, so it covers your entire sunbed. We want to make a towel that is big enough to cover an entire sunbed, but is still light enough to travel with. In connection to sustainability, we need to think of how we travel; not in terms of transportation, but how we consume when we travel. A big part of traveling and going to hotels is the towels, and a lot of people tend to just throw the towels on the floor every day. That’s why the hotels use so much water–actually 50 million liters of water every day go into the washing of hotel towels.

In terms of packaging, we’ve designed everything around the towel to minimize a consumer’s footprint. This packaging is made of 100% organic cotton instead of any plastic. The packaging becomes a bag that you can actually use afterwards. We’re always thinking of the next step in terms of our consumer. What can they use? Our hang tags are made as postcards, for instance, so you don’t have to throw those out either.

Green Collective
As far as the towels themselves, I know you take a lot of pride in how those are made. Could you talk a little bit about the materials you use?

Marie Schøyen (WAY Cph)
They’re made of 70% organic cotton, and 30% recycled cotton, and they’re made in Portugal. Luckily the towels don’t have to be shipped that far to get to Denmark, where we have everything stored.

Jakob Lau (WAY Cph)
Our production partner in Portugal is a family owned business from the 70’s. In 2019 we visited the factory and we were very impressed by their know-how and facilities. They care at least as much about responsible production as we do which has earned them several certificates that make them a leading towel manufacturer in the industry.

Marie Schøyen (WAY Cph)
Everything is done under one roof. They get the cotton in and they spin it into yarn, and they dye it and they manufacture… so everything is done within the same company, which means that everything is controlled there. So they are much more able to make sure that all processes are as sustainable as possible, and also that the product doesn’t travel around the world, many times over.

Green Collective
So to rewind a little bit, you said that your background was in fashion. Can you talk a little bit about how that influenced you in your current business?

Jakob Lau (WAY Cph)
We’ve all been working more or less for 10 years in the fashion industry, mainly for high end fashion brands. And I have a background in communication and PR, where Marie has been in design, and Christel has been in production. So it’s sort of like the three competencies that are super valuable to starting a company like this, because all of the different fields have so much to do with sustainability, both in terms of how you make it and how you design a product that is durable, but also how to communicate it in a way so people actually understand what you’re doing.

Green Collective
How has knowing about the fashion industry and different types of materials and styles influenced you?

Marie Schøyen (WAY Cph)
I think a big part of the problem with sustainability in the fashion industry as it is now is overproduction. There’s a missing link between the designer and the consumer. We want to minimize that gap by trying to not overproduce. So we’re hoping that going forward, we can do a different way of selling directly to the consumer so that they pre-order online, and then we start production afterwards.