Online fast fashion retailer Asos has achieved a 30% reduction in operational carbon emissions per order over the last four years, but says customer delivery remains the most material part of its footprint and is a “continued focus”.
In an update of its Carbon 2020 strategy, launched in 2015/2016, the fashion group says during the three years of Carbon 2020 – which ran from FY16 to FY19 – Asos grew from a GBP1.44bn (US$1.84bn)-revenue business with 12.4m active customers, to a GBP2.73bn business with 20.3m active customers, resulting in an increase in total emissions.
However, as a result of its Carbon 2020 strategy – which prioritised increasing energy efficiency, reducing delivery and packaging emissions, and increasing Asos’ use of renewable energy – the company says emissions fell on a per-order basis.
In 2018/19, total emissions were 271,016 tonnes CO2e, growing by 14% when compared to the previous year (2017/18: 237,001 tCO2e). However, the number of orders fulfilled also increased, while emission intensity (tCO2e/order) decreased by 3% year-on -year, making it the third year in a row where the group’s intensity per order fell.
The emissions reduction refer to those resulting from Asos’ business operations and does not include the carbon emissions associated with initial production.
“We recognise the importance of measuring and reducing emissions associated with product manufacture, and currently cover this through our work with the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan,” the company says.
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By GlobalDataIn its update, Asos says the most significant area is the delivery of orders to customers, accounting for 48% of total emissions. Total emissions from customer deliveries were 129,765 tonnes (CO2e) in 2018/19, which was 18% lower than the previous year despite a 17% increase in parcels delivered. On a per order basis, emissions were reduced by 30% between 2017/18 and 2018/19.
“Although we have reduced emissions within this area by 18% this year, it remains the most material part of our footprint and is a continued focus,” it adds.
Meanwhile, the transportation of goods to and between Asos’ fulfilment centres accounts for 30% of emissions. Over the past year, these emissions increased by 55,781 tCO2e, primarily due to the opening of a new fulfilment centre in Atlanta in 2018.
Further to the rise in inter-site emissions, Asos also saw a 72% increase in the emissions resulting from the inbound transportation of goods from factories to fulfilment centres. This was mainly caused by an increase in the amount of goods transported by air freight.
“We understand the impact that air freighting has on our transportation emissions and are working with our logistics partners to trial new and more efficient solutions for moving goods,” Asos explains. “One trial we conducted this year was transporting stock from China to Europe via rail as opposed to air. We calculate that this could reduce emissions by 94% when compared to air freighting and provides a quicker alternative to shipping.”
The emissions associated with goods returned to Asos by customers make up 12% of the total, while the running of its fulfilment centres, general business operations and packaging comprises the final 10%.
In a foreword to the report, Asos CEO Nick Beighton says: “In 2015, I signed off a new carbon strategy, ‘Carbon 2020,’ which defined how Asos, through the delivery of six big ambitions, planned to meet its goal to reduce carbon intensity – grams of carbon dioxide per customer order – every year until 2020.
“They were broad aims that helped us to define and focus our work on short-term goals. Five years on from the launch of Carbon 2020, we’re incredibly proud to have achieved everything we set out to – with a landmark reduction in carbon intensity per customer order of a staggering 30% since 2015, and consecutive reductions delivered every year since the strategy launched.”
Asos is expected to announce new targets later this year.
