In case you missed it, Unravel Carbon and THE ICONIC hosted a webinar to talk about sustainability reporting within the fashion sector. This piece will provide a recap of key points during the discussion related to THE ICONIC’s emission reductions. We encourage you to watch the full conversation below.
THE ICONIC is the leading online fashion and lifestyle retailer in Australia and New Zealand. They’re also part of the Global Fashion Group, which is the world’s leader in online fashion for emerging markets.
Since beginning their sustainability journey, THE ICONIC has been focused on measuring their carbon footprint, and then using those insights to make changes across their operations.
However, at the outset, it wasn’t always possible to thoroughly analyze their data and unearth the granular insights they were looking for.
Now, after transitioning from an Excel-based tool to Unravel Carbon’s platform, THE ICONIC is using data-driven insights from their sustainability initiatives to inform core business decisions.
Below, we’ll explore how THE ICONIC achieved this, as well as their approach to ensuring that environmental responsibility also goes hand in hand with commercial success.
The complexity of measuring emissions
THE ICONIC has a broad set of operations, resulting in an intricate sustainability strategy. In addition to in-house brands, THE ICONIC also manages a wholesale business and a marketplace for third parties.
To get a comprehensive view of their carbon footprint, the company began with a thorough materiality assessment in 2017.
Their goal: identifying the biggest drivers of environmental impacts in their business locally, internationally, and within their supply chain.
Then, using that information to develop a strategy that enables them to accurately measure and effectively address their emission hotspots.
Overcoming data challenges by using Unravel Carbon
At the outset, THE ICONIC had an Excel-based tool to report their emissions.
However, one of the main challenges that they ran into was managing and making sense of all the information they’d collected.
Now, by leveraging Unravel Carbon’s platform, THE ICONIC has bolstered its ability to track progress and achieve higher degrees of accuracy, granularity, and auditability.
With Unravel Carbon being a cloud-based platform, The ICONIC can also access regular updates and improvements to the platform, making their sustainability reporting continuously more efficient over time.
Also, the more in-depth findings that they now have are being used to inform conversations with employees from different departments, better explain why a particular set of data is needed, and even improve the way that said data is collected.
Turning data into actionable insights
Another key part of THE ICONIC’s sustainability journey has been ramping up the transformation of raw data into actionable insights for their core operations.
In particular, Unravel Carbon’s platform makes it simple to sift through data at a more granular level, enabling THE ICONIC’s sustainability team to uncover findings that weren’t previously accessible.
This new capability has not only enhanced the accuracy of their emissions reporting, but has also allowed the company to start using these learnings to better inform business decisions from an emissions perspective.
Conclusion
From the outset, a central part of THE ICONIC’s sustainability journey has been approaching carbon reduction in a way that extends beyond basic compliance, and into the realm of strategy development.
Since swapping out their Excel-based tool for Unravel Carbon’s platform, THE ICONIC has been able to more effectively collect and analyze their sustainability data in a wide variety of ways.
As a result, the company’s leadership now ensures that these data-driven insights are taken into account, and that they have a major impact on informing both environmental and commercial decisions.
If you would like to learn more about how Unravel Carbon can support your company's sustainability journey, please get in touch.
