Green Card: How Galvin Green's Eco Drive Could Drive Long-Term Success

As Galvin Green releases its third annual Sustainability Review, we take a deep-dive and consider how environmental responsibility could deliver both solid ethical practice and commercial advantage.

Galvin Green's recent announcement of a strategic partnership with 59club UK — a company which provides customer service technology for almost 300 golf clubs in the UK and Ireland, including many of the most prestigious, such as Mount Juliet, Ballybunion, Gleneagles and The Belfry — has brought some industry headlines and fresh attention to the high-end Swedish apparel firm.

In comments accompanying the announcement, Stewart Clare of Galvin Green UK & Ireland said: “Both organizations are committed to delivering excellent customer service, and this collaboration presents a fantastic opportunity to engage with Europe’s largest market in a meaningful way.”

This is no new departure for Galvin Green. Excellence and “meaningfulness” have long been part of the 35-year-old company’s ethos, and it has quietly been pioneering golf industry sustainability for over a decade.

And its recently published third annual Sustainability Review provides a compelling window into how this premium Swedish company is approaching business in the 2020s.

Galvin Green’s 10-Year-Plus Sustainability Journey

Recent years have seen a rush of brands suddenly discovering sustainability — leading to the rapid growth of the term “greenwashing” to describe profits-driven corporations’ realization that some commitment to climate and sustainability, even if it’s lukewarm, might be useful to survive in the court of public opinion.

Galvin Green, in contrast, appear to have been committed to environmental and social responsibility initiatives dating back at least ten years.

Founded in 1990 by Tomas Nilsson, the company has evolved from being primarily focused on innovative waterproof golf apparel to integrating sustainability throughout its entire operation.

In the early and mid 2010s, Galvin Green began focusing on bluesign® certified fabrics and implemented cardboard packaging reduction measures that reduced package volume by 30%.

By the 2020s it had incorporated OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 certifications — a label for textiles tested for harmful substances which provides a benchmark for textile safety — into its VENTIL8™ PLUS shirt collection, ensuring that every thread, button, zipper and other accessory has been independently tested.

In 2021 Galvin Green was named winner in the “Sustainability in Sport” category at the Sports Technology Awards for their INSULA™ sweaters made from recycled plastic bottles.

That same year, Galvin Green became an Innovation Partner with the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf.

A significant milestone in Galvin Green’s sustainability strategy came in 2023 when it formally adopted the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the framework for its ESG strategy, and in April 2024 the company formally decided on the three key SDGs that would get its strategic focus:

• Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth

• Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

• Goal 13: Climate action

Galvin Green’s 2025 Sustainability Review

Its third annual Sustainability Review released this month (April 2025) provides concrete evidence of Galvin Green's commitment, organized around five key pillars:

1. The Company (including its workplace and workforce)

2. Sourcing Practices

3. Products

4. Relationships, and

5. The Future.

Notable achievements

Energy and Resource Management:

• Solar panels installed at the Swedish headquarters in 2022 now provide approximately half of the energy needed for the office and warehouse

• A switch to LED lighting in 2024 is projected to halve electricity usage for warehouse lighting

• Travel and car expenses have been significantly reduced over five years, including a switch from company-leased to rental cars, which has reduced car expenses by 97% since 2018

Supply Chain Optimization:

• US and UK distribution centers have been established, dramatically reducing shipping distances, costs, and associated carbon emissions. For example, in 2023, none of the company’s US or UK e-commerce orders were shipped from within the country of purchase, but those figures reached 60% for the US and 12% for the UK last year, and projections for 2025 are for the numbers to hit 80% and 25% respectively — impressive growth in in-country shipping from a standing start

• The company maintains a returns rate below 17% (compared to the US industry average of 24.4%), partly through AI-powered sizing technology and improved customer support

• Dead stock and samples are never discarded but are sold at staff flash sales, donated to local organizations, or offered to retailers at discounts

Materials and Certification:

• Currently 83% of garments in Galvin Green collections are produced using sample-tested, bluesign® or OEKO-TEX® Standard 100-approved fabrics

• Material certifications vary by product category, with waterproof and INSULA fabrics achieving 100% certification, while interface and cool layer fabrics are at 75% and 80% respectively

These metrics provide ample evidence of sustainability progress, moving the conversation beyond mere marketing claims to tangible, measurable improvements.

Sustainability-Driven Operational Excellence

Galvin Green's approach is notable for how deeply sustainability is embedded in day-to-day operations rather than being siloed in a separate CSR department.

The company's purchasing department works directly with manufacturers to ensure efficient shipping practices, with 90% of deliveries arriving directly from manufacturers rather than being transferred between warehouses.

