At Redress, we believe that creating a more circular fashion industry requires more than changing the way clothes are designed, it requires rethinking the systems, business models and values that shape how fashion is made and consumed. As a partner of the Redress Design Award 2026, fresh accounting shares its perspective on why purpose and commercial sustainability need to go hand in hand, and why businesses have an important role to play in creating positive social and environmental impact. In this guest article, fresh accounting CEO Paul Gardner explores the growing role of purpose-led business and the importance of building the financial foundations that allow purpose-driven ideas to thrive over the long term.
by Paul Gardner – CEO, fresh accounting
Why did you start your business? For many of us, the honest answer is profit, making money, providing for the family, perhaps building to sell and exit.
The dominant model in our economy is the shareholder-driven business, built to maximise returns. But every model has its limits, and the tendency to think in short-term cycles has led to an extractive nature in many industries rather than long-term stewardship. The businesses that will endure are those built on something more than the next quarter’s returns. Globally, conscious consumerism has moved from niche to mainstream, with educated buyers increasingly choosing brands that align with their values. The talent market has also shifted correspondingly. We are seeing a generation that questions the purpose of their employer’s work, and a business without a clear purpose is seen as indifferent or worse. Purpose is no longer idealism. It is a necessary business strategy and a core competitive advantage for attracting both buyers and talent.
We see this with emerging sustainable fashion designers. A young sustainable label can win a global competition, earn its press coverage, and still struggle after three years because nobody taught the founder how to price a garment that costs more to make responsibly, or how to model cash flow through a production cycle. Purpose gets social entrepreneurs started, but it’s financial architecture that lets them survive long enough to bring that purpose to life. When we look at the designers coming through the Redress Design Award, we see immense creative ambition that must be matched with rigorous financial literacy. Circular fashion may involve higher upfront costs, whether that’s sourcing sustainable materials or ensuring ethical manufacturing. Mastering cash flow and responsible pricing are essential because sustainable fashion is a business.
Having spent the past 12 years in Asia, I see firsthand that the future of the global economy lies here. Asia is already proving that purpose and profit can coexist. By educating and empowering designers and consumers, Redress is accelerating the shift to a circular fashion industry. Its flagship Redress Design Award has been the world’s leading circular fashion design competition since 2011, and its alumni are now building sustainable labels across Asia and beyond. That is why fresh accounting was a partner of the Redress Design Award 2026 in Hong Kong this September to support these entrepreneurs.
But these success stories are still the exception and not the norm. The cultural and structural barriers for purpose-driven businesses are real. Investor expectations and business culture in hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore still heavily prize immediate financial performance. If Asia is to be the story of this century, the challenge is to go beyond building purpose in business. It’s about successfully commercialising that purpose in complex and capital-intensive industries like fashion. With growing wealth, talent, and a sustainability-conscious consumer base, Asia has all the right ingredients. What’s needed now is the structural will to reinvent the business model.
Reflecting on fresh accounting’s own business journey, the deeper choices that defined our company were never about maximising returns in the first place. It was about finding unique, strange, wonderful people to do business with. From that founding philosophy came structural choices that reflect our purpose. We give shares to employees. We maintain a diverse client mix, where larger clients help subsidise smaller, purpose-aligned ones. We invest seriously in training and development, because a business that doesn’t grow its people has already decided to stop growing. And we are deliberate about the clients we choose to serve because purpose-led clients attract purpose-led advisers. The ecosystem builds itself.
Accountants will have a bigger role to play in the shift to purpose than most people realise. We measure what matters, and right now, most firms measure only financial performance. But the governance of purpose is as important as the governance of profit, and arguably more so because it is harder to enforce. A social mission that isn’t embedded in a company’s financial architecture does not generate impact. It will not survive a change in leadership or a down year. This is where accountants come in. We have the tools, and the professional responsibility to build frameworks that make social enterprises sustainable rather than merely aspirational. This is true even for companies that would never call themselves social enterprises — every ESG commitment, every sustainability pledge, and every community initiative that doesn’t make sense in the financial statements will not drive meaningful impact over the long term.
The real test of any purpose is whether it survives you. For that to happen, it must be embedded in the culture and structure of the business itself. In the Asian Century, businesses that treat profit and purpose as opposites have already lost the next decade. Finding your purpose is just the first step, but building the financial architecture to sustain it is a lifelong endeavour. Ultimately, every business should be a social enterprise.
fresh is accounting partner to the Redress Design Award 2026.