Secretly Group
SUSTAINABILITY AT THE SECRETLY AFFILIATES
Dear Friends,
Sustainability is a core value of The Secretly Affiliates (Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar, Secretly Canadian, Saddest Factory Records, Ghostly International, Drink Sum Wtr, Sacred Bones, The Numero Group, Merge Records, Secretly Publishing and Secretly Distribution).
We began our journey in concert with the celebration of our 25th anniversary in 2021, we made a formal commitment to lessen our environmental impact with the adoption of our first sustainability plan.
We’ve had some wins in the last year including a new solar array on The Numero Group’s office in Chicago in 2024, rewilding part of our lawn/landscape at our Bloomington locations, and continue the process of de-gassing our London office (completion looking to be by the start of 2026).
In addition to that we’ve partnered with climate charity Murmur to collectively organize around the most entrenched aspects of our carbon footprint - namely our emissions emanating from manufacturing and shipping - as well as create some scaffolding and resources for our peers to utilize in the industry. As it becomes more apparent, we can’t make fundamental shifts alone, it's imperative we work together to make our industry cleaner.
A key achievement at Murmur has been modernizing the emissions factors for LPs as previous numbers were woefully outdated. Owing to the updated factors and choosing to work with plants with strong commitments to sustainability, we’ve seen a reduction in our manufacturing footprint by 70% versus our 2023 baseline. While there is still room to improve, we feel energized by the progress.
In contrast to the above progress, we did experience a lowlight with a 74% increase in our shipping emissions vs our 2023 baseline. It's clear we need to intensify collaboration with our carrier partners to curb this trajectory and achieve meaningful reductions.
Below we lay out how our sustainability journey is going. Our path is anything but clear, but we are committed to forward progress in which we 1) do not let perfect be the enemy of the good and 2) respect that sustainability is a journey, not a destination.
We welcome all questions, concerns and, above all, dialogue as we continue our journey.
Yours,
Ben Swanson
Co-founder and COO
OUR GOALS
Last year we renewed our goals, and pledged the following achievements by 2030:
We joined the Music Climate Pact in 2021 with an initial commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2026. We had set out to achieve this commitment to carbon-neutrality for our Scope 1 & 2 emissions by investing in carbon offset projects. But over the past few years, we have come to believe that focusing primarily on offset programs is not the solution to the climate crisis.
These new emission reduction targets - set in 2024 - align with current best practice and the Science Based Targets initiative. We’re proud to say we have prematurely achieved our second goal 6 years early through our manufacturing reduction efforts. Looking to the future, We are working towards new, updated supply chain/business travel reduction goals that we will announce here.
We are committed to doing our part—in partnership with our artists, peers, and collaborators—to help us collectively avoid the worst consequences of runaway climate change. Join us!
OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
We have measured and offset our Scope 1 emissions (from methane gas used in our facilities and diesel used in a company truck) and Scope 2 emissions (from electricity use) since 2019. Over time, we have introduced measurement and reporting of our Scope 3 emissions from our business travel and manufacturing and shipping of our products. 2023 was the first year for which we have a relatively complete and accurate understanding of our entire in-house and supply chain carbon footprint, so 2023 is the baseline against which we will measure future progress toward our carbon reduction goals.
The Secretly affiliates (Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar, Secretly Canadian, Saddest Factory Records, Ghostly International, drink sum wtr, Sacred Bones, The Numero Group, 37d03d, Secretly Publishing and Secretly Distribution) 2024 carbon footprint is 2,529 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e). That’s the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions created from 440 U.S. homes’ electricity use for a year or burning more than 5,700 barrels of oil! It’s a big footprint, but as per the above, we’re continuing to invest our time, money and energy into reductions to meet our goals.
The Secretly Affiliates 2024 Carbon Footprint
Scope 3 supply chain emissions from manufacturing and shipping our products all over the world dominate our carbon emissions at 88% of our total 2024 carbon footprint. Powering and heating our offices contribute another 8% of our carbon footprint, with the remaining 4% of emissions coming from global business travel and using our company truck for inter-office/warehouse deliveries.
