Portwest is committed to implementing more sustainable activities into our operations and reducing our impact on the environment.
Portwest has achieved ISO 14001 certification at sites covering 75% of employees, which demonstrates our hard work to set up fully integrated and proactive environmental management systems. This system enables us to measure resource efficiency and effectively manage the environmental impact of our operational activities. We are working towards global certification.
Certification
We have achieved the highest Level in STeP by Oeko-Tex® (level 3) for ecological and socially responsible textile production in our Bangladesh manufacturing facility.
STeP stands for Sustainable Textile Production and is a global certification system for environmentally friendly and socially responsible production facilities in the textile industry.
Our 2022 assessment highlighted that our management unanimously supports sustainable production by providing the appropriate resources and setting high targets. We follow the legal requirements and far exceed the minimum requirements of all six STeP by OEKO-TEX® modules.
We conducted our first carbon footprint analysis with the aim of understanding where we are having the most impact in our operations and supply chain. This work has been completed for our scope 1 and 2 emissions to the ISO 14064-3 standard. We now work towards establishing our Scope 3 emissions and identifying the ‘hotspots’ and key areas for improvement across our operations and product categories. By accurately assessing and analysing where we are most impactful, we can more effectively target areas to reduce our carbon footprint.
Selling in over 130 countries means Portwest transports goods worldwide, with less than 5% of stock moved via air freight and we are actively working to reduce this even further.
We are working closely with our logistics suppliers to ensure our strategies align to reduce negative impacts and carbon emissions across the globe. All our significant
logistics suppliers have published their transition plans, and we are working with them to understand the impact of our shipments
We have also begun to implement EV charging Stations at our warehouses and offices, an investment by Portwest that we know will make electric vehicles more attractive to our team.
As a global manufacturer, replacing our packaging materials with compostable and recyclable components is key to ensuring an environmentally conscious supply chain.
We continuously strive to introduce more sustainable initiatives into our supply chain, including signing the UK Plastics Pact. This is a bold initiative bringing together the
entire plastics packaging value chain behind a shared vision and committing to a set of ambitious targets.. The ambitious targets include:
We have improved our packaging on a global scale and have made some significant changes to date, including moving all garment packaging to recycled and recyclable LDPE polybags (18 million garments and 3.1 million pairs of footwear now packaged in recycled or recyclable materials), replacing single use plastic lock pins with cotton string which can be recycled or composted, and have replaced gel silica’s with a natural dri clay desiccant which is biodegradable, or removed them altogether.
Managing waste effectively is a priority for Portwest, and are working towards our long term goal of zero waste to landfill. Our waste reduction efforts are guided by our Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001), which defines our practices related to the handling and disposal of operational waste. Our investment in manufacturing
innovation, such as automated fabric cutting tables, helps reduce fabric waste.
While waste management is guided by legislation at several of our sites, we are in the process of implementing better recording and management of waste at all other sites.
Portwest has implemented solar energy at our head office in Westport, Ireland, as well as in our Spanish facilities. We are also currently in the process of expanding solar installations to our UK operations. Our carbon footprint analysis has enabled the identification of hotspots across the organisation, and we are actively exploring solutions for each site.
