Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has issued new guidelines to help apparel and footwear companies more efficiently and consistently measure their purchased goods and services (PG&S) emissions.

For apparel and footwear brands and retailers, PG&S emissions result from all the value chain activities that go into making finished products, from raw materials to fabric manufacturing to product assembly.

For every company setting a science based target (SBT), the foundation of the target is an inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across scopes 1, 2, and 3.For companies operating in the apparel and footwear sector scope 3 emissions are usually the vast majority of their total emissions.

The purpose of the guidance is to provide apparel and footwear sector-specific guidance for calculating PG&S emissions so that there is greater consistency in how apparel and footwear companies develop their PG&S inventories; companies can overcome common challenges faced by the sector, for example the need to use a combination of primary and secondary data; companies starting the process of measuring PG&S emissions can do so more efficiently and in line with industry practice, which in turn should result in more companies measuring emissions and setting targets; and over time, with more consistent inventories, the apparel and footwear sector will be able to more accurately gauge its progress towards the GHG reductions needed to stay aligned with SBTs.