Sustainability has long been a concern for XD Connects. A decade ago, for example, the Dutch promotional products supplier with offices in Europe, the United States and China launched a line of apparel made from recycled materials.

But in 2021, the company underwent a seismic shift in the way it approached its environmental impact. That year, CEO Albert van der Veen attended a presentation about brands marketing their products as being made of recycled polyester or other sustainable textiles – without having any kind of traceability to back up those claims.

“It opened our eyes,” says van der Veen, an industry veteran who spent many years at European promo supplier PF Concept before joining XD Connects in 2010.

After the meeting, he went back to his own team and asked if they could get definitive proof from vendors that XD Connects’ low-impact products were actually made of recycled polyester. But they couldn’t. “We’re claiming something to the whole market, but we don’t actually know if it’s true,” he recalls thinking.

So, XD Connects (which was known as Xindao until rebranding in 2022) partnered with Aware, another Dutch company, which combines physical tracers on textiles with a public blockchain to create a virtual passport that authenticates sustainable materials throughout the production process, with each link on the supply chain sharing validated primary data.

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Albert van der Veen, CEO of Dutch supplier XD Connects, Counselor’s 2024 Sustainability Advocate of the Year, details his company’s approach to sustainability and why it’s paramount to prioritize better practices.

Koen Warmerdam, co-founder and brand director for Aware, notes that though XD Connects initially implemented Aware technology simply “to address the challenge of verifying the origin of materials within their supply chain,” the partnership has deepened in the ensuing years. “Integrating Aware technology has not only enabled them to authenticate their materials, but has also provided invaluable insights, empowering them to identify areas for improvement and prioritize their commitment to sustainability.”

XD Connects didn’t stop with soft goods, though; it went through a similar soul-searching process with its hard goods as well. The supplier’s dedicated, five-person ESG team spent two years developing an independently verified lifecycle assessment (LCA) tool that calculates the cradle-to-grave carbon emissions generated by each of its products. Then, crucially, it publishes those figures on its website and in its catalogs.

“We believe this is the way going forward,” van der Veen says. “We cannot bull**** anymore. … We don’t say that we’re the best, but we’re trying. You have to start somewhere, and you have to be transparent.”

As part of its emphasis on ESG, XD Connects has set an ambitious roadmap, with various short- and long-term social and environmental goals, including a commitment to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 40% compared to a 2022 baseline year by 2030 and to reach carbon neutrality by that same year.

“We believe this is the way going forward. We cannot bull**** anymore. “Albert van der Veen, XD Connects

“We could be there tomorrow,” van der Veen admits, simply by purchasing carbon credits to cancel out any emissions generated by the supplier. And the company does plant trees and invest in other carbon-offsetting projects to compensate, but van der Veen says that’s just a starting point: “We want to see what we can do ourselves with our own behavior and specifically in Scope 3 emissions.”

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions are associated with energy purchases directly in a company’s control, but the vast majority of emissions for most businesses are Scope 3 – indirect emissions generated up and down a company’s value chain, encompassing everything from raw material extraction and product transportation to end-of-life concerns.

XD Connects has put much of its Scope 3 focus on assembling a portfolio of sustainable products, made from recycled materials, using its LCA tool to ensure their carbon footprint is actually smaller than traditional materials. The supplier’s 2030 goal is to have 95% of its collection made from lower-impact materials. As of 2024, XD Connects is already at 81% lower-impact products.

“It’s a huge investment and a big cost to the company, but that’s what we want to do,” van der Veen says, adding that though he’s honored that his company was named Counselor’s first Sustainability Advocate of the Year, it’s also a distinction he hopes one day won’t even be necessary. “I hope all suppliers step in this direction and that everybody is using the same LCA tool, the same requirements and the same resources, that sustainability becomes a market standard and we have to compete on different elements again.”