This article is the first in our new series, Business Unusual, where we spotlight disruptive ideas from forward-thinking companies that challenge how we do business and why. Their ideas might not work for everyone, but business as usual isn’t cutting it, so why not try something new?
My first season attending Copenhagen Fashion Week included lots of new experiences: a fashion show in a beer factory, a presentation at the top of a crane and jumping into a canal with a group of branding, communications and sustainability professionals I’d never met before, on camera.
The latter isn’t as strange as it might sound. As part of a new Vogue Business series called Business Unusual, I’ll be spotlighting the unorthodox methods businesses use to disrupt status quo thinking. First up? Copenhagen-based jewellery giant Pandora, whose staff began swimming in the city’s canals post-pandemic, as a way to reconnect with nature and de-stress amid their busy work schedules.
My energy is pretty depleted when I arrive at the Pandora offices, situated on the waterfront in a newly developed part of Copenhagen called Enghave Brygge. It’s 8am — not a great start for a late riser like me — and I’ve had a whirlwind week of back-to-back shows, events and meetings. To be honest, I’m ready to flop back into bed.
But that’s why — in large part — the Pandora team does these swims. Pandora has a 33,000-strong workforce, who are under pressure to deliver targets of between 9 and 12 per cent of organic growth and a profit margin of around 25 per cent in 2024. Within this, the 11-person global sustainability team is working towards the company’s goals of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero by 2040 — no easy feat considering it is the world’s biggest jewellery brand by volume. Meanwhile, sustainability professionals across the industry increasingly report feeling burnt out as siloed teams with limited budgets are asked to meet ambitious targets.
The Pandora swimmers who work in sustainability or adjacent roles say that getting outside — hitting reset on an otherwise heavy day — helps them stay motivated and able to crack tough challenges. For example, when the company was mulling how to halve its emissions, the team took to the water to work it out. In the meeting that followed, they were finally able to pin down a strategy that combined “data and gut feeling”, says Pandora SVP of global communications and sustainability Mads Twomey-Madsen.
Two of Pandora’s main sub-goals came from this post-swim conversation: only purchasing recycled gold and silver and only using renewable energy in the production process. Coming up with meaningful solutions requires thinking outside the box, so why not take that thought process outside of the office?
Thankfully, on the day of my swim, it’s August and the sun’s out, so my introduction to cold water swimming will be much more tame than the below-zero temperatures the regular swimmers encounter in January.
I have high hopes. Twomey-Madsen, who swims a couple of times each week with the pre-lunchtime group, describes the swims as “a better energiser than coffee”, which brings you back to work “in a totally different headspace”. Director of corporate branding Christine Drud Von Haffner, part of the once-a-week early morning set, says they are “a complete reset when you work on high-visibility projects at a high pace”, helping you handle the pressure.
Like many of its Nordic neighbours, Denmark is known for its long, dark winters. There’s even a word for the sluggish feeling people get when they’re deprived of natural sunlight: “sløj”. Pandora’s process manager Rosselin Pastoriza, who is originally from Venezuela and moved to Copenhagen in 2021, says this hit her particularly hard last year, with cold water swimming — referred to as “winter bathing” during much of the year — being what helped her through. “I was very depressed, but winter bathing meant I had people to speak to and something to look forward to. Even when it’s still dark, you know you’ve done something good for your body and your mind,” she explains. “Swimming meant I could go to work and still be optimistic.”
Sustainability director Stephanie Vélez underlines the mental health benefits. “The swims are a great dose of peer encouragement, and they prove your perseverance in the face of hard challenges, both of which you need to work in this field,” she says. “It’s also about engaging with the nature around you, and forcing yourself to take breaks in the middle of the day, to seek out the things that are good for your mental and physical health, and keep yourself grounded. We keep doing the right thing, even if other people think we’re crazy.”
Winter bathing is just one of the company’s extracurricular clubs, designed to promote work-life balance and break down silos between teams. Other — less extreme, or at least less cold — activities include dancing, cooking and wine tasting. Pandora says many teams now take their one-to-one meetings outside and most company-wide offsites take place in nature, away from sterile meeting rooms. When employees have meetings around the city, there are Pandora-branded bikes and kayaks available to get them there.
Clearing the mind
It only takes a couple of minutes to walk down to the water, where we gather on a wooden jetty the team calls the “power bridge”. “It’s where we get the strength to get into the cold water,” explains corporate brand manager Matilde Munk Lantto, who lives just a few minutes away from the office and often kayaks to work. She’s the leader of the pack today, walking me through the protocol she developed with her fellow swimmers.
First, we line up for some breathing exercises, inspired by the now-famous cold water swimmer and motivational speaker Wim Hof. The exercises are probably overkill on a sunny day when the water is warmer, but the team tells me it bolsters them in the dead of winter. “You have to prepare your body for the cold water,” says Lantto. “It’s a great opportunity to stay really present, to listen to the water and the people next to you. It also tells your brain that everything is completely normal, because you’re breathing in a slow way. So you can stay calm, even when the water is really cold.” Either way, it’s a good reset. I feel the frenetic energy of fashion week melt away as we breathe in unison.
We step up to the water’s edge. In winter, when the temperatures drop below zero and a more measured approach is needed for safety, the team uses the steps to slowly ease in. Today, we can afford to have fun with it. Never having mastered a graceful dive, I opt for a cannonball jump.
As I plunge into the water, my mind clears, and I realise this is what I’ve been craving all week. All the potential awkwardness of swimming with strangers disappears once we’re in the water together, splashing around and enjoying the sun. I spend so much time sitting behind a desk, staring at a computer screen, often feeling stressed and overstimulated. I can’t think of anything better to balance that out than doing something singular and fun, immersed in nature.
I try to imagine the Vogue Business team doing something similar in London — our offices are also on the waterfront — but the prospect of jumping into the River Thames is nowhere near as appealing, or safe. That said, it’s a relatively recent development in Copenhagen, too. The EU only declared the water safe for swimming in 1999, after a government-led clean-up operation that included rerouting wastewater, building overflow barriers and underground water storage vessels, and developing an alarm system to shut down swimming spots if excessive rain threatens to pollute the harbour. “I feel very lucky to live in a modern city where this is possible,” says Twomey-Madsen.
Before we get out of the water, we gather in a circle and high five, a light-hearted ritual the team developed to keep morale high in the colder months and to create a sense of unity among swimmers. “No one gets out until we have done the high fives,” says Lantto. “It’s mostly fun, but it can be a little stressful if someone has swum further away and the others want to get out!”
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