Just over a year ago, in May 2021, the Hamburg-based online retailer About You published its first sustainability report in order to meet its responsibility as a global e-commerce company in the fashion industry and to integrate sustainability into all relevant, material levels of corporate decision-making. The company is now presenting important milestones as well as current challenges and goals in a second sustainability report.
Last year’s pillars – “Planet” and “People” – have been expanded to include “Progress”. In doing so, the company discloses strategies and internal structures as a blueprint for other companies “to enable a more sustainable future for the entire fashion industry,” About You said in a statement.
The aim is to create a measurable positive effect beyond your own company. “This means that every private label product About You buys should be as sustainable as possible; any new business partnership the Company enters into should be consistent with About You’s own set goals; and each new bearing should cause minimal greenhouse gas emissions,” explains the online retailer.
“An important success factor for the implementation of our ESG strategy is our trusting and transparent partnerships with fashion brands, suppliers, logistics partners and market players. Only through common values and approaches can we achieve noticeable progress in our sustainability issues,” explains Hannes Wiese, co-founder and co-CEO of About You.
planet
Over the past 12 months, About You analyzed the material challenges and was able to increase the share of sales of the more sustainable products on the platform to 21.8 percent (from 8 percent in the previous year. Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 52.8 percent compared to the base year 2019 /2020 or the company operated its e-commerce business carbon-neutral for a full year for the first time.The aim is to reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent (in the previous year 40,077 tons of CO2 were emitted) .
In addition, guidelines such as the Business Code of Conduct were updated and a high level of partner participation was achieved on important issues such as transparency of the production sites (Tier 1: 100 percent; Tier 2: 64.1 percent) of private label products. The proportion of partners with science-based goals increased to 46.6 percent; the goal here is still 90 percent by 2025.
People
The focus was on organizational structure in order to integrate sustainability into corporate decision-making at all levels. “The areas of corporate governance, risk management and strategy have already been successfully coordinated,” reports the company.
In addition, the sustainability competencies have been included in the decision-making levels of the business areas: “So-called “Sustainability Leads” work within the most important business areas such as purchasing, own brands and logistics to reduce friction losses and accelerate change,” says About You.
In terms of gender distribution in employment, the company achieved a balanced ratio among managers with 49.3 percent women; overall, the proportion of women is 67 percent compared to 62 percent in the previous year.
progress
This new pillar serves to make internal structures, measures and concepts transparent. About You is one of the first companies to be reviewed and publicly reported on as part of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Brand and Retail module. In addition, the online retailer has set up a monthly routine appointment with Co-Ceo Wiese, which supports ESG management. An ESG matrix organization is also intended to improve understanding of ESG in the business units.
The full report can be viewed on the About You website.