Making the Switch to Green Energy
By: Marlot Kiveron
Tags: Impact, Sustainability, Eyewear, Green Energy, Transparency

Dear reader,

At Ace & Tate we’re working hard to make our stores as eco-friendly as possible. Along the way we’ve found that there’s more to choosing green energy suppliers than meets the eye.

Last year we published Ace & Tate’s first CO2 report. It shone a light on areas where we have room for improvement. It turns out energy consumption from our stores and headquarters was a place where we could make some positive changes. In this blog post we’ll take you on a deeper dive into the wins, and real challenges, of making the switch to renewable energy sources.

Our CO2 report showed that energy usage in our stores and HQ is one of our ‘hotspots,’ accounting for a big percentage of our emissions. As we (mostly) have control over who we partner with for supply, there’s room here for positive change. Stopping our contracts with non-renewable energy suppliers, and making the switch to green ones in all of our locations would result in an annual reduction of 133,05 tonnes CO2eq. Is that a lot? Yep, it is — roughly 77 return flights from Amsterdam to New York, or 4,156 pairs of jeans.

For context, switching to renewable energy has the potential to cut Greenhouse gas emissions by 55%. Currently, renewable energy sources make up 26% of the world’s electricity, and this share is expected to increase to 30% by 2024. This energy revolution could end our reliance on fossil fuels, but the uptake of green energy will have to grow even faster if we hope to meet the world’s climate targets of limiting global warming to 1.5C degrees.

More and more companies are committing to 100% renewable targets. At Ace & Tate we decided not to wait or phase this in over time, we want to make the switch ASAP and we’re starting now.

When we moved into our new headquarters in Amsterdam, our Retail Expansion team connected with Dutch energy company Vandebron. We thought that all ‘green’ energy was the same, but actually in the Netherlands around 67% of households have an energy contract labelled ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ despite the fact that only 6% of the country’s energy is generated sustainably. Smells fishy, right? What happens is that traditional energy suppliers buy green electricity certificates abroad and give their energy a green label. These not so green, ‘green’ suppliers are known as ‘grey’ energy suppliers. What makes Vandebron different is that they only offer electricity that is actually generated by wind, solar, or biogas in the Netherlands. So we’re really happy to have found Vandebron, and the company even offers a discount for Ace & Tate customers.

Unfortunately, Vandebron is only active in the Netherlands for now, so we had to look for other renewable energy partners in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, the UK, and Ireland that share our responsibility values. Happily, for most stores, we’ve been able to make the switch to a true green electricity provider.

Ace & Tate is growing fast. We’ve opened more than 50 stores in the last 6 years, and aim to open 30 more this year. Sometimes we’re scrambling to keep up with our own pace. Opening stores so quickly means that sometimes electricity contracts were pre-existing, or arranged too hastily by different teams and people.

For other companies out there facing similar challenges, identifying potential suppliers within the market that align best with your values is key. When you find them, aim to build a relationship with them from the start, so the process of rolling out on a larger scale and signing up new locations is easy. We’ve decided to stick to a single supplier in every country that we operate in, in order to provide clarity and consistency across our stores.

There’s a few stores out there that are still running on traditional ‘grey’ energy: Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol Park Street, and London Brewer Street. For the Manchester, Glasgow, and Bristol stores we have existing contracts beyond 2024 with our current suppliers, and there’s no way out of those. The electricity for London Brewer Street is arranged through our landlord, and we’re working with them to make the switch to our preferred supplier. In the meantime, while we work towards getting to net zero, we’re offsetting all the CO2 emissions we can’t reduce with ‘Trees For All’ in the coming months.

With over 40 stores now running on true green energy we‘ve made a big step towards reducing our carbon footprint. You can check which energy provider your local Ace & Tate store is supplied by, by looking for a sticker on the store window.

The next step towards zero impact is tackling some bottlenecks in our supply chain. We’ll explain more in our next blog posts, but as a preview we’ll be talking about our shift from ‘Sustainability’ to ‘Responsibility,’ and also our efforts to ramp up responsibility in our retail locations. Stay in touch by emailing us on workingonit@aceandtate.com or comment with your ideas below.

I’ll keep coming back here — sharing small victories and big learnings.

Speak soon,

Marlot