Australian-owned menswear brand M.J. Bale has been named as one of The Australian Financial Review's Sustainability Leaders for 2022.
In addition to selection in the overall List, M.J. Bale was awarded the special distinction as a Category Innovator in Retail, Hospitality, Travel & Entertainment.
The award recognises the brand's journey to complete carbon neutrality in 2021 when M.J. Bale became the first Australian retailer to be Climate Active-certified as 100% carbon neutral, covering both products and organisation.
The Australian Financial Review also cited the brand's pioneering work in livestock methane reduction with the world-first zero-emission wool trial and the Lightest Footprint, an end-to-end project to create knitwear entirely in Australia with minimal carbon footprint.
The inaugural Sustainability Leaders list is an initiative of the Financial Review and Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
It celebrates organisations that are both achieving a positive impact on the environment and society and growing their business.
Sustainability Leaders list entrants were assessed against the four dimensions of BCG's SBM-I framework:
- How much environmental and societal surplus does the innovation create?
- How effectively does the innovation leverage environmental and societal surpluses into a more robust and resilient business model?
- The scale and scope of change driven by the innovation, which was considered across the organisation's businesses and product and service lines, and along the company's value chain.
- The extent to which the innovation utilised sustainability as a fulcrum for business advantage, and the impact on the entrant's industry and ecosystem.
M.J. Bale founder Matt Jensen said he was proud to receive the recognition.
"I have always believed that unlikely alliances bring unexpected outcomes. We have found that working collaboratively with science and agriculture can bring positive changes to our footprint.
"As a collective, Australian fashion can responsibly lead the world in local solutions to global problems if the three industries similarly combine. What is good for the planet has to now, undeniably, be good for business."