WE ARE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THAT BRORA IS CARBON NEUTRAL FOR 2021!
We are committed to making the best possible quality of clothes and delivering them to our customers worldwide. However, we do NOT want to have a negative impact on our planet. Brora has always been focused on ethical design and production. We want to use climate science to ensure we take full accountability for our entire supply chain, that we reduce our emissions everywhere possible and reach our net-zero target by investing in key initiatives to support efforts against climate change.
“We use the GHG Protocol methodology and believe companies should be responsible for all direct & indirect emissions”
Elena Aguirre Martin, BeZero Carbon
To achieve carbon neutrality, we first had to calculate Brora’s entire carbon footprint associated with our operations and products. This calculation included everything from the farmers and shepherds at the beginning of our supply chains through to the use and end-of-life phases, when our garments have been worn and loved by our customers for a lifetime. We have worked with BeZero to calculate our emissions for Scope 1, 2, and Scope 3. When most companies talk about their ‘carbon footprint,’ they don’t factor in their production line (Scope 3), mainly because they neglect what’s going on or because it will significantly increase their overall total emissions. At Brora, we know that transparency is key to accountability, which is why, with the help of BeZero and the GHG Protocol Standards, we have conducted a full assessment of our CO2e emissions, including all the indirect emissions we are responsible for from all our suppliers worldwide.
Because we work mainly with Scottish cashmere, organic cotton, wool, and linen, Brora already has strong sustainability credentials as these are ethically produced natural fibres. In 2020 we decided we wanted to go further with our carbon solutions and paired up with BeZero Carbon, who helped us identify and quantify the negative impact we have on the environment and reduce it to zero through smart decarbonisation.
Because we work mainly with Scottish cashmere, organic cotton, wool, and linen, Brora already has strong sustainability credentials as these are ethically produced natural fibres. In 2020 we decided we wanted to go further with our carbon solutions and paired up with BeZero Carbon, who helped us identify and quantify the negative impact we have on the environment and reduce it to zero through smart decarbonisation.
Indirect emissions, e.g. electricity
Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, e.g company cars & heating
All other indirect emissions that occur in a company's value chain
Indirect emissions, e.g. electricity
Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, e.g company cars & heating
All other indirect emissions that occur in a company's value chain
To run a modern fashion brand, there are always going to be aspects and activities that emit carbon emissions. We must source our fabrics, design and produce our clothing in factories around the world, then employ our head office team and shop staff which includes operational emissions from employees commuting, water and electricity use, and the heating of our premises. Then, there are also the emissions caused by the customer use phase.
“A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual, event, organisation, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent.”
Bezero Carbon
Top sources of emissions:
(1) Materials & pre-processing
(2) Product use phase
(3) Brora company emissions
(4) Production
(5) Distribution and storage
(6) End-of-life
A Life Cycle Assessment addresses the environmental aspects and impacts throughout the consecutive and interlinked stages of a products life, from raw material acquisition through to final disposal. We carried out a GHG Emissions Life Cycle Assessment, following the GHG Protocol’s Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard, and used a cradle-to-grave approach for our four key materials
Find out more about our materials and how we intend to maintain sustainable supply chains.
So how do we do better?
With the help of the BeZero Carbon team we re-evaluated our business to examine Brora’s wider climate impact, through our supply chain, operations and what happens to our clothes after you buy them. We have also measured the climate impact of every item of our clothing so we can identify areas for improvement. So, now that we understand our carbon emissions, we must first reduce them where possible and offset the rest so that our global impact is Net Zero and we are carbon neutral.
How are we carbon neutral?
We have reduced our carbon emissions where we can; optimising our shipping, examining our energy consumption, and redesigning all our packaging to reduce plastic waste. We have made changes to the fabrics we use where necessary, for example switching from regular cotton to organic cotton to make our lovely white embroidered shirts, pyjamas, and cotton clothing. We will conduct a new assessment with BeZero Carbon every year to measure our emission reductions and see where we can improve further and systematically reduce our impact.
How are we carbon neutral?
We have reduced our carbon emissions where we can; optimising our shipping, examining our energy consumption, and redesigning all our packaging to reduce plastic waste. We have made changes to the fabrics we use where necessary, for example switching from regular cotton to organic cotton to make our lovely white embroidered shirts, pyjamas, and cotton clothing. We will conduct a new assessment with BeZero Carbon every year to measure our emission reductions and see where we can improve further and systematically reduce our impact.
How do we offset our emissions?
We are now investing in a variety of climate-positive projects which we wholeheartedly believe are environmentally beneficial and which neutralise our carbon emissions through carbon sequestration. We chose to invest in projects that align most closely with our activities, for example in dealing with soil carbon and textile waste. We believe in putting back where we are taking out, so after much consideration, we have chosen four projects, based in the UK, India, the USA and Mongolia. For example, our cashmere is all woven, spun, dyed, and knitted in Scotland but the raw fibre comes from goats in Mongolia; one of the projects we are financially supporting is a Grassland Conservation project in Mongolia. However, we have also invested in a reforestation project in Scotland, even though it will take between fifteen and thirty years for us to benefit from these newly planted trees and offset any of our carbon emissions through this scheme. We wanted to invest in projects worldwide as Brora is obviously a global company and Climate Change is obviously a global issue. Emissions have a global impact, greenhouse gasses are produced and absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere which is all-encompassing.
Every year we pledge to remain an environmentally sustainable brand by working with BeZero Carbon to reduce and offset our carbon emissions, ensuring Brora is fully carbon neutral.
Founder & Creative Director Victoria with Tommy Ricketts, CEO of BeZero Carbon
www.bezerocarbon.com