WTF can we do to stop earth from overheating and cooking us all?
Well, without getting too deep into the details of upcoming technology – ARMEDANGELS is on the case. We’re told the global clothing industry contributes about 10%* to global CO2eq emissions. And, who suffers the most from the negative impacts of these emissions? *Source: European Parliament: The Impact of textile production and waste on the environment?
The global south, which contributes the smallest share of climate-wrecking gases. Climate change is closely connected to global equity and global supply chains. Coming back to what we do: FASHION in a global economy. Our task, therefore, is obvious. We can do something. So we will.
Source: EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: THE IMPACT OF TEXTILE PRODUCTION AND WASTE ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Measure
First things first, we took a closer look at our own direct emissions produced by our daily business.
We consulted REAL data from: our Headquarter (electricity, heat and water consumption), our daily duty stroke, all our business trips via train, plane and by car as well as our company cars, the provision of our B2B and B2C online shops. .
And, last but not least, the emissions of our showrooms. According to the GHG Protocol*, this includes data from the scopes** one and two, as well as parts from scope three. .
The result? We emitted 238.22 tons of CO2-Equivalent between May 2021 and April 2022, which served as the reporting period to take action in 2021.
What is the 'GHG-Protocol'? GHG Protocol is an internationally recognized methodological standard for measuring and managing climate-impacting emissions. If you want to learn more about the GHG protocol: https://ghgprotocol.org/
The scopes defined in the GHG Protocol serve to divide the emissions to be accounted for into different categories. Scope 1 covers the direct emissions of an organization, Scope 2 includes the indirect emissions from purchased energy, such as the emissions arising from the generation of purchased electricity. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions, such as emissions from the manufacture of products or services, but also business travel.
Reduce
The good news first: we already use renewable energy in our HQ and for our internet online shop.
Renewable energies
We try keeping our emissions as low as possible, as we already use renewable energies for our headquarter and our internet infrastructure.
Reduce Greenhouse Gases
We have not installed air conditioning (which has a high global warming potential due to the greenhouse gases NFC and PFC). But there is scope for further reductions.
Jobtickets & bikes
We offer our staff jobtickets, mobile working and bike repair services. We’re excited to see how this impacts next year’s data!!
Avoid traveling by plane
We avoid business flights, but if that is not possible at all, we compensate them. Further, we bundle business trips in the same region or country and we’re working on a solution for our company cars.
Offset
Next step: offsetting all climate-wrecking emissions.
This means investing in carbon offset projects to save on the same amount of CO2-emissions. The reduction is implemented through projects that save CO2 emissions by providing more efficient technology and by supporting renewable energy or approaches that use carbon sequestration (e.g. by reforestation).
Shortly: We emit 1 ton of CO2-equivalent, and a project saves or removes the same amount of CO2e. We’re aware of there are critical aspects of that approach, but decided that it’s better to do something imperfect NOW than do nothing.
Action
We chose to work with a biogas project in India.
How does biomass help fighting global warming?
Biomass projects involve energy that is created from renewable biomass: it could be coconut shells, sawdust or wood from sustainable sources. No trees are felled, or fossil fuels burned - therefore, no CO2 is emitted.
As an additional greenhouse gas reduction measure, such projects mostly prevent biomass from rotting in the air, so that no methane (CH4) is set free. Further, these projects support local communities with excessive agricultural crop wastes, as it provides a new source of income. A win-win-situation!
The Small Print
Our Corporate Carbon Footprint was prepared in collaboration with Climate Partner and in accordance with the guidelines of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (GHG Protocol).
Last year, our Company Carbon Footprint was 263 tons of CO2-equivalent. Now, you might think that we have already reduced it considerably.
Since we calculated our CCF for the first time last year and we will continue to work on the topic of climate components and, in particular, the calculation of Scope 3 and Life Cycle Assessments of our products, we decided not to include the transport routes from our production partners to our warehouse in the calculation of the CCF this year, since these correctly belong to the product assessments. Therefore, our CO2-eq emissions have decreased, but without the transport routes, they have slightly increased. This may be partially due to the fact that we have grown in recent years and, for example, our number of employees has increased.
It is therefore helpful to use a measure such as the CO2 intensity, in which the total emissions are set in relation to the turnover or the number of employees, etc.