Why ‘eco-conscious’ fashion brands can continue to increase emissions

theguardian.com:

Fashion accounts for 10% of the world’s carbon emissions and is the second-most polluting industry in the world. But in an increasingly climate-conscious society, it is increasingly trying to present itself as sustainable to appeal to customers.

One big target is reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for the past two decades many brands have signed up to a scheme called the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an independent body that awards grades for environmental performance.

However, the Guardian can exclusively reveal how the fashion industry’s impact on the planet is being hidden. Thanks to the way the scores are calculated, household names such as H&M and Nike can claim an overall decrease in annual carbon dioxide emissions – and receive high scores from the CDP – despite their actual emissions increasing.

It’s all about the fine print. These fashion brands do report their gross global emissions, but these are calculated against total revenue. This means that as long as their emissions increaseless than their revenue increases each year, the total emissions are scored as a decrease. In Nike’s 2020 climate change report, it describes how “emissions increased 1% year over year, which was offset by 7% year-on-year revenue growth, resulting in over a 5% drop in emissions per revenue in [financial year 2019]”.

Despite the rise in emissions, the CDP scored Nike A-. H&M also self-reported “gross global emissions” increases in 2017 and 2018, but because those emissions increased less than revenue did, it reported an overall decrease and was also awarded an A- each year.

Linking emissions and revenue is only one of the tools provided by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which sets the scheme for emissions reporting. How emissions are