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Energy & Carbon

Everything we do has an impact. At Fatface, we are committed to reducing our impact on the planet through our energy use and the waste we generate.
Our activities still produce greenhouse gas emissions – commonly known as a carbon footprint. The accumulation of these gases in the atmosphere is the leading cause of climate change. So we are working towards reducing our energy usage and our greenhouse gas emissions.

Highlights of our activities include:

• Our main energy use comes from lighting our stores. We have converted all our stores to run on LED lighting, which is more energy efficient (Scope 2).

• We use renewable electricity tariffs for all FatFace managed sites. Each unit of electricity comes with the associated Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) certificate to prove it comes from renewable sources like solar, tidal and wind power (Scope 2).

• Gas makes up around 4% of our direct energy consumption*. For this small gas requirement we have chosen to be supplied with Biomethane, or Biogas as it is sometimes known. Biomethane is typically produced using organic waste material, such as food scraps or animal manure. Biogas has a significantly lower carbon footprint than standard natural gas and comes with Renewable Gas Guarantees of Origin (RGGO) (Scope 1).

• Given that most of our greenhouse gas emissions happen in our supply chain, we are working with key manufacturing partners to understand their energy use and emissions, and to collaborate on reduction projects together where appropriate (Scope 3).

*To learn more about our plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, read page 21 of our ESG report.

A company’s emissions are categorised into areas called “Scopes”:

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Scope 1 (direct)

Company facilities

Company vehicles

Scope 2 (indirect)

Purchased electricity

Steam, heating and cooling

Own use

Scope 3 (indirect)
Upstream activities

Purchased goods and services

Capital goods

Fuel and energy related activities

Transportation and distribution

Business travel

Employee commuting

Leased assets

Waste generated in operations

Scope 3 (indirect)
Downstream activities

Transportation and distribution

Processing of sold goods

Use of sold products

End of life treatment of sold products

Leased assets

Franchises

Investments

Figure 1. Sources of Greenhouse gas emissions by Scope and category. Source: GHG Protocol

Scope 1: Direct Emissions

These are emissions produced directly from sources we own or control. For us, this mainly includes the gas used in our boilers for heating and the refrigerants used in our cooling systems.

Scope 2: Indirect Emissions

These are the emissions created from the use of purchased energy, like the electricity to power our stores, warehouses, offices, etc.

Scope 3: Other Indirect Emissions

This covers all other indirect emissions associated with operations upstream (before our products reach us) and downstream (after we sell our products). It also includes some things we control, like business travel, distribution and logistics.

The majority of our emissions (which have been calculated by Sustainable Advantage ) are defined as Scope 3. And the most significant contributor within Scope 3 is known as Category 1: Purchased Goods and Services – the upstream part, with our suppliers. This alone accounts for over 80% of all emissions, and falls outside of our direct control.

We have also created our Preferred Materials Guide. This strategic framework ranks materials based on greenhouse gas impact as well as water use, chemical safety, transparency, social impact and availability of the material or yarn. You can learn more about it at Our Materials.