Why is the charter important?
The Sustainable City Charter plays an important role in fostering the sense of duty and empowerment when it comes to short and long-term climate goals within the business community in the borough. The Charter acts as tool that guides and encourages the much-needed climate-positive initiatives across various sectors in the borough of Westminster
What does being a signatory mean to your business?
As a business L Saha is committed to being the voice of change in our industry (fashion & luxury). Being a signatory as well as being a member of the Steering Committee for the Charter has enabled us to contribute our ideas to shape the areas of focus within the Charter and be able drive change in the City.
We are often too focused on the wider world and the vastness of the climate challenges we are facing today, however the charter enables us to focus on matters within our business by locale. If every business was able to commit to small but impactful changes within their business operation by location then solving the climate issue would be a much more realistic and manageable process.
What challenges is your sector facing in addressing climate change?
The most common challenge between the plans to transition our processes across supply chains is the timely access to finance. Often time the wider industry, simply pays lip service to their sustainability goals and the suppliers (and their suppliers) do not have enough incentive to change their processes to greener alternatives.
How has your business reduced its operational carbon emissions and adhering to the Sustainable City Charter pledges?
As a business built on the foundation of pro-planet principles, our scope 1 Carbon emissions are minimal and have been recorded to be reduced year on year. Our primary focus is on ensuring the reduction of our Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. Some steps we have taken towards reducing these are:
- Switching to Electric vehicles for our logistics
- Maximising the use of daylight hours in the production line
- Monitoring the resulting impact on our carbon emissions.
Carbon emissions are not the only an area of focus for our business; we are changing the way ‘fashion’ is perceived and consumed by designing for longevity and minimal impact during the product’s entire lifecycle. The latest work in this space is the use of AI to monitor changes and predict solutions.
Further Reading:
Sustainability City Charter: Read the Charter
White paper: Zero Carbon Westminster
Report: Zero Carbon Westminster: A Focus on Retrofit in Historic Buildings
Blog: Veolia give their perspective on the Sustainable City Charter
Committee: Sustainable City Charter Steering Group
