Asos hits 2020 carbon target

Asos has announced it has reached its goal of achieving a 30% reduction in operational carbon emissions per customer order through its Carbon 2020 strategy.

The plan prioritised increasing energy efficiency, reducing delivery and packaging emissions, and expanding the company’s use of renewable energy to help it reduce emissions on a per-order basis.

The reduction was achieved despite significant growth at the online retailer, with sales jumping from £1.44 billion to £2.73 billion during the four years of Carbon 2020. The number of active customers grew from 12.4 million to more than 20.3 million.

The results were revealed in the annual Asos Carbon report. Speaking about the achievement, CEO Nick Beighton said: “In 2015, I signed off a new carbon strategy, ‘Carbon 2020,’ which defined how Asos, through the delivery of six big ambitions, planned to meet its goal to reduce carbon intensity – grams of carbon dioxide per customer order – every year until 2020.

“Those ambitions focused on reducing emissions relating to our customer deliveries and returns, order packaging, energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption, and switching to renewable energy sources.

“They were broad aims that helped us to define and focus our work on short-term goals. Five years on from the launch of Carbon 2020, we’re incredibly proud to have achieved everything we set out to – with a landmark reduction in carbon intensity per customer order of a staggering 30% since 2015, and consecutive reductions delivered every year since the strategy launched.”

The target applied to carbon emissions from Asos’ business operations, including transportation of goods and fulfillment centres, however it did not include emissions associated with product manufacturing. New sustainability targets will be announced later this year.

Asos hits 2020 carbon target

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