CEMARS helped improve our CDP Score: Kathmandu

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘Kathmandu’? If you’re anywhere in New Zealand, you’re likely thinking of the outdoor and clothing brand which also happens to have an stong sustainability ethos.

It’s no surprise that Kathmandu is one of only 13 New Zealand companies to voluntarily disclose its climate change impacts through CDP – a global environmental disclosure platform. What’s remarkable is that Kathmandu has upgraded its CDP score from a ‘C’ to a ‘B’ in the most recent assessment. In addition to the organisation’s commitment to environmental performance, Kathmandu credits CEMARS certification for helping to level-up its score.  

“Being part of the CEMARS programme gives us a strong framework to work with and to ensure that the emissions figures we put out there are correct and verified. Adding to that, the comprehensive nature of CDP reporting reinforces that our overall carbon reporting is robust and sound.” says Kathmandu Sustainability Specialist, Oliver Milliner. “Scope 3 emissions can be quite infinite in some ways so CEMARS gives us a credible criterion to work against rather than spend too much time gathering endless amounts of data.”

Third party verification was key in raising Kathmandu’s score from a ‘C’ to a ‘B’. “I understand that scoring high with CDP gets harder year on year, and that CDP encourages reporting companies to have third-party verification. CEMARS certification not only gave us that third-party verification, but it also gave us a framework and management plan to work against, which all reflects well in CDP reporting,” adds Oliver.  

The outdoor and adventure brand has been reporting to the CDP for the last 8 years. It initially started off as a result of a mandate by the Australian Government. The benefits of environmental disclosure we so apparent that when the mandate was discontinued, Kathmandu continued to report to CDP on a voluntary basis. According Oliver, CDP provides a great yard stick to measure carbon performance, “it is a good testing and proof point to see what we are good at and where we need to improve. CDP’s comprehensive reporting criteria really helps us in that regard.”

Science Based Targets and actual reduction of Scope 2 emissions are the next ‘summits’ to conquer for Kathmandu, as identified in CDP’s feedback report on its 2018 submission. The bulk of scope 2 emissions come from energy fixtures and heating which makes energy efficiency a key focus area going forward. “When you’re trying to reduce energy, you’re also likely to reduce cost – so there’s an obvious business case here for us to pursue this opportunity” adds Oliver.

Oliver spoke at the recent CDP 2018 Regional Report launch event in Auckland. He was alongside Martin Fryer (Mercury), Jason Happy (Kiwi Property Group), Megan Wakefield (Fisher & Paykel Healthcare) and Nic Bishop (Fisher & Paykel Healthcare) as part of an insightful panel discussion about the value of CDP disclosure and how they can encourage other organisations to disclose carbon impacts. You can watch the full webcast of the event here – CDP 2018 Australia-New Zealand Report Launch, Auckland.

Get in touch to know more about how CEMARS and carboNZero programmes can support and simplify CDP reporting.

To know more about Kathmandu’s journey with CEMARS certification click here – Kathmandu: a CEMARS case study.