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A partnership between Primark and Ren

Primark, the international fashion retailer, has been working hard to drive improvements in its supply chain for 15 years and has 130 experts in its key sourcing markets to support these efforts. Under its sustainability strategy, Primark Cares, the international retailer has committed to halving its carbon emissions across its value chain by 2030, in line with the UNFCCC’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. To achieve this, they need to work closely with suppliers and take a hard look at their supply chain as that is where 85% of their emissions come from.

Primark came to Ren looking to support the delivery of its 2030 target. They wanted a global renewable energy solution which works for a supply chain that spans 26 countries.

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Working together

Ren ingests data from a number of sources, including the Higg FEM module, for display and analysis within its platform. Through a combination of historical data and proprietary estimations made possible through Ren’s partnership with Google, Ren was able to provide a holistic picture of Primark’s supply chain energy use and global carbon emissions. Ren worked closely with Primark to ensure the most accurate and critical data is available for analysis across the platform, and added new features based on Primark’s feedback.

The programme involves feasibility analysis, financial calculations, and portfolio generation, all supported by Ren. The result will be a comprehensive roadmap demonstrating the exact renewables procurement needed to reach Primark’s carbon reduction targets by 2030; a roadmap that will then be taken to market and transacted upon through Ren’s marketplace.

Ren, founded and led by Eric Jen, former Director of Renewable Energy at Nike, understands how important it is to see the whole picture in order to have success on carbon initiatives. Not only does a holistic approach lead to more practical results, but it also gives rise to creative solutions such as aggregated renewable energy procurement, a flexible solution that enables procurement in-time and at-scale to meet the scope of the issue at hand. Primark said they were particularly keen to work with Ren because of Ren’s ability to aggregate energy demand for large scale projects.

Every step, every factory adjustment, every carbon reduction will be easily monitored and understood through the Ren platform. While the procurement process will continue in the future, this partnership is pivotal in Primark’s decarbonisation journey.

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