Science-Based Targets: Adidas Races Ahead, 46% Don’t Even Have Data to Share

You can count them on your fingertips — the number of brands globally that have made some progress in meeting approved emissions reductions targets or commitments with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). A texfash.com exclusive.

Subir Ghosh

13 May 2022

3 minutes

Long Story, Cut Short

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a global body enabling businesses to set ambitious emissions reduction targets in line with the latest climate science.
As many as 20 of the 43 companies from the textiles-apparel-footwear-luxury sector drew a blank.
Apart from Adidas, other brands that have achieved some include Puma, Ralph Lauren, Zalando, Guess (US), YKK.

The global textiles-apparel industry is falling behind in meeting its approved emissions reductions targets or commitments with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). There are only a handful of companies that are doing well, and German major Adidas AG is the only textiles-apparel company to exceed both its Scope 1+2 And Scope 3 targets by a wide margin. And shockingly, close to half the companies selected for the detailed analysis did not even have publicly available data to share.

The only two other companies well into their specific targets matched against specific deadlines are Puma Se and Ralph Lauren Corporation.

The findings are from the SBTi progress report for 2021, published Thursday. The detailed analysis, which forms the appendix to the report, includes 692 companies and 142 small-or-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that had their near-term targets approved as of 31 July 2021. In all, 2,253 companies across 70 countries and 15 industries, representing more than one third ($38 trillion) of global market capitalisation are working with the SBTi.

From 1,565 targets reviewed in the analysis, the report showed progress information of 912 targets (58%) matched either with CDP climate change questionnaire data (90%) or other publicly available sources (10%). In addition, 42% of the targets reviewed were not reported in the appendix which detailed science-based target progress performance per-company and per-target as of 31 July 2021.

The Progress Dashboard on the SBTi website shows 43 companies from the textiles-apparel-footwear-luxury sector. No separate analysis for the sector is otherwise available as of now.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a global body enabling businesses to set ambitious emissions reduction targets in line with the latest climate science. The initiative is a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and one of the We Mean Business Coalition commitments. The SBTi’s goal is to provide companies worldwide with the confidence that their climate targets are supporting the global economy to halve emissions before 2030, and achieve net-zero before 2050.

Broadly, textiles-apparel-footwear-luxury sector (the way the fashion industry is classified in the SBTi matrix) is not doing too well.

The top performer that is miles ahead of most others is Adidas AG. The company had set a 90% reduction target for Scope 1+2 emissions and 29% target for Scope 3 emissions for 2025 with 2017 as the base year. In this backdrop, Adidas was 111% on Scope 1+2 targets and 333% on Scope 3 targets. In terms of timeframe 38% and 23% of the time has elapsed for the two Scope categories. Both categories were Absolute target types. [The SBTI allows four types of targets: Absolute (Overall emissions reduction); Intensity (emissions reduction per unit, e.g number of products manufactured); Renewable energy (share of RE in energy mix); Supplier engagement (Emissions reduction across suppliers, or number of suppliers that should set their own SBTs)].

Puma SE, Germany, is doing well too. It has achieved 254% of its 2017-30 Scope 1+2 targets, and 23% of its timeframe has already elapsed. However, its Scope 3 (in terms of Intensity) achievement stands at only 33%.

As many as 20 of the 43 companies drew a blank: they did not have the data to share. The remark against them was broadly: "No comparable progress data of SBT(s) was publicly found." Of the remaining 23 companies, there are only a handful that are keeping pace with time.

Ralph Lauren Corporation is the only other company doing relatively well. It has achieved 112% of its targets for 2020-30 Scope 1+2+3 (all combined), and only 10% of its timeframe has elapsed. Its 2020-25 Renewable Electricity target, however, stands at a lowly 4%. The Algo Group of Canada, which only has Scope 1+2 targets, has completed 180%.

Very few companies have targets for Scope 3 emissions within reach. Arc'teryx Equipment of Canada has achieved 108% on this (Intensity), and is into only 17% of its deadline. Guess of the US is 115% on an Absolute Scope 3 target for 2030, while YKK Corporation, Japan, is 120% on its 2018-30 Absolute Scope 3 target. The only other company of note is Zalando SE, Germany, which has fully met its 2017-25 Scope 2 Renewable Electricity target.

There are also some companies that score negative: meaning their emissions have increased, in some cases by a huge margin. A glaring example is Brooks Running which is -134% on its 2018-30 Scope 3 targets and -39% on its Scope 1+2 target.

Subir Ghosh

SUBIR GHOSH is a Kolkata-based independent journalist-writer-researcher who writes about environment, corruption, crony capitalism, conflict, wildlife, and cinema. He is the author of two books, and has co-authored two more with others. He writes, edits, reports and designs. He is also a professionally trained and qualified photographer.

Science-Based Targets: Adidas Races Ahead, 46% Don’t Even Have Data to Share

You can count them on your fingertips — the number of brands globally that have made some progress in meeting approved emissions reductions targets or commitments with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). A texfash.com exclusive.

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