This outdoor apparel retailer was scrambling to understand their emissions impact, especially from Scope 3 purchased materials, at a time when its industry peers were already making great strides in this area. To uphold brand reputation and keep up with increasing customer demand for more sustainable products, the client became interested in exploring less emissions intensive products and developing science-based targets.
However, the company was facing an ongoing lack of resources and organizational leadership on climate. In addition, their internal processes and tracking systems for GHG data were scattered and decentralized.
Sustainable Business Consulting stepped in and became the company’s de facto sustainability team. We led the client through the following activities:
- Conducted a full GHG assessment across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 to help the client uncover data gaps
- Tracked down the necessary information from staff to calculate emissions and set up centralized systems to enable the company to track its footprint year-over-year
- Identified opportunities for emissions reduction and more sustainable materials purchasing – SBC found that emissions from purchased materials used in their products made up 60% of the company’s footprint
Through this analysis, the company was able to self-sustain its carbon footprinting efforts going forward using the tools and resources provided by SBC. Based on the emissions hotspots identified, the client was also able to focus their efforts on initiatives that would make a meaningful difference in reducing their product footprint – in this case, engaging and collaborating with suppliers to optimize product design. Finally, the company enjoyed increased buy-in and support from leadership and became motivated to take next steps and drive progress on emissions reduction.
