“It’s a fine line to walk,” Adam Mott tells me over a phone interview. “The idea of sustainability and not being seen as reactive but proactive.”

Mott has been overseeing the Corporate Sustainability program at The North Face since he joined the company in 2007 as the Corporate Sustainability Manager. Soon to be moving on into another sustainability role for The North Face under their VF parent company in Hong Kong, Mott’s #1 responsibility has been to incorporate sustainability into the business practices and corporate culture of the company.

Sounds straightforward, but when you’re working to help develop everything from the creation of environmentally responsible products to working with internal and external stakeholders, it’s a pretty tangled web to navigate.

But what if you could focus on one thing and make it really good, really sustainable. With thousands of products being created for the company, The North Face decided it would explore that one big (good) idea for just one of their products: a hooded sweatshirt.

“We are all starting to realize that people want to know more about where things come from and what resources are being used. I don’t think the new consumer is looking at it as ‘all or nothing’ but they want companies to do something,” says Mott.

Something is right. That hooded sweatshirt. In terms of The North Face looking at traceability, where would the cotton for that sweatshirt come from? Where would it be spun? Could it be naturally dyed? The North Face reached out to Fibershed founder Rebecca Burgess, whose business expertise lies in bringing together local artisans, growers, spinners, knitters, ginners, and manufacturers to create bioregional manufacturing.

Her favortie part of the project? “Discussing the details about how to construct the garment while keeping the values of localizing the supply chain, waste reduction, and a modern look,” says Burgess.

Read the full article on the Brooklyn Fashion+Design Accelerator.