ASOS posts 21% year-on-year reduction in operational carbon emissions per order
ASOS posts 21% year-on-year reduction in operational carbon emissions per order
- ASOS publishes latest Carbon Report, detailing emissions reductions activities undertaken in its 2020 financial year and highlighting a 21% year-on-year reduction in operational carbon emissions per order
- Emissions per order are now down 45% since 2015 baseline
- ASOS commits to setting science-based targets this year with reporting on integrated emissions across full supply chain from 2022
LONDON, Thursday 8th July 2021: ASOS, one of the world’s leading online fashion retailers, today reports a 21% year-on-year reduction in operational carbon emissions per order for its 2020 financial year (September 2019 to August 2020).
The announcement, detailed in ASOS’ 2021 Carbon Report published today and available to read here, follows the successful completion of ASOS’ Carbon 2020 strategy in January 2020. The progress made over the last year means that the reduction in operational emissions intensity (emissions per order) now stands at 45% since 2015.
The Report also reveals a 13% reduction in absolute (total) operational carbon emissions over the reporting period. Operational carbon emissions refer to emissions generated in the running of 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%) was greater than the reduction in total emissions (13%).
Emissions reductions were driven by several key projects: 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.
Commenting on today’s announcement, ASOS CEO Nick Beighton said: “We’re incredibly proud of what our teams have achieved against a very difficult backdrop. A 21% 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 a foreword to the Report, Beighton confirmed that ASOS will 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.
To read the full ASOS 2021 Carbon Report, head here.
-ends-
Notes to editors
ASOS’ 2020 Carbon Report (published in January 2020 and reporting on September 2018 to August 2019) is available to read here.
To read more about the British Retail Consortium’s Climate Action Roadmap, head here.
About ASOS
ASOS is an online retailer for fashion-loving 20-somethings around the world, with a purpose to give its customers the confidence to be whoever they want to be. Through its market-leading app and mobile/desktop web experience, available in ten languages and in over 200 markets, ASOS customers can shop a curated edit of 85,000 products, sourced from 850 of the best global and local third-party brands and its mix of fashion-led in-house labels – ASOS Design, ASOS Edition, ASOS 4505, ASOS Luxe, As You, Collusion, Reclaimed Vintage, Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT. ASOS aims to give all of its customers a truly frictionless experience, with an ever-greater number of different payment methods and hundreds of local deliveries and returns options, including Next-Day and Same-Day Delivery, dispatched from state-of-the-art fulfilment centres in the UK, US and Germany.
ASOS's websites attracted 248.6m visits during February 2021 (February 2020: 214.1m), and as at 28 February 2021 had 24.9m active customers (29 February 2020: 22.3m), of which 7.8m were located in the UK, and 17.1m were located in international territories (29 February 2020: 6.8m in the UK and 15.5m internationally).
About Fashion With Integrity
ASOS’ corporate responsibility programme, Fashion with Integrity drives its transparent, responsible and inclusive approach to business. It’s how ASOS works as a business, and with its third-party brands and partners, to transform the impact of fashion on people, animals and the environment. The four Fashion With Integrity pillars - Our Products, Our People, Our Customers and Our Community - feed into ASOS’ core business strategy and into how every ASOSer does their job.
Read more here.