🌎 Why @ganni's new CO2 commitment is such a big deal (Part 1) 🌍 Carbon emissions are one of the main causes of the climate emergency, so tackling them is a key part of brands' sustainability strategies. The problem is, a lot of the time those strategies don't really work. Here's how fashion normally deals with its carbon emissions: A brand will measure its carbon footprint, and then say that by year X they'll be carbon neutral. How do they do that? Usually through offsetting, which means compensating for your carbon footprint by paying for carbon to be reduced somewhere else. The most popular method is through planting trees. The problem is this doesn't really guarantee that there will actually be less carbon in the atmosphere. Offsets aren't really regulated, and there's a lot of shady initiatives out there. If a tree sucks up X amount of carbon in its lifespan, who makes sure that the tree is still standing in five years time? It gets even worse because so many brands play with the math to look like they're doing more than they really are. If a brand says "we're carbon neutral in our operations" it sounds impressive, but it really means carbon neutral in the parts of the business that produce the least carbon. TLDR: offsetting doesn't mean brands actually *reduce* their carbon footprint. It allows them to carry on with business as usual, with some money spent buying offsets. They're essentially paying to carry on polluting. And this is why Ganni's commitment to cut its entire carbon footprint in half by 2027 is such a big deal. Why? Because it means Ganni has to actually *reduce* its emissions by 50% in just five years — and that's the entire carbon footprint of the company, including all the products it makes. What's really different about this commitment is that offsetting isn't part of the plan. Instead of spending money on projects that will *in theory* compensate for its carbon emissions, Ganni will be investing in things that *actually reduce* its carbon emissions in the here and now. Tomorrow I'll be looking at how Ganni is planning on actually achieving this huge target, as explained by co-founder Nicolaj Reffstrup.