Asos reports carbon emission reduction

Online fashion retailer Asos has reported a 21 percent year-on-year reduction in operational carbon emissions per order for its 2020 financial year, September 2019 to August 2020.

In its annual Carbon Report, Asos reveals a 13 percent reduction in absolute (total) operational carbon emissions over the reporting period, referring to emissions generated in the running of its business, including offices, inbound stock, customer deliveries, and returns.

As the number of orders fulfilled by Asos continued to grow through the period, the percentage reduction in emissions per order (21 percent) was greater than the reduction in total emissions (13 percent).

Emissions reductions were driven by several key projects, explains the online retailer, including the move to more localised fulfilment through the launch of Asos’ Atlanta fulfilment centre in 2019; switching to renewable energy for three-quarters of Asos’ global electricity consumption footprint across all sites; prioritising sea or road freight over air freight for inbound products; and further enhancing recycled plastic content in packaging.

Asos adds that the progress made over the last year, following the successful completion of Asos’ Carbon 2020 strategy meaning that emissions per order are now down 45 percent since the 2015 baseline.

Nick Beighton, chief executive at Asos, said in a statement: “We’re incredibly proud of what our teams have achieved against a very difficult backdrop. A 21 percent year-on-year reduction in operational carbon emissions per order is a significant achievement that shows our efforts to decouple our growth from our carbon footprint are having an impact. We know we have more to do in this area and we’re looking forward to sharing more on that very soon.”

Last year, Asos signed up to the British Retail Consortium’s Climate Action Roadmap, pledging to achieve net-zero emissions across its entire supply chain by 2040. In the report, Beighton confirmed that Asos would soon be publishing new, science-based targets in support of that 2040 commitment, ahead of the publication of integrated figures on emissions across the company’s entire supply chain next year.