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Primark is focused on tackling climate risk in its operations and supply chain through decarbonisation, water stewardship and responsible chemicals management.
Solar panels on the roof of a Primark supplier factory, Bangladesh
Primark has set a target to achieve a 50% reduction in absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (‘GHG’) emissions by 2030, from a 2019 base year.
The Science Based Targets initiative (‘SBTi’) has validated Primark’s near-term target to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services respectively by 50% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline. These targets align with commitments Primark has made through the UNFCCC Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action (‘FICCA’).
In 2026, Primark achieved a 21% decrease in GHG emissions across Scope 1, 2 (market-based) and 3 compared to 2025 and a 26% decrease against its 2019 baseline.
For more detail on how Primark aims to achieve its Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions reduction targets, please see its Transition Plan below.
In 2026, Primark decreased its Scope 1 and 2 (market-based) GHG emissions by 2% compared to 2025 and has maintained a significant reduction of 72% compared with its 2019 baseline. This marks the third consecutive year that these emissions have remained below the threshold of its target. These reductions were achieved mainly in its Scope 2 GHG emissions, through energy efficiency measures in its stores and the procurement of renewable and low-carbon electricity.
Primark aims to source 100% renewable electricity by 2030 for its own operations, in line with its FICCA commitments. In 2026, 79% of electricity used in Primark operations came from renewable energy sources, up from 76% in the previous year.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | 21 | 21 | 23 | 18 | 18 |
| Scope 2 (market-based) | 111 | 76 | 54 | 28 | 28 |
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | 6,452 | 7,019 | 6,211 | 5,993 | 4,720 |
Primark is focused on minimising the environmental impact of its products throughout the supply chain. Although it does not own manufacturing facilities, Primark works closely with suppliers to align their practices with its environmental goals.
In 2026, Primark’s absolute Scope 3 emissions decreased by 21% compared to 2025 and 24% against its 2019 baseline. Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services, which underpin Primark’s near term science-based emissions reduction target validated by the SBTi, totalled 3,673kt CO2e in 2026. This represents a reduction of 25% compared to 2025, and of 23% compared to 2019. These reductions were achieved through a decrease in supplier GHG emissions, improved availability of primary data from supplier factories and greater use of recycled or Primark preferred sources1.The decrease in supplier GHG emissions resulted from increased use of renewable energy, wider industry and supply chain decarbonisation initiatives, continued Primark investments in capacity building and site-specific action plans for supplier decarbonisation.
In 2026 Primark launched its Supplier Environmental Standards. These standards set the environmental performance requirements for its apparel, footwear and home textile suppliers, accounting for approximately 83% of its procurement spend for goods for resale in 2026. These standards cover water, waste, chemistry, energy, climate and air emissions criteria.
Primark has been investing in supplier factory efficiency measures through targeted training, upskilling and energy-saving projects under its Primark Resource Efficiency Programme (‘PREP’). PREP helps suppliers identify opportunities to use energy, water and chemicals more efficiently, reducing both GHG emissions and operating costs across its suppliers’ tier one, two and three factories2.
Between 2022 and 2025, Primark piloted the PREP programme across 104 factories in Bangladesh, China and India. In 2026, the last of these pilot projects concluded, covering seven non-textile tier two factories in China and 15 textile tier one and tier two factories in India, with all participating factories receiving their final action plans to support continued improvement.
At project close, the 15 factories in India had achieved a total GHG emissions saving of around 29kt CO2e per year, completing approximately 69% of the actions identified over the course of the project. The remaining agreed action items are included in each factory’s closing action plan, to be implemented over the coming years up to 2030.
Building on the pilot phase, towards the end of 2026 Primark launched the next wave of PREP in India, covering 20 tier one vertical factories across six suppliers. The programme aims to help factories reduce their environmental impact through improvements in energy, water, waste and chemical management. It also addresses air emissions, including volatile organic compounds and fugitive emissions, and the monitoring of thermal conditions within facilities to support operational resilience as temperatures rise across sourcing markets. The expanded scope of PREP is aimed at taking a holistic approach focused on both immediate resource efficiency and the impact that a changing climate may have on energy demand.
The initial assessment and site visits have been completed for all 20 facilities, with the project now moving into initial action planning for impact reduction.
