The Honest Cost of Measuring Carbon Properly
By Benjamin Hall, Founder, LOFT
Our latest ESGmark® assessed carbon footprint rose by 68% year on year. On a like-for-like basis, it fell by 13%. Both numbers are true, and the gap between them tells you almost everything you need to know about the state of ESG reporting across the UK Living Sector.
The first time you measure your supply chain honestly, your numbers go up. That isn't a failure of strategy. It's the start of one.
Our latest independently assessed footprint, covering 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, shows LOFT's operational emissions rose 67.6% against our 2023/24 baseline. The headline reads like bad news. Across 23 years furnishing some of the UK's most ambitious Build to Rent, Purpose-Built Student Accommodation, co-living and HMO/PRS schemes, we believe responsible reporting is now a baseline expectation of any FF&E supplier serving institutional landlords - and the standard should be higher than it currently is.
The Numbers That Matter Most
Strip out the two categories we measured for the first time this year, international container shipping and employee home working, and our underlying like-for-like footprint reduced by around 13%. The 68% increase answers "how big is our footprint, in total?" The 13% reduction answers "are we getting better at what we already measured?" Both are true, and anyone reading our report gets both.
Headline tonnage alone tells you very little. Method, scope and trajectory are what matter. A supplier reporting a low footprint may simply be measuring a narrow slice of their business.
Why Our Footprint Grew: We Started Measuring Our Supply Chain
For the first time, we measured the international sea freight bringing furniture into our UK warehouses from China and Malaysia. That category alone added 370.7 tCO₂e, now our largest source of emissions, sitting within Scope 3. Those emissions have always existed; we simply weren't counting them until now.
This matters because Scope 3 is where the real action in ESG reporting sits. For investors filing into GRESB and asset managers responding to CSRD, Scope 3 decides whether a net zero target is meaningful or theatre. A landlord can't honestly account for an apartment's embodied carbon without accounting for the furniture inside it, and that starts with suppliers like us doing our half of the work.
What We Actually Improved
Scope 1 emissions, from our vans and fuel use, fell 18.4%, helped by completing the electrification of our Manchester warehouse forklift fleet, which eliminated propane entirely. Natural gas use fell 28% and waste emissions fell 31%, supported by a 98% waste diversion rate and our ISO 14001:2015 environmental management certification. Our mattress recycling programme diverted close to 7,000 mattresses from landfill, made possible by the full lifecycle service we offer: delivered, assembled, installed, removed, replaced and recycled. Business travel emissions fell too, with more of our 2026 events programme - MIPIM, Salone del Mobile, RESI - delivered by rail.
Why This Matters for BTR, PBSA and Co-Living Portfolios
An institutional landlord's Scope 3 is, in practice, a coalition of their suppliers' Scope 1, 2 and 3. If suppliers can't evidence their own emissions, the landlord's reporting becomes a guess. What clients need from an FF&E partner isn't a glossy brochure, it's an independently assessed footprint, year-on-year data, and a credible forward plan aligned to the GHG Protocol.
The Sector's ESG Language Needs to Grow Up
"Net zero," "sustainable furniture" and "carbon neutral" are too often used as marketing positions rather than quantified, independently assessed commitments. We are not net zero. We are measuring, reducing and reporting transparently, and that distinction is worth being honest about.
Our Priorities for the Year Ahead
Fleet electrification of our diesel delivery fleet, now our largest directly controllable emissions source at 31% of our total footprint. Renewable electricity procurement, extending the zero-carbon tariff already proven at our London warehouse to Manchester. Supply chain engagement on shipping, consolidating freight and working with forwarders on lower-carbon routing. We're also expanding measurement to water, purchased goods and a revenue-based intensity metric.
What a Responsible Living Sector Supplier Should Look Like
Whether you sit at Grainger, Get Living, Greystar, Moda or elsewhere, the standard to hold suppliers to is straightforward: an independently assessed annual footprint, full Scope 1–3 disclosure, honest year-on-year trend data, and a forward plan with named priorities rather than aspiration.
Our 2025/26 footprint will likely rise again as we capture more categories. Once measurement is complete enough to be credible, the trajectory should start to bend. That's what responsible reporting looks like. Across 23 years supplying the UK Living Sector, it's the position LOFT intends to keep building on.
If you're an operator or developer looking to understand how your FF&E supply chain factors into your own ESG and Scope 3 reporting, we're always happy to talk it through.
