Emissions

We have reported our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for our UK, Irish and Danish operations since 2008. Since then, our footprint boundary has evolved to include areas such as other international offices, packaging, production of hangers, and manufacture of catalogues, brochures and direct mail.

With the support of Ricardo Energy & Environment, we have applied the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edition), and the UK Government Conversion Factors for Company Reporting, 2019, to calculate our carbon emissions. We follow the GHG Protocol’s Scope 2 emissions reporting guidance and use two different quantification methods: location-based and market-based [1]. Scope 2 emissions using the market-based method are lower than with the location-based approach, mainly because of our decision to purchase 100% renewable electricity in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The overall 2019 carbon footprint figures have decreased by 15%, from 140,352 tonnes CO2e in 2018 to 119,707 tonnes CO2e in 2019, a saving of 20,645 tonnes CO2e. In addition, Debenhams set a target in 2008, to reduce group-wide scope 1 and 2 absolute operational CO2e emissions by 10%, by 2020 and we are pleased to announce we exceeded this target by reducing CO2e emissions by 55% against the 2008 baseline.

*Total emissions calculated using the location-based Scope 2 emissions figure

[1] The location-based method reflects the average emissions intensity of grids on which energy consumption occurs, whereas the market-based method reflects emissions from the electricity that companies have chosen in the market (or their lack of choice).