In China, Primark has been working with the Chinese National Textile and Apparel Council (‘CNTAC’) as the initiating partner of CNTAC’s Carbon Probe Project. This project set out to develop practical resources for suppliers in China to calculate and report their Scope 3 emissions, including guidelines, training modules and calculation methods.
Throughout 2026, these resources have been trialled with seven Primark suppliers in China. The project has been successful in creating resources to enable Primark suppliers to strengthen their carbon knowledge and skills with the goal of shifting carbon accounting from a compliance to a proactive exercise, where suppliers begin to identify the opportunities which can be harnessed from supply chain management of decarbonisation, to operational efficiency and increased energy resilience. To drive further industry engagement and collaboration, the core training sessions are publicly available, while Primark has tailored specific modules for its own suppliers.
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Primark’s decarbonisation strategy, as well as other elements presented in this Plan, continue to support progress against Primark’s public decarbonisation commitments including its near-term emissions reduction targets validated by the SBTi. The content presented in this Plan refers to FY26. Over the past 12 months, Primark has been undertaking a review of its ESG strategy to align with evolving regulations and changing customer expectations. More information is available on Primark’s website.
The Primark Chief Executive continues to have oversight and overall responsibility for Primark’s climate-related risks and opportunities, as well as Primark’s decarbonisation commitments and the broader strategy, Primark Cares.
Primark management and the dedicated forums below supported Primark’s Chief Executive over the course of the year:
•Regulatory, Policy and Public Affairs Working Group, which monitors policy and regulatory developments and compliance trends, providing early visibility of upcoming obligations that may affect Primark’s operations or strategy and priorities and coordinates Primark’s policy and public affairs activity.
Effective since 2024, ESG-associated performance incentives have been extended to Primark directors and wider senior leadership. A portion of the overall remuneration package obtainable is tied to ESG performance, including climate. This remuneration is payable in deferred ABF shares.
Over the course of 2025 and 2026, Primark has been working on the integration of climate-related risks into its overall Enterprise Risk Management (‘ERM’) framework through a cross-functional, multi-stakeholder process that involves representatives of Primark’s Leadership Team and wider senior leadership from key areas of the business, as well as the ABF Group. Activities covered:
Under its Primark Cares sustainability strategy published in 2021, Primark has set a number of public commitments up to 2030. These are aimed at enabling its ambition to become a more sustainable and circular business, which ultimately supports the
collective transition to a low-carbon economy. Therefore, Primark’s Plan aligns to the Primark Cares Strategy in the medium term. This Plan refers to Primark Cares commitments that were active through the course of 2026.
Under Primark Cares, the business has set a public commitment to halve carbon emissions across its value chain by 2030 from a 2019 baseline year. Within the same timeframe, Primark set Science-Based Targets committing to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50% and also reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services by 50%.
In addition to the above targets, Primark has pledged to achieve net zero emissions no later than 2050 under the UNFCCC Fashion Industry Charter for Climate-Action (‘FICCA’). This commitment remains unchanged. Primark is continuing to work to define a plan to reach this long-term goal, taking into account uncertainties beyond 2030 in technology development and innovation, as well as the political and regulatory global landscape. Primark does not intend to utilise carbon offsets to achieve its existing decarbonisation targets.
Total scope 1, 2 and 3 | 6.41m |
Scope 1 and 2 (location-based) | 2.5% |
Scope 3 | 97.5% |
Of which: | |
Purchased goods and services | 76.4% |
Capital goods | 2.0% |
Fuel and energy-related activities | 0.6% |
Upstream transportation | 8.1% |
Waste generated in operations | 0.1% |
Business travel | 0.2% |
Use of sold products | 12.1% |
End-of-life treatment of sold products | 0.6% |
Primark’s critical path to achieve its 2030 decarbonisation commitments has remained unchanged. The path continues to leverage a series of combined decarbonisation levers to achieve critical reductions in Primark’s emissions, focusing on the most material sources of Scope 3 emissions as described below.
Supply chain energy procurement and consumption: product manufacturing and related energy consumption represents the biggest contributor to Primark’s emissions. However, similar to other clothing retailers, the business does not own any of the factories in its supply chain. To tackle emissions from this source, Primark plans to leverage minimum environmental performance requirements for suppliers and further develop its country-specific programmes. These aim to support key suppliers and factories in improving their energy efficiency performance and transition to renewable energy, for example through on-site energy audits.
