Our Carbon Footprint

Scope 1 – All Direct Emissions

This covers any emissions directly produced by an organisation – this can be from any company vehicles, or from other greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions produced by boilers and air-conditioning.

Scope 2 – Indirect Emissions

This covers the emissions resulting in the production of electricity that we use – that’s basically everything from keeping the lights on to heating, cooling and running the electronic devices we need to work on.

Scope 3 – All Other Indirect Emissions

This covers everything else. Yes, everything. Anything from our activities that we do not own or control. That’s the footprint of any materials we buy, the shipping of those materials, the manufacturing process that turns them into garments, the further shipping of the materials to be sold, even through to waste disposal.

We first measured our carbon footprint across our supply chain and business in 2020 (scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions). We were supported by Green Element, an environmental management consultancy and fellow B Corp.

They have over 20 years’ experience helping businesses to become more sustainable, creating tools like Compare Your Footprint to provide organisations with an easier way to calculate the carbon footprint of their operations.  

Our early conversations centred around how much of our business we could feasibly obtain emissions for. Even before we started hunting down the data, we knew that a huge portion of the emissions we as a company are responsible for would fall into scope 3. 

Did it take longer? Yes. Did we find some things we’d rather not have? Obviously. The uncomfortable truth is that we produce a considerable amount of carbon making our clothes. Most of our carbon emissions come from our supply chain – from materials, transport, manufacturing, and distribution. Armed with the baseline data we were able to set reduction targets. 

We have used our 2020 baseline carbon footprint to set near-term science-based targets that are aligned to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5ºC cap on global heating. These targets have been officially validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) through their streamlined route for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We are committed to reducing scope 1 and scope 2 emissions 42% by 2030 from our 2020 base year, and to measure and reduce our scope 3 emissions. Our aim is to also validate our long-term net-zero target.

Since our baseline year we have extended the scope of our footprint to capture more of our scope 3 emissions, including homeworking, commuting and the end of life of sold products and packaging. 

Our total carbon footprint for 2022 was 3802 tonnes of CO2e.  

92% of our GHG emissions are produced in the supply chain – materials, transport, manufacturing & packaging – which is covered by scope 3. 76% of those emissions come from the textiles themselves; from growing to processing and creating the fabrics. 

Accuracy in data collection and reporting plays a significant role in the fluctuations of a business's carbon footprint. When we conducted our baseline assessment for 2020, a vast amount of the data we needed was not readily available. It was a huge learning experience. The impacts of the COVID pandemic also meant that our standard business operations completely changed, with stores and offices closed for prolonged periods. Although not ideal, this resulted in us having to rely on estimates to try and build up a picture of a ‘normal’ year’s carbon footprint.  

For our 2022 footprint, we applied improved carbon emissions factors; a way of measuring the carbon emitted by one unit of a product or activity. As we expected, these updates resulted in higher emissions for certain activities. We have also extended the scope of our footprint by including more categories and activities within our value chain. 

It's essential for businesses to stay informed about updates in carbon emission factors throughout their production chains and incorporate them into their carbon accounting practices, to ensure accurate measurement and reporting of their environmental impact. 

Our business has also grown in the last few years, resulting in increased needs for energy consumption, transportation, and production outputs. This has also led to a temporary increase in carbon emissions before the implementation of more sustainable practices. 

Furthermore, as supply chain transparency improves, we are gaining access to more accurate data regarding the environmental impact of different tiers of suppliers' activities. Achieving a more sustainable supply chain can take time and effort, but it is something we are committed to.

We are on track to achieve our scope 1 and 2 near term target by 2030. 

We now need to focus on cutting these indirect emissions (scope 3) to reach our climate goals, investing resources to help streamline the process. This will give us meaningful data on our carbon hotspots, enabling us to build a realistic carbon reduction strategy to meet our science-based targets.