How Leo Workwear is transforming workwear with sustainability

For 40 years, Leo Workwear has been at the forefront of designing and manufacturing high-visibility clothing, amassing a wealth of experience and knowledge. The company’s core values—Inclusivity, Sustainability, and Hivizology (a term coined by Leo Workwear to showcase their expertise in high-visibility solutions)—reflect a deep-seated passion for delivering high-quality products and services. These principles drive the business forward, ensuring that it continues to meet the needs of future generations.

Leo Workwear has a rich background in driving sustainability within the business already, becoming the first in the UK to bring recycled high-visibility clothing to the market in 2019 and as of 2024, Leo Workwear achieved a significant milestone of transitioning the entire range to the EcoViz brand. With this in mind, Positive Planet recently sat down with Kathy Turner, Sustainability Coordinator at Leo Workwear, to learn how our partnership has helped the company elevate its sustainability activities.

The Challenge 

With a strong commitment to creating a lasting positive impact, Leo Workwear sought to leave no stone unturned in its pursuit of sustainable viability, beginning by addressing the knowledge gap within its internal team. As an organisation that supports thousands of clients, many involved in diverse tender processes, it was crucial for Leo Workwear to provide full transparency and detailed information to its customers.

However, challenges emerged as the company set out to reduce its organisational carbon footprint given the complexities of supplying a large range of products, consisting of multiple components. Leo Workwear acknowledged the need to deepen its internal understanding of the climate implications of these activities, enabling it to establish clear and ambitious carbon reduction targets to work towards.

The Positive Planet Solution 

Having taken numerous steps towards sustainability through several initiatives before our collaboration, Leo Workwear sought the expertise of a third-party consultancy to assess, validate, and advise on the progress made. By partnering with Positive Planet to meet these needs, the consultancy was able to measure the avoidance of 3,020 tonnes of CO₂ emissions since the introduction of Leo Workwear’s EcoViz range in 2019.

This collaboration also brought greater structure to Leo Workwear’s carbon accounting process. Positive Planet’s consultants effectively collated, categorised, and analysed the organisation’s emissions data, simplifying what would otherwise have been a complex process for the Leo Workwear team.

The Benefits 

With a more structured and comprehensive view of its carbon footprint, Leo Workwear has gained clearer insight into the most emissions-intensive areas of the business. This visibility allows the company to prioritise key areas and direct investments strategically, helping to further reduce carbon emissions.

Positive Planet’s validation of data, such as the 3,020 tonnes of carbon emissions saved since 2019 through Leo Workwear’s EcoViz range, has boosted confidence and credibility in the company’s efforts. Employees are now comfortable sharing specific data with stakeholders, celebrating carbon reduction milestones, and encouraging others in the industry to take similar actions.

For Leo Workwear, achieving Positive Planet Certified – Bronze Status has been a great way of bringing the hard work of all employees together. The Positive Planet Certified accreditation has been recognised by stakeholders within the industry and echoes the company’s achievements so far. As well as offering further verification and validation that the company are on the right path to achieving its sustainability targets.

Next Steps 

Leo Workwear is always looking to improve and evolve as it looks towards the future, exercising the true traits of an industry leader. The company is already well on its way to its 2050 Net Zero Target with a range of reduction methods that tackle all scopes 1, 2, and 3, including:

• Development of a strategy and timeline for switching company vehicles to electric or hybrid.
• Completing further Life Cycle Assessments to achieve high data quality when reporting emissions associated with goods for sale.
• Regular supplier appraisals to monitor and track progress towards waste reduction, utilisation of renewables and sustainability accreditations.
• Assessing the possibility of further solar panels on site in North Devon.
• Development of a Carbon Literacy Training plan for employees.

The commitments outlined above have been developed strategically between Leo Workwear and Positive Planet consultants. These reduction initiatives will support Leo Workwear’s wider sustainability goals, such as achieving 42% reductions in scope 1 and 3 emissions by 2030 on its journey to Net Zero.

Positive Planet will continue to work with the organisation to minimise its environmental impact.