Distributors | Must Read Baumgaertner, the group becomes a chorus in laying out the urgent case for American promotional products firms to follow Baumgaertner’s lead on sustainability and the verification of green claims. Cybergroup had been on the journey for several years before becoming a bluesign client and beginning to use its leverage with suppliers to have them test their products with the company. But he points out that access to bluesign’s method of testing all the raw components of a garment, as well as the dyes and chemicals used in its production, have prepared Cybergroup for strict new E.U. regulations to guard against greenwashing that will become effective in 2026. “I totally believe in bluesign as the answer to this,” Baumgaertner says. The company approached Baumgaertner with its services in 2021, seeing like-minded Cybergroup as the perfect initial client to explore the promotional products space. Over the last three years, Cybergroup and a number of its key supplier partners have invested tens of thousands of Euros to enhance the demonstrability of product responsibility claims. Both Baumgaertner and Weiss consider this something of a down payment on the cost of doing business in the near future. In some instances, clients already insist on bluesign certifications. In at least one instance, Cybergroup has removed programs from longtime supplier partners that did not engage bluesign. “The only question from a money perspective was always, more or less, do we need it to stay in business?” Weiss says. “And then it actually doesn’t matter if it’s $2,000, $5,000 or $50,000.” *** From the lips of CEO Daniel Rüfenacht, the average cost to partner with bluesign is more like $25,000 to $30,000, but it can push to upwards of $40,000 for larger firms with complex needs. Like Cybergroup, bluesign makes no apologies that its services are geared toward larger clients. Along with testing products for suppliers, it is seeking to work with the largest distributors who have strong leverage with their supply chain partners. But when I speak to Rüfenacht via Teams in March, he doesn’t excuse smaller players from an obligation to verify their green claims. “If they buy left, right and center just to get a lower price, it’s going to be a challenge for them,” he says. “I would see it more as an opportunity for them to position themselves if they have a good relationship with their suppliers.” A step beyond the concerns of industry small businesses fighting ever harder against wellfinanced competition, Rüfenacht casts a pall over the prospects of the entire industry if it doesn’t get on board with green certifications. Historically, bluesign’s focus has been on serving retail brands (clients include Adidas, North Face and J.Crew). These typically have been more likely to draw the attention of nongovernmental organizations than a rather secluded industry like ours. But who’s to say that lasts forever? In March, France’s lower house of Parliament approved a bill that would impose a $10 tax on every fast fashion item sold in the country, with the aim of reducing that industry’s environmental impact. The bill, still pending approval by the French Senate, also forbids the advertising of those products. “If France starts, it will proliferate into Europe,” Rüfenacht says. “Europe will adopt the same law, and at some point, the U.S. would be the same.” He points to the impending failure of the A mainstay in the retail fashion industry, bluesign is only now bringing its services to the North American promotional products industry. PPAI • JUNE 2024 • 59
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