The Carbon-Cutting ‘Rat Race’
With the climate crisis wreaking havoc - from fires to floods - the fashion industry’s climate impact is increasingly on the chopping block. The fashion industry produces between 2-8% of global carbon emissions. If nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbon budget.¹
But fashion is not alone in having to clean up its carbon mess.
As sea levels rise and forests fall, corporates from legal, logistics and finance to fashion are pledging to squeeze carbon out of their supply chains in what feels like a carbon-cutting rat race.
While many corporates have already started implementing their carbon reduction transition strategies, reducing scope 3 emissions remains a major challenge.
Like us consumers, corporates have to take more responsibility for their entire actions. That’s why corporates - either voluntarily or increasingly by law - have to start measuring and reducing their entire emissions, including at Scope 3 level.
Scope 3 emissions encompass the indirect emissions produced across a company's entire value chain. Among Scope 3’s top contributors are 'purchased goods'. Depending on the company, ‘purchased goods’ can be anything from cotton used to manufacture clothing, office supplies like paper and ink cartridges, to corporate products and packaging.
It’s a welcome development that environmental disclosure laws are changing, signifying a positive step towards greater transparency and accountability in corporate sustainability. In the EU alone, over 50,000 EU companies have to disclose their impact on the environment to help consumers and investors make sustainable choices.³
And this will likely trigger a re-examination of procurement decisions. Research shows that over 90% of the total emissions for an average law firm typically sit within scope 3.⁴
So law firms, amongst others, must grapple with more sustainable sourcing to lower their company’s environmental footprint and enhance their corporate reputation.
Through R Products, we engage in specific waste rescue missions in collaboration with corporates to create unique, responsible corporate products and packaging. We then co-craft the product’s messaging with our corporates to aid their responsible storytelling.
Check out the saving of our typical tote made from rescued fabric waste compared to a similar tote made from virgin materials.
