An Interview With Monica Sanders
Adaptability: Working in and leading a startup requires you to be free-flowing at all times. Generally, you need to be adaptable to a whole slew of different roles and responsibilities, to help fill gaps within the team since you don’t have the luxury of having hundreds of people working within the company. Some days I work on the sales side, some days on the product side, and some days on the legal side. The ability to adapt to incoming challenges is crucial to being able to lead a successful startup.
As ‘slow fashion’ grows in popularity, more fashion companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Renewable consumption has been gaining popularity for a while, as people recognize its importance, and many fashion companies want to be a part of this change. In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders in the fashion industry to discuss why they are embracing slow fashion and renewable consumption. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Alex Todorovic.
Alex Todorovic is co-founder and CEO of Arbor, an automated environmental footprinting software that enables brands to measure, improve, and showcase the CO2 metrics of their products. Utilizing his extensive background in both software and business development, Alex has put his sights on combating climate change, with a focus on always aiming to create a positive human impact. Alex’s passion for protecting the environment comes from his love of the outdoors and enjoys spending time in the Canadian Rocky Mountains for some hiking, snowboarding, or playing just about any sport.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?
I was born in Bosnia and grew up in Eastern Europe until I was 7; then my family and I immigrated to Canada. My childhood was definitely a bit… different to say the least. Around the time I was born, the war broke out in Bosnia and my family and I had to flee our homes. I was too young to remember any of this, but we ended up living in Macedonia as refugees for a while. Macedonia was a wild experience. We lived in an incredibly small town and our house was essentially connected to the woods. I would see wolves roaming around on the daily, huge snakes hanging out, and as kids, we’d play hide and seek in old blown-up buildings (from the war). When I was 7, we were able to acquire visas and immigrate to Canada. Life completely changed from there and everything got much better. I’ve been here in Canada ever since.
Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?
The Covid-19 global pandemic was a cataclysmic moment for our company. In the early stages of Covid, during those horrendous days of quarantine, my co-founders and I kept seeing stories popping up around the world about the effects of quarantine on the environment. With less human activity there was a distinct reduction in emissions in large-scale cities. I’ve always wanted to do something to help the climate issue, and witnessing this global shift in mindset around the world felt like the start of a larger wave towards tackling global warming. At that point in time, I and the other founders were in a bit of an advantageous position to risk it all and start a software company to help tackle the issue. I remember thinking “It’s now or never”, and I’m very glad I followed my gut. That’s how Arbor was born.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
There have been quite a few, but the one that sticks out the most in my mind is “The Norway Story”. In the early days of the company, we started talking to a large company in Norway as they were quite interested in our emissions data. As we got closer and closer to acquiring them as a customer, we decided to head to Oslo and meet in person to seal the deal. While my co-founder and I are flying to Oslo, our Airbnb fell through and canceled on us unexpectedly. When we arrived in Oslo at midnight, we found ourselves with nowhere to stay for the night. Puzzled by our predicament, I texted the CTO of the Norwegian company and told him our situation. He invited us to stay with him and his family at their house, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So we slept on their couches for a few days and hung out with their family — he even made us breakfast burritos every morning before we went into the office. At the end of it all, we got the deal signed and headed home. The moral of this story is to never give up and just say yes to everything.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
The three most instrumental character traits of a business leader are Adaptability, resilience, and empathy.
- Adaptability: Working in and leading a startup requires you to be free-flowing at all times. Generally, you need to be adaptable to a whole slew of different roles and responsibilities, to help fill gaps within the team since you don’t have the luxury of having hundreds of people working within the company. Some days I work on the sales side, some days on the product side, and some days on the legal side. The ability to adapt to incoming challenges is crucial to being able to lead a successful startup.
- Resilience: Just like with having to adapt to constant challenges, you need to be able to deal with constant setbacks, and ups and downs. Within a day you could experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and it’s up to you to be able to regulate your reactions and emotions to be able to keep a clear head. You’ll definitely get beaten up and down sometimes, but the resilience you learn along the way is invaluable to pretty much all parts of life.
