Ace & Tate What do cities, glasses, and bikes have in common?
Marlot Kiveron is Sustainability Manager at Ace & Tate, the Amsterdam-based eyewear brand. After joining the company’s supply chain team, Marlot worked with CEO Mark de Lange to develop Ace & Tate’s sustainability strategy. Part of this involves finding greener ways for the Ace & Tate team to get to work – which is why they’ve decided to partner with VanMoof.
What is Ace & Tate doing to become more sustainable?
On the production side of the company, our main focus is transparency – through our Life Cycle Assessment and CO2 report. We use it as a benchmark to find the real impacts of our products, processes, and behaviour. We were the first in the eyewear industry to publish this information last year. It’s our ambition to become an engine for positive change in our industry, and we do everything in our power to reduce harmful impact in every way we can. We talk about this openly on our blog and Responsibility page.
To reduce our carbon footprint, one of the obvious action points is transportation – how we move both products and people around. In Amsterdam, we work with a bicycle courier network to distribute our products around the stores. We’re trying to cut down on business flights via our new travel policy, and thanks to our partnership with VanMoof, we’re promoting cycling among our employees – especially outside of the Netherlands, where biking isn’t so common. Some of our London team have already ordered their VanMoof bikes, and we hope this will spread to other places.
We’re ultimately trying to implement practices with a positive social and environmental impact, with the end goal being completely circular frame production and carbon neutrality. We want to make sure these methods are embedded in everything we do.
Why did Ace & Tate decide to work with VanMoof?
The partnership with VanMoof started after your CMO Dave Shoemack gave a talk at one of our Culture Club events at Ace & Tate HQ. We started the Culture Club to make sure we protect our company culture as we grow. One of the ways we can do this is by partnering with brands that inspire us and share our vision.
Having a beautiful bike that aligns with our creative perspective of the world is something which massively inspires us. Your company bike programs are a way to promote change in a positive way that motivates people, which also fit our business model from a sustainability point of view.
It’s a match on every level: our companies are very young, innovation-driven, and connected to cities. It was a sort of no brainer, this collaboration developed very naturally – at a certain point, it was just there.
What’s the connection between Ace & Tate, VanMoof and the city?
When we open our stores, we always try to connect with the local community – by collaborating with local artists, organizing art exhibitions, or hosting events in our spaces. We want to attract people in ways that aren’t retail-focused, so we can build a bridge between Ace & Tate and the city.
VanMoof has a similar impact. You’re connected to the city, and inspiring communities people to rethink the way they move around or commute to work. Obviously, this has a huge effect on the city itself, and it’s only going to get bigger in the future.
Want to get your employees riding with VanMoof? Visit our Company Bikes page.
