Estimating our full life carbon footprint is incredibly exciting. It focuses the urgent action to tackle our climate crisis and our contribution to limit global warming to 1.5°C. In 2022, we hit our ambitious emission reduction target 8 years ahead of the deadline!
It's powerful stuff:
We estimate that two-thirds of the carbon impact of a product is spent in making it. Just 15% of the impact is in your ownership.
The single biggest thing you can do to reduce your footprint is use your gear for longer. Extending the life of your kit from 3 years to 5 years will reduce your carbon footprint by 40%. And then pass it on or recycle it when you’re done with it so it doesn’t go to landfill.
It's time to look beyond Leave No Trace. Leave No Trace suggests we can live life with zero impact. We all have an impact. Let's make it a good one.
Our actions define who we are. In everything we do, we look to do more good and less bad.
We do our bit to achieve our Science Based Targets:
We joined Science Based Targets (SBTI) to make our contribution to limiting global warming to 1.5°C. SBTI have confirmed our targets to:
But in 2022, we hit our Scope 1 and Scope 2 Science Based Targets 8 years ahead of schedule. We’ve reduced our carbon intensity by over 36% in three years and on track for absolute net zero ahead of SBTi timescales.
Carbon Neutral under PAS2060, the British Standard for Carbon Neutrality allows buying carbon offsets. We are skeptical about carbon neturality and buying carbon offsets as it does not tackle emissions reduction. We see carbon neutral as a point to pass through on our journey to Net Zero.
Net Zero is the near absolute reduction in a full value carbon chain.
2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |
Carbon Intensity (Scope 1 and 2 emissions per $m sales) | 1.0 | 4.5 | 6.1 | 8.3 |
Full Carbon Chain Emissions | 18kg | 23kg | 27kg | 28kg |
GHG Emissions (tonnes CO2e) | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
Scope 1 Direct Energy | 18 | 20 | 22 | 22 |
Scope 2 Indirect Energy | 8 | 12 | 24 | 54 |
Scope 3 Alpkit Operations | 71 | 71 | 65 | 111 |
Scope 3 Upstream Manufacture | 2,520 | 3,293 | 2,245 | 2,334 |
Scope 3 Downstream Use and Care | 899 | 816 | 496 | 553 |
Total Cradle to Cradle Estimate | 3,514 | 4,211 | 2,853 | 3,075 |
Scope 1 Direct Energy | ||||
Gas | 4 | 7 | 8 | 3 |
Wood Pellets and Logs | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Fuel for Cars and Van | 13 | 12 | 14 | 19 |
Total Scope 1 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 22 |
Scope 2 Indirect Energy | ||||
Electricity | 77 | 50 | 47 | 54 |
Less: from certified renewable sources | -69 | -38 | -22 | - |
Electricity | 8 | 12 | 24 | 54 |
Scope 3 | ||||
Alpkit Operations | ||||
Well-to-tank and electricity distribution | 32 | 22 | 14 | 17 |
Water and Waste | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Business Miles | 12 | 12 | 6 | 11 |
Air Travel | 3 | 0 | 9 | 34 |
Employee commuting | 45 | 48 | 41 | 61 |
Home working | 23 | 21 | 11 | 2 |
Cloud Storage | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
Other purchases incl packaging | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Total Scope 3 – Alpkit Operations | 71 | 71 | 65 | 111 |
Upstream Manufacture | ||||
Airfreight | 194 | 549 | 164 | 214 |
Seafreight | 50 | 40 | 24 | 28 |
Product Manufacture | 2,275 | 2,704 | 2,057 | 2,093 |
Total Upstream Manufacture | 2,520 | 3,293 | 2,245 | 2,334 |
Downstream Operations | ||||
Delivery to customers | 71 | 52 | 33 | 33 |
Customer journey to store | 243 | 231 | 144 | 187 |
Customer Use and Care | 581 | 529 | 318 | 331 |
End of Life | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
Total Downstream Use and Care | 898 | 816 | 496 | 553 |
Our carbon footprint methodology has been verified by Nottingham Trent University.
We have estimated our footprint using the official UK government conversion factors. These are averages and we use our internal shipping and product data with usage research we have carried out ourselves or sponsored. We have made reasonable management estimates and rounded up where we need to so our footrprint should be seen as a “scoping exercise” to indicate the broad quantum of emissions rather than a precise calculation.
The accuracy of our footprint will get better each year as we revisit and refine the methodology and underlying dataset.
Knowing your Net Zero from your Carbon Neutral can be confusing.