- Empathy: Connecting with people and understanding their perspectives is key to being a good leader. If people aren’t able to see you as one of them and be able to openly and honestly connect with you, then there will always be a certain “wall” or “barrier” between you and your employees, and that wall can lead to communication breakdowns, toxic work environments, and distrust. If you want 100% out of your people, you need to be able to be open and honest with them, be vulnerable, and enable them to understand the intent behind your decisions and words, the “why”. Once someone truly understands the “why”, everything becomes easy.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Our team has the collective passion to do the right thing. Everyone who works at Arbor is 100% committed to creating change and fixing the climate issue, doing things the right way, and never cutting corners. I think that passion comes through our work, the way we communicate internally and externally, and the. We work on software to empower companies across the globe to make changes and take steps toward achieving sustainability, but we also try to do our part locally as well. As a team we are consistently looking for ways to help out however we can and just recently. We’ll frequently take a day off here and there as a company to help plant some trees, volunteer at a community garden, or give a hand at the local food bank during holidays. It’s small stuff but it helps us create stronger connections to what we’re doing, why it’s important, and watching each other elbow-deep in the dirt is always a good time.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that was relevant to you in your life?
It’s not really a quote, but I think balance is one of the most important things in life. Not just work-life balance, but balance in perspectives, approaches to challenges, and all parts of life. With most things, the answer is never truly on one end or the other; it’s usually somewhere in the middle, accounting for and understanding all angles and making informed decisions. This is a large part of my leadership style, and I feel it’s made me much more effective in creating and fostering relationships, problem-solving, and feeling confident in my decisions.
Who is your fashion hero or heroine? Why?
Honestly, anyone who can repair and mend their clothing. There is an overconsumption problem in our world, and I am not saying we need to stop making purchases together, but we need to all learn how to increase the longevity of what we already have. When we know what it takes to sew a few buttons or fix a rip in a pair of jeans, it helps us all understand the labor and time that goes into each piece of clothing we own.
Why did you decide to create and use a sustainable business model for your fashion brand?
I’ll be the first to say that I am not a fashion person, but I am someone who aims to make sustainable choices whenever possible. And since most of us tend to need to wear clothing –especially in the dead of winter here in Canada– it’s a natural starting point for consumer education and environmental awareness. But there is so much confusion and misinformation about sustainability that the average business owner has no idea where their products actually stand in comparison to the rest of the industry. Especially when so many fast fashion brands are causing so much damage but hiding behind dubious ‘eco-labels’ that are basically made up, we knew that our technology had the capability to help fashion brands at any scale be able to measure and understand the environmental impact of their products, pinpoint areas that need improvement within their supply chains, and provide their customers with trustworthy and variable data.
What are three things we should all know about “slow fashion”?
Nudie Jeans says it best with its tagline, “Repairing is Caring. Number two would be that slow doesn’t mean it isn’t innovative. It means that more consideration for all steps of production, from regenerative farming practices to the working conditions of the garment workers, all steps are equally weighted and worth advocating for. And the third would be the momentum of sustainable legislation that is taking governments by storm. For example, the proposed New York Fashion Act or the new digital product passports out of the EU. These are really crucial for driving a slow progressive fashion agenda –fast.
Can you please explain how it can be fashionable to buy less, wait a little longer, or even repair clothing?
That’s easy. There are so many technological advances in textiles that buying sustainable clothing doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice what we want to wear to be sustainable. For example, I am a huge snowboarder, and the clothing I probably spend the most money on is all the gear. And since I am not the best boarder out there, my gear can take a bit of a beating. But so many of the top brands are serious about improving the durability of their clothing without sacrificing the environment. Patagonia’s PVC-free membrane is a great example of that.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The movement I’d start would be the “buy less stuff” movement. Pretty self-explanatory but I think that a lot of our problems start becoming smaller if we as a society collectively decide that we’re not going to keep purchasing useless and unnecessary things. If there is less demand, then there will be less supply, and ultimately demand drives the amount of production and manufacturing that occurs, resulting in less impact on the environment. If people used more critical thinking in the things they buy, asking themselves the question “Do I actually need this?”, we’d see a decline in consumption, and, as a result, a positive impact on the environment.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
LinkedIn is the easiest way to keep up with what I’m doing and connect with me! And check out Arbor.eco/ or follow along on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Check out Arbor.eco/ or follow along on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
About the Interviewer: Monica Sanders JD, LL.M, is the founder of “The Undivide Project”, an organization dedicated to creating climate resilience in underserved communities using good tech and the power of the Internet. She holds faculty roles at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Tulane University Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. Professor Sanders also serves on several UN agency working groups. As an attorney, Monica has held senior roles in all three branches of government, private industry, and nonprofits. In her previous life, she was a journalist for seven years and the recipient of several awards, including an Emmy. Now the New Orleans native spends her time in solidarity with and championing change for those on the frontlines of climate change and digital divestment. Learn more about how to join her at: www.theundivideproject.org.
Alex Todorovic Of Arbor On Why They Are Embracing Slow Fashion and Renewable Consumption was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.