Farfetch offsets carbon produced by deliveries

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 22, 2020

Luxury e-tailer and brand owner Farfetch has committed to offsetting the carbon impact of all its deliveries and returns, through its new Climate Conscious Delivery. 

Its four global projects focus on planting and protecting forests, as well as investing in new renewable energy developments. That’s all happening in Brazil, the US, India and China.

The company also said it’s not just offsetting but is reducing its emissions by shipping with "more efficient packaging sizes and incentivising retail and brand partners to select the correct size box for their item; [and] shipping pieces in bulk via its fulfilment network”. And it’s also moving to more renewable energy in its offices.
 
It’s all part of its ‘Positively Farfetch’ sustainability initiative that debuted in 2019. 

The business is working with EcoAct, a major sustainability consultancy, to measure and calculate its carbon footprint in line with the internationally recognised Greenhouse Gas protocol.

The latest move follows a series of developments in the last year, including new product features and campaigns designed to help its consumers to shop more consciously. These include both the SecondLife resale launch and its donation service with Thrift+.

The firm’s Director of Sustainable Business, Thomas Berry, said: “Carbon emissions are the world’s biggest contributor to global warming, and we feel it is our responsibility to minimise our impact as much, and as soon, as possible. As a platform, our largest impact lies within our logistics network and we’re pleased to  offer Climate Conscious Delivery to our customers who have already told us they are interested in sustainable delivery options. Our focus is on carbon reductions but, alongside that, offsetting is the most economically efficient way for us to reduce our environmental impact immediately. We believe that we are the first luxury multi-brand marketplace to offset in this way.”