OUR PROGRESS
Progress from Our Internal Operations (Scope 1 & 2 Emissions)
We can most directly influence Scope 1 (methane gas used for space and water heating in our facilities, diesel used in our company truck) and Scope 2 (electricity used to power and cool our facilities) emissions. Work is ongoing to reduce these Scope 1 & 2 emissions across our global sites, with projects investing in 100% renewable energy across all our buildings and replacing gas appliances with electric options where possible. We’ve installed rooftop solar at our main warehouse facility as we consolidated our stock from four locations to one (we should see those gains in the 2025 emissions report.
Going forward, we’ll continue to drive fossil fuels and carbon emissions out of our in-house operations by:
- Adding solar panels and batteries to more facilities when we can.
- Replacing methane gas appliances with energy-efficient electric options like heat pumps.
- Making our offices and warehouses more energy efficient, for example, by sealing up gaps and cracks around windows and doors and adding insulation in older facilities.
- Minimizing refrigerant leaks from our air conditioning systems.
- Streamlining our logistics to just one location which allowed us to no sell our truck.
Progress from Our Supply Chain and Business Travel (Scope 3 Emissions)
Scope 3 emissions—which are created from our business travel and manufacturing and shipping our products—are trickier to control but have far greater potential for a positive climate impact than what we can do in our facilities alone. Starting with what we can directly manage, we’re seeing the benefit of our sustainable travel policy that was adopted in 2023. All travel requests must meet a documented business need, and use of the lowest-carbon travel option—for example, taking the train or bus over flying or opting to carpool rather than drive alone—is required. Despite these efforts our travel emissions are up 100% over the previous year - though we believe this is in part due to better reporting and continuous growth in business and headcount across our companies.
Influencing our supply chain is tougher, but we’re up to the challenge!
Despite annual increases in the total volume of releases and sales across all Secretly affiliates our manufacturing is down considerably vs over the previous year. This is directly related to more intentional forecasting and limiting the amount of product we have on-hand at any given time, as well as working with more sustainable manufacturing partners. As a result of our partnership with Murmur, we have also learnt that the emissions factors we had been using in our previous calculations were outdated, while the new modernized factors reflect a lower emission cost per unit manufactured, which is reflected in this year’s report.
Our primary manufacturing partner, IRP, has been carbon neutral since 2022 and we are engaged in direct dialogue with PRP to support their efforts to measure, reduce, and offset their emissions.
Through industry groups like Murmur, we are collaborating in strategic investments for the industry at large, and we have also been testing new materials such as increasing recycled content as well as techniques like injection molding. We are always looking for ways to reduce product packaging and increase recyclability.
We will continue to utilize our insetting carbon fund to invest in our supply chain partners to implement projects that 1) enhance music industry understanding of best practices for limiting the negative effects of climate change and 2) lower our partners’ greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn lowers our own—and hopefully others’—carbon footprint. This is in lieu of investing in carbon offset projects that are disconnected from our mission.
Each year, we establish a carbon value for contributing to the insetting fund. Last year we assigned a value of $75.00MTCO2e for our Scopes 1-2 and $30/MTCO2e for our Scope 3 emissions. This year we have increased our price to:
- Scopes 1-2: $75.00/MTCO2e (no change)
- Scope 3: $45.00/MTCO2e
In addition to this insetting fund, we will continue to make progress on our Scope 3 emissions from travel and our supply chain by:
- Enhancing education on our sustainable travel policy and exploring the use of internal carbon budgets to influence travel decisions
- Investing in industry initiatives via Murmur to research and test lower-carbon vinyl production materials and technologies
- Continuing essential dialog with our manufacturing suppliers to support their journeys towards sustainability
- Minimizing the travel distance between manufacturers and our distribution hubs
- Working with our shipping and courier partners to optimize shipments, transport routes, and modes
- Minimise overstocks via the optimisation of our forecasting tools, and experimenting with services like Print-on-Demand
- Reducing product weights by choosing lower weight formats and minimizing packaging
- Recycling unsold formats, packaging, and damaged unsaleable products
- Joining forces with like-minded cultural institutions and lobbying as a collective to make fundamental change in the industry
We welcome collaboration – join us! To learn more about our initiatives and share ideas for ways to make a positive impact on the climate and our environment, contact info@secretlygroup.com.