As part of our ongoing commitment to reducing our environmental impact, we’ve completed a comprehensive carbon footprint assessment. This assessment categorises our emissions across the three scopes: direct (Scope 1), indirect from energy (Scope 2), and other indirect emissions (Scope 3), with Scope 3 being the largest contributor. In particular, cloth manufacturing and transportation were identified as two of the most significant sources of emissions.

Total Carbon Emissions

After conducting our carbon assessment, we calculated our total emissions to be 1,832.57 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. This includes contributions across all areas of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. The most significant contributors are within Scope 3, particularly from cloth manufacturing, air freight, and bought-in goods such as bags and socks.

Breaking it down:

  • Cloth manufacturing contributes 245.26 tonnes of CO₂e.
  • International air freight generates 934.90 tonnes of CO₂e, which is by far our largest single source.
  • Additional notable contributors include the production of steel (31.93 tonnes of CO₂e) and plastic packaging (5.67 tonnes of CO₂e).

By recognising these numbers, we are now in a better position to prioritise where and how we can reduce our emissions, as part of our ongoing sustainability efforts.

Breaking Down Our Emissions Across Scopes

Our carbon emissions are broken into three categories, each with distinct sources:

  • Scope 1: Direct Emissions – These are emissions that come directly from assets we control, such as the fuel used in our company vehicles and gas consumption at our offices and manufacturing facilities.
  • Scope 2: Indirect Emissions from Energy – These emissions come from the electricity we use to power our operations. Though we don’t produce this electricity, our consumption contributes to emissions at the generation source.
  • Scope 3: Other Indirect Emissions – The largest and most complex category, this includes emissions outside of our direct control but related to our business activities. For Leon Paul, these emissions stem from raw materials like cloth, steel, and aluminium, as well as the transportation of goods.

Cloth Manufacturing: A Major Contributor to Scope 3

One of the larger contributors to our Scope 3 emissions is cloth manufacturing. This process is energy-intensive at multiple stages, from the extraction and processing of raw materials to the weaving and treatment of fabric. Additionally, use of fertilisers, which usually lead to the release of nitrous oxide (which, per tonne, leads to 280 times more warming than CO2), further increases the carbon footprint of textile production.

These findings underscore the need to explore more sustainable fabric options, as well as the material specific emissions from our cloth and work closely with suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of cloth manufacturing.

The high emissions that we can see in bought-in goods is due to a combination of air freight transportation emissions and the large emissions factor associated with the materials used to make the bags.

Transportation Emissions: The Weight of Air Freight

Transporting our goods, especially via air freight, emerged as another significant source of Scope 3 emissions. Air freight is fast but notoriously carbon-intensive, and it’s particularly impactful when shipping goods to distant markets like Australia and the USA. Our assessment, based on five months of data, shows that air freight contributes heavily to our overall carbon footprint

Emissions from Other Raw Materials

In addition to cloth, other raw materials like steel and aluminium also contribute to our Scope 3 emissions. The carbon intensity of producing these materials is significant, and while we would love to find an alternative, maraging steel and carbon steel are essential for fencing and would prove hard to replace.

Conclusion

Our carbon footprint assessment has allowed us to see clearly that our largest emission sources are cloth manufacturing and transportation. 

In the next post, we’ll share with you our investigations into why so much is transported by air and ways in which it might be possible to reduce our use of this very carbon intensive mode of transport.