This not only reduces carbon emissions but also improves delivery efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Employee well-being initiatives exemplify the company's holistic approach. These include:

• A staff wellness program that offers non-taxable benefits for sports activities, physiotherapy and massage

• Options for staff of golf club memberships or stipends to support other sports and wellness activities

• Office amenities like fruit, snacks, coffee, and ergonomic assessments, as well as menstrual products, electric car charging for head office staff and a program for buying or leasing electric bikes.

• Regular employee surveys introduced in 2024 to evaluate well-being and job satisfaction

Perhaps most distinctive is their approach to product development.

Rather than fast fashion's disposable model, Galvin Green invests in rigorous material testing — sometimes taking up to two years before introducing new fabrics — to ensure durability and performance.

As CEO Nicholai Stein wrote in his message in the Sustainability Review:

“The most sustainable piece of clothing is the one you already have in your closet, and owners of our products will know they can rely on their Galvin Green pieces for years.”

Image via Galvin Green’s Instagram page

Galvin Green and the Business Case for Sustainability

Many brands have been accused of superficial sustainability claims that often, on closer inspection, amount to little more than marketing, leading to that explosion in the term “greenwashing”.

The Sustainable Agency published a report in January 2025 listing “greenwashing” examples at 18 well-known organizations, including Ryanair (for “false low emissions claims”), HSBC (“misleading climate ads”) and Shell (“gaslighting of the general public”).

Galvin Green's approach, seemingly grounded in a decade and more of culture and ethos, appears to be in contrast to the sustainability-as-marketing approach.

But it also raises an interesting question: does genuine sustainability make business sense beyond public relations?

The evidence suggests it does, particularly for premium brands. While the European Union has long been accused of excessive regulation, there’s no doubt that there’s something in the European business ethos that seems to look longer-term, and certainly beyond short-term profit-at-all-costs.

If Galvin Green does prioritize quality, thoughtful design and long-term thinking over — or at least alongside — immediate revenue concerns, then it is part of a longstanding European tradition.

That tradition includes the likes of fellow Swedish firm Volvo, long renowned for safety and engineering excellence, German pencil-maker Faber-Castell, which invests in sustainable forestry and has also adopted the UN’s SDGs in recent years, another German firm Miele which prides itself on designing appliances for a 20-year lifespan, and even LVMH, the French luxury firm which has become one of the world’s biggest companies on the back not of mass appeal but exclusivity and tradition.

For Galvin Green specifically, sustainability appears to create business value in several ways:

Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings

• Reduced returns and logistics costs through better sizing technology and localized distribution centers

• Energy savings through solar panels and LED lighting

• Waste reduction through comprehensive recycling and reuse programs

Risk Mitigation

• Proactive compliance with a dedicated ESG/Compliance Supervisor helps the company stay ahead of increasingly stringent environmental regulations

• Supply chain transparency reduces risks of disruption or reputational damage

Customer Loyalty and Premium Positioning

• Authentic sustainability efforts resonate with today's values-driven premium consumers

• Product longevity reinforces the brand's quality credentials and justifies premium pricing

• Sustainability certifications provide credible third-party validation that backs up marketing claims

The relationship between quality, longevity and environmental responsibility creates a virtuous cycle.

Durable products that last for years reduce the frequency of replacement purchases, which lowers resource consumption and waste while simultaneously building extended customer loyalty.

Looking Beyond Marketing

The final and perhaps most compelling piece of evidence that distinguishes Galvin Green's sustainability efforts from the dark underbelly of greenwashing is the integration of environmental and social responsibility throughout their business model, backed by measurable data and third-party certifications.

The company's executive team now comprises a near gender parity (4 men, 3 women), and the overall staff is 55% male, 45% female.

Approximately 17% of Swedish headquarters employees drive electric cars, while 37% cycle or use electric scooters to commute.

These details might seem minor — some too-corporate types, brought up on the hustle of laser focus on the immediate bottom line at all costs, might even call them “bullshit” — but collectively they seem to paint a picture of a company where sustainability is much more than just a marketing department initiative.

It is, or seems to be when looking at all the available evidence from afar, a core operating principle that influences decisions across departments.

It might still be too early to definitively state that sustainability is a key driver in long-term financial performance, but Galvin Green's approach seems to demonstrate that for premium brands, environmental responsibility and commercial success don’t have to be in conflict. They can be strategically, even fundamentally, aligned.

The lesson from their journey isn't that every company should immediately install solar panels or switch to LED lighting, but rather that thoughtful, data-driven sustainability initiatives, carried out over time and steadily integrated into core business operations, can create a deep well of value that might only be felt years down the line.

For Galvin Green, living and breathing its tagline “We Never Compromise”, the Green Card may indeed be one of its most valuable assets.

Thanks for reading.

Shane