Halving our Carbon Footprint

Our plan in action

Our goal is to halve our carbon emissions across our value chain by 2030*, aligning with the industry-wide efforts under the UNFCCC Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and WRAP’s Textiles 2030 initiative. Under this overarching ambition to decarbonise our value chain, we have also set a near-term emissions reduction target that’s been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Our decarbonisation efforts are not easy and we’re learning a lot as we go. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Smarter Energy Use In Our Own Operations

We’re finding ways to save energy in our stores. All our stores and distribution centres, with the exception of our new store in Hungary, are certified to ISO 50001, the globally recognised standard for energy management systems. We’re also building our network of Energy Champions across Primark, with hundreds of colleagues now trained to drive down energy consumption in stores.

We ship most of our products by ocean, which has a lower environmental impact than air transport. Shipping by sea also helps to keep our prices affordable for our customers as it's more cost effective than air transport. Through our partnership, Maersk have started to introduce green fuel alternatives, such as biofuel, when shipping our products. To read more, click here.

Increasing Energy Efficiency And Renewable Energy Procurement In Our Supply Chain

Our product supply chain is where most of our carbon emissions come from. So, a large part of reaching our target involves helping our suppliers to reduce their emissions.

We started with rolling out energy and water efficiency pilot projects in China through the Apparel Impact Institute’s Clean by Design (CbD) programme. We’re continue to work with key suppliers on a decarbonisation programme which focuses on using energy more efficiently, reducing reliance on carbon-heavy fuels, and shifting to renewable energy.

We have launched a supplier performance metric requiring our top 100 suppliers to set GHG emission reduction targets within their own supply chain. Our aim is to encourage suppliers that have already taken action to reduce emissions further and give clear direction to those at the start of their journey.

We’ve also been connecting some of the factories in our supply chain and helping them negotiate energy contracts so they can use their combined purchasing power to access renewable energy.

Every step we take across the Planet and Product Pillar — from increasing energy efficiency to our use of more sustainable materials — contributes to our wider goal of reducing GHG emissions across our value chain.

Roadmap for the future

We’re identifying key priority areas for action now and in the future. In the short term, we will maintain our ISO 50001 certification and develop region-specific strategies for reducing the amount of carbon produced by the heating systems.

In our supply chain, we will continue to roll out our energy efficiency programme and support suppliers and factories to switch to renewable energy sources. We’ll optimise inbound transport modes to balance emissions, cost and time.

We know that there will be challenges along the way and we will support our ambition to halve our carbon emissions across our value chain with targeted long-term actions such as policy advocacy, improvements to data systems, supplier engagement and customer education.

Our Primark transition plan can be found here.

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* We’ve pledged to achieve a 50% reduction in absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030 from a 2018/19 base year. This target also encompasses the commitments we’ve made through:

• UNFCCC Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action 

• Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)

• WRAP’s Textiles 2030 initiative