Kowtow
What motivated you to begin working with Ekos and what do you aim to achieve?
We started working with Ekos to start measuring our total carbon footprint so we could make better decisions around how our business operates and where we can reduce. Ekos stood out to us as they are a New Zealand business with a large focus in NZ regenerative carbon projects. We felt this aligned with our business rather than using the larger international carbon mapping/credit services.
What have you learnt from working with Ekos on carbon management? Have you seen any benefits? Were there any challenges and how did you overcome them?
The biggest learning for us at Kowtow has been around what activities generate the most carbon and then implementing meaningful changes to how we work to reduce as much as we can. Our biggest challenge is being a business that manufacturers products out of New Zealand as our options to reduce emissions generated through our freight are limited. We mostly sea freight and work closely with our Fairtrade certified supply chain to reduce as much as possible where we can.
What sustainability initiatives are you currently engaged in? and how will these impact your business for a sustainable future?
Sustainability is at the core of our business and has been since our inception in 2006. This year we released our first entirely plastic-free collection and are always looking for ways to continue reducing our impact. In terms of carbon, we are currently focused on reduction initiatives, with particular focus in reducing air freight and prioritizing sea freight shipments. Air freight shipments have been the biggest contributor towards our carbon emissions, especially through the covid period, so by removing these we can effectively cut our emissions in half.
For you, what might a low carbon business look like?
Ideally a low carbon business for us would be using very little air freight and sourcing all electricity for our office and retail stores through renewables. Any carbon we cannot reduce effectively we would offset through local forest regeneration. Through our sustainability strategy, we are always working towards a future that looks like this for Kowtow.
What areas have you looked at to make your GHG emissions report more complete? Have you learnt about bettering your data collection?
Reporting is an area that we are in constant conversation with our freight providers to improve the reporting they provide us as we need more accurate data to be able to track our emissions successfully. This process has encouraged us to implement better recording around the waste generated in our office & retail stores and how we reduce this. Through this work we implemented a waste-free workroom and have been auditing our waste so we can make continued improvements.
How do you communicate your actions and certification?
Weaving our ethics into everything we do is a core part of Kowtow, and our community is very engaged in hearing about our sustainability actions and certifications. We communicate these on our website, in our social channels and more officially in our yearly impact report.
What are the links between your sustainability and social goals?
At Kowtow we work to always do better for people and the planet. Our sustainability strategy is split into three sections ‘People, Planet and Prosperity’ meaning we are always working towards goals in all of these areas.
Written by, Luke Kell, Kowtow, Logistics Manager