Dive Brief:
- Chanel publicly unveiled its first climate transition plan last week, outlining the company’s strategy to achieve its slate of sustainability goals, reduce its carbon footprint and invest in partnerships and initiatives to accelerate climate action.
- The global luxury brand is targeting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain by 2040, a goal it said has been validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative and is in line with SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard.
- Chanel’s near-term decarbonization goals include cutting absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions 50% by 2030, compared to a 2021 baseline, and cutting absolute scope 3 emissions 42% within the same timeframe.
Dive Insight:
The French fashion house — known for haute couture, handbags, fragrances and beauty products — said to reach net-zero, it must achieve a 90% reduction in its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2040, compared to a 2021 base year emissions. Chanel said it aims to reach those goals by decarbonizing its operations, minimizing the impact of its products and collaborating with its suppliers. The company said it will address the remaining 10% of emissions by investing in nature-based solutions like carbon removals.
“This [transition] plan sets out how we are responding to climate-related risks and opportunities, and how we aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040,” Chanel’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Wylie said in a LinkedIn post last week.
“From our farms and gardens to our manufacturing sites and boutiques, we are taking practical action based on a deep understanding of both the physical and transition impacts of climate change on our business,” Wylie added. “This includes minimizing the impact of materials and packaging, collaborating on lower-impact distribution and sustainable construction, and making multi-decade investments in renewable energy to power our operations.”
While Chanel was able to decrease its scope 1 and 2 emissions — direct emissions from company-owned or controlled sources — by 22% in 2024, compared to 2021, these emissions only make up 2% of the company’s total carbon footprint. Scope 3 emissions — indirect emission generated by a company’s supply chain — make up 98% of the company’s emissions profile. Chanel’s total carbon footprint in 2024 was 1,123,249 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the report.
The bulk of Chanel’s scope 3 emissions — over 57% — come from purchased goods and services, including water, raw materials for products and packaging, media and events. The transition plan noted that raw materials within the supply chain continue to “be an area of focus,” as the company works to reduce its indirect emissions. The next largest scope 3 emissions categories for the luxury brand is made up of emissions generated from capital goods — like boutique renovations, furniture and information technology hardware — followed by upstream fuel and energy use.
Chanel was able to decrease its scope 3 emissions by 10% compared to a 2021 baseline and 9% compared to 2023, according to the report.
However, Chanel also pointed to a slate of factors its clean energy transition is dependent on, such as the pace of global decarbonization and policy and regulations.
“We are dependent on global decarbonization and enabling infrastructure to facilitate our climate transition, for example an increasing share of renewable electricity in national energy grids,” the transition plan noted. “We are reliant on policy and regulation to accelerate the transition and incentivize investment in decarbonization, however we also acknowledge that these may pose challenges to our value chain partners.”