Raw materials: the cultivation and extraction of raw materials used in Primark products is the second key contributor to Primark’s emissions in the supply chain. Under its sustainability strategy published in 2021, the business has pledged:
The achievement of the targets above is expected to contribute to the decarbonisation of Primark’s material mix.
Distribution mode optimisation and fuel switching: emissions related to transporting goods from suppliers to Primark depots, and from depots to Primark stores, represent the third key contributor to Primark’s baseline emissions in the supply chain. Primark already ships most of its products by sea freight, which has a lower environmental impact than air transport.
Primark has launched a partnership with its shipping partner Maersk to use more sustainable fuel alternatives, such as Maersk’s Eco Delivery Ocean biofuel, instead of fossil fuel, when shipping Primark products. The biofuel must be certified by a third party to verify that the stated GHG emissions savings are accurate. Once certified, it is blended with conventional fuel and used on Maersk shipping vessels.
Primark’s own energy procurement and consumption: emissions from running Primark stores, offices and distribution centres, as well as the corporate fleet, continue to represent a small fraction of Primark’s emissions but is also where Primark has the most direct influence and can impact change. Initiatives in this area will continue to focus on energy efficiency improvements, like LED fitting of Primark stores, and scaling low-carbon energy3 procurement. Under the UNFCCC FICCA, Primark is committed to secure 100% of electricity from renewable sources with minimal other environmental or social impacts, for owned and operated (Scope 2) emissions by 2030. The business plans to reach this goal in line with RE1002 and GHG Protocol guidelines.
Primark’s funding model for the Plan includes various elements:
In the current year, Primark spent approximately £6.1m on key decarbonisation initiatives, such as improving the energy efficiency of its stores and procuring lower impact transport fuel.
This year, the business saw a 26% reduction in total emissions (market-based) compared to the base year and a 21%4 reduction compared to the previous year. Please refer to pages 63 to 64 of the ABF Annual Report for more detailed commentary.
KPI | Base Year* | Previous Year* | Current Year* | Current Year vs Baseline | Methodology | ||
Decarbonisation levers | 5.2 | 5.0 | 3.8 | (27)% | Primark has developed detailed reporting guidance in line with the GHG Protocol, covering estimations, calculation methodologies and assumptions. Annual emission calculations are in scope of EY limited assurance. | ||
Supply chain energy procurement and consumption | Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services – Tier 1, 2, 3 | 3.6 | 3.4 | 2.3 | (36)% | ||
Raw materials | Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services – Tier 4 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 21% | ||
Distribution mode optimisation and fuel switching | Scope 3 emissions from upstream transportation | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | (47)% | ||
Primark’s energy procurement and consumption | Scope 1 and 2 emissions (market-based)** | 0.2 | 0.05 | 0.05 | (72)% | ||
Other Scope 3 categories | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | (16)% | |||
Total value chain emissions | 6.4 | 6.0 | 4.8 | (26)% | |||
*mil tonnes of CO2e.
**Scope 2 figures for 2019 to 2022 represent location-based emissions. For the purpose of reporting against targets, Primark has been tracking Scope 2 (market-based) since 2023.
1.Primark defines more sustainably sourced materials as described in its Primark Preferred Fibres list available at this link.
2.As referenced in the TCFD Guidance on Metrics, Targets and Transition Plans.
3.Low-carbon refers to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than conventional energy sources. There are four main types of low-carbon energy: wind, solar, hydro or nuclear.
4.RE100 is the global corporate renewable energy initiative bringing together hundreds of large and ambitious businesses committed to using 100% renewable electricity.
As part of Primark’s SIP, a heat stress pilot study was conducted in a supplier factory in Cambodia. The pilot has now been completed, with the factory implementing a number of initiatives arising from the programme. Primark has also developed guidance notes to inform and support the wider supply chain in addressing heat-stress risks.
Building on the work implemented to date, below are the areas of focus that Primark will explore to progress against its public decarbonisation commitments up to 2030 and beyond
Impact from today | |||||
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Developed frameworks, processes and targets for decarbonisation Identified emissions hotspots and built path to scale through enhanced piloting Improved emissions data quality and granularity | Moving towards 2030 | ||||
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Implement initiatives at scale - decarbonisation levers | Beyond 2030 | ||||
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Solar panels on the roof of a Primark supplier factory, Bangladesh
