About Johnstons of Elgin
Founded in 1797, Johnstons of Elgin is a family-owned Scottish luxury clothing brand, specialising in the manufacturing of woven and knitted woollen and cashmere products. It is one of the few locations in the world to still operate a vertical weaving mill, overseeing every stage of production from raw fibre to finished garment. Johnstons of Elgin has long been committed to integrating sustainability at the heart of their business, with a consideration that goes beyond environmental responsibility to encompass ethical sourcing by ensuring the welfare of animals and fostering a fair and transparent working environment for its employees. In recognition of its efforts, Johnstons of Elgin received The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2021 and later in 2023, the company became Scotland’s largest certified B Corp in 2023.
Despite these achievements, the company recognised the need for a robust and strategic framework to support its existing sustainability initiatives and facilitate the transition from a linear to a circular business model. The challenge was then to establish a clear, data-driven strategy that would allow Johnstons of Elgin to assess and monitor its performance against industry benchmarks, identify key gaps, and drive meaningful change across its entire supply chain.
Leveraging the Future-Fit Business Benchmark
A key advantage of the Future-Fit Business Benchmark methodology, alongside the rigorous legal requirements of B Corp certification, is its ability to provide clarity and drive actionable steps across Johnstons of Elgin’s vertically integrated supply chain. The Future-Fit Business Benchmark provided Johnstons of Elgin with a structured yet flexible strategic framework to conduct a comprehensive gap analysis, helping to pinpoint areas requiring further development and enabling targeted action. By leveraging the Future-Fit Business Benchmark and other Future-Fit tools such as the Risk Profiler, and the CSRD Risk Profiler, the business was able to track and monitor progress against each of the 23 Break-Even Goalseffectively. This allowed the business to take a systems-view approach, collecting information, taking questions, and recording metrics from the Future-Fit Business Benchmark in order to better understand their organisation and gain autonomy over every aspect of their supply chain. These assessment tools quickly identified gaps in the business’s knowledge base and helped the company clarify roles and responsibilities across the supply chain, ensuring a solid basis to move forward from so that sustainability goals were embedded at every level of the organisation. The Future-Fit Business Benchmark enabled the business to track everything, whilst aligning with evolving regulatory frameworks such as the CRSD. This meant that the business was also able to facilitate a more seamless engagement with European customers and suppliers, who require compliance with these regulations. By using the Future-Fit Business Benchmark methodology, Johnstons of Elgin was able to strengthen its reporting systems, enhance transparency, and establish a solid foundation for long-term progress that is credible, science-based and easy to follow.
When describing the experience of using the Future-Fit Business Benchmark, Iain Findlay(Sustainability Specialist at Johnstons of Elgin) noted; “anyone starting from scratch [wouldn’t] be at any special disadvantage… [it is] something you can access very quickly,” emphasising the accessibility and practicality of the Future-Fit tools.
The Future-Fit Business Benchmark was therefore adapted and implemented as a tool to simplify complex data, support decision-making, and create a structured approach to sustainability reporting that would guide the company’s journey to a Future-Fit Society. As the company continues to refine its strategy and implement Future-Fit principles, this case study highlights how a certified B-Corp can leverage the Future-Fit Business Benchmark as a strategic framework, and as an easy-to-use tool, that provides a destination for business to transition towards – and to thrive as part of a Future-Fit Society.
To hear more about the implementation and adaptation of the Future-Fit Business Benchmark at Johnstons of Elgin make sure to watch Iain’s webinar.
