Minimising our environmental footprint
Minimising our environmental footprint
After two years of intensive work mapping every aspect of our operations and value chain to measure our total carbon footprint, we have embarked on an ambitious decarbonisation mission: to reduce our relative carbon emissions by 30% by 2030, from a 2022 baseline. Our decarbonisation strategy
← More energy-efficient manufacturing In May 2024, after alignment and commitment meetings with each CEO and top management of our Tier 1 suppliers (garment level), we launched a pilot programme to identify energy-efficiency opportunities at supplier level. Accompanied by engineers, we measured each step of the fabric and garment manufacturing process to establish concrete actions we can take together to reduce their emissions. We plan to scale this programme to all our suppliers, and estimate it has the potential to reduce our total emissions by up to 10%.
Given our historic and projected growth, working with absolute reduction targets presents challenges. Our decarbonisation strategy therefore uses a relative target, taking the total absolute emissions and expressing them in relation to the weight of products produced and sold. This allows us to see, by produced and sold products, how we can reduce our relative impact by 30% in just under eight years.
← Full-company commitment to action Setting an ambitious corporate goal is one thing, but achieving it requires a solid plan and a deep sense of ownership that is felt throughout the entire company. In April 2024, we brought all our employees together for an inspiring event to share the steps we have taken so far, explain the details of our decarbonisation strategy and our 2030 target, and reinforce the fact that we all have a role to play in this huge and exciting project. Collaboration across the value chain With most of our emissions linked to activities outside our own operations, we know we need to work closely with those in our value chain to achieve our goal. Rather than simply setting benchmarks for our suppliers and partners, we are actively helping them to identify opportunities based on the primary data collected, and develop ambitious yet feasible action plans to transform their operations. Central to this approach are 12 multistakeholder working groups that unite our suppliers and partners, Stanley/Stella employees, and independent experts. Since launching our strategy at the beginning of 2024, some working groups have already started making progress.
← Lower-impact logistics Although transportation from the cotton fields to end customers only represents around 5% of our total emissions, we aim to further reduce our impact. Our logistics working group is collaborating closely with our transportation partners to reduce their emissions by transitioning to lower-emission fleets. We have also given our partner warehouses a 25% emissions reduction target and have established strict emissions criteria for selecting future warehouse partners.
← Greener offices Emissions from our own offices account for less than 1% of our total emissions, but through specific actions, we can reduce those emissions even further. For example, in 2024, we hope to install geothermal heat pumps at our Brussels headquarters – subject to a feasibility study by the building owner – which could potentially reduce natural gas consumption for heating by 50%. This, in addition to our green electricity sourcing, our 317 rooftop solar panels with a 90 kWp installed capacity, and our use of rainwater for toilet flushing, would help us turn our workplace into an even more resource-efficient space. We have also defined a new green company car policy and travel policy to cut our carbon footprint. These and other actions should help us achieve our ambitious target of a 60% reduction in office emissions by headcount by 2030.
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