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Tag: carbon accounting

Apple puts pressure on supply chain to decarbonise by 2030

Posted on by dishanth
Apple puts pressure on supply chain to decarbonise by 2030

Apple has issued something of a wake-up call to manufacturing partners around the world as it aims to clean up its supply chain and tackle climate change.

Sustainability is clearly high on the agenda for CEO Tim Cook. Only yesterday (27 October) Apple announced record results for fiscal 2022 fourth quarter revenue of US$90.1bn – up 8% year on year. That put annual revenue at US$394.3bn, also up 8%.

“This quarter’s results reflect Apple’s commitment to our customers, to the pursuit of innovation, and to leaving the world better than we found it,” said Cook.

“As we head into the holiday season with our most powerful lineup ever, we are leading with our values in every action we take and every decision we make. We are deeply committed to protecting the environment, to securing user privacy, to strengthening accessibility, and to creating products and services that can unlock humanity’s full creative potential.”

Let’s hope Cook has taken into account the fact that global CO2 emissions have more than doubled since Apple was founded in 1976, so leaving the world better than when they found it could be quite the task.

 

 

Apple will track and audit key manufacturing partners on carbon

The message seems consistent from Apple, and now they are putting the onus on their key suppliers to decarbonise. Apple requires reporting on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reductions related to Apple production.

Apple says it will track the progress of key partners as it aims to set the same standards in its supply chain – the company has been carbon neutral since 2020 and intends to meet the same standard across its entire supply chain.

“Fighting climate change remains one of Apple’s most urgent priorities, and moments like this put action to those words,” said Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re looking forward to continued partnership with our suppliers to make Apple’s supply chain carbon neutral by 2030. Climate action at Apple doesn’t stop at our doors, and in this work, we’re determined to be a ripple in the pond that creates a bigger change.”

That work Cook is referring to sees Apple investing in numerous projects around the world to create clean energy, and some smart updates to its products.

Apple has reduced its emissions by 40% since 2015, largely through adopting renewable energy. With more than 70% of direct manufacturing spend coming from more than 200 suppliers, it’s no surprise to hear they have also committed to clean energy solutions.

Major partners including Corning Incorporated, Nitto Denko Corporation, SK hynix, STMicroelectronics, TSMC, and Yuto have committed to 100% renewable energy for all production relating to Apple products.

Apple’s shift to clean energy means it now uses renewable energy for all corporate offices, Apple stores, and data centres in 44 countries.

Now the company is involved in constructing large-scale solar and wind projects in Europe to tackle the 22% of its carbon footprint that comes from customers charging their devices. Earlier this year, the company also announced new renewable projects in the US and Australia.

An update in iOS16 means iPhone users in the US can also use Clean Energy Charging – a feature that will charge your phone at the optimum time to take advantage of renewables.

 

Apple’s new climate solutions projects

Apple has announced three new projects through the Restore Fund – a carbon removal initiative that aims to generate revenue for those involved. Developed with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs, Apple is working with forestry managers in Brazil and Paraguay to restore 150,000 acres of forests and protect 100,000 acres of native forests, grasslands, and wetlands. These projects could remove 1 million metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere in 2025.

 

New sustainability partnerships announced also include:

In Namibia and Zimbabwe, Apple is working with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to promote climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods through the Climate Crowd program.
In China, Apple has partnered with China Green Carbon Foundation to conduct research, demonstrate best practices, and build stakeholder networks to increasing the amount and quality of responsibly managed nature-based carbon sinks.
In Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, Apple is launching a new partnership with ChangemakerXchange to strengthen climate action and leadership in the region. The initiative will launch in Egypt at COP27.

 

 

 

 

Source Sustainability

 

Digitize your carbon accounting

Posted on by dishanth
Digitize your carbon accounting

I’ve been covering the world of software long enough to remember that the aftermath of every frothy funding frenzy is the certain recipe for a tasty smorgasbord of acquisition targets, especially when the economy chills.

Thus, I wasn’t even remotely surprised to learn about the gobble-up earlier this month of U.K. carbon accounting software venture Spherics by London-based Sage, one of the better-known vendors of accounting, financial and human resources applications for small and midsize businesses.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Sage stated that it believes it has a big role to play in helping smaller enterprises progress down the path to net zero by making it simpler for them to calculate their greenhouse gas emissions as part of their day-to-day financial and procurement processes.

 

 

IDC analyst Mickey North Rizza noted: “We see companies moving towards more integrated, outcome-driving ways of incorporating sustainability into every step of the business life cycle, and our studies show that organizations are investing in many application areas directly related to sustainability and ESG initiatives. In particular, the applications of supply chain, finance and [enterprise resource planning] are at the top of this investment with some of the largest benefits of elevated productivity, increasing profitability and decreased costs.”

That’s why any data platform that can help multinational companies better understand the climate impact of its value chain is ripe for the picking — and why the carbon accounting category will grow by an estimated $9.6 billion between 2021 and 2026. I encourage you to check out this analysis published by nonprofit Responsible Innovation Labs and VC advisory firm Lucid Capitalism, which offers some great advice about how to go about evaluating software of this nature. The five companies considered are Watershed (a partner of GreenBiz), Greenly, Planetly, Persefoni and Sustain.Life.

Trouble is, very few companies have yet to forge an explicit link between their holistic digital technology strategy and the goals that they are setting for net-zero operations and other environmental, social or corporate governance ambitions. So, many of these tools are probably being purchased in a vacuum.

We see companies moving towards more integrated, outcome-driving ways of incorporating sustainability into every step of the business life cycle …
Consider that just 7 percent of roughly 560 companies surveyed earlier this year by Accenture, for example, have fully integrated those strategies. According to the research, only 49 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) are part of the leadership team setting sustainability goals, while only 45 percent are “assessed” based on those goals.

“Successful integration of sustainability goals into an organization’s broader strategy involved collaboration between a purpose-driven CIO and their leadership team to drive innovation and tech solutions to deliver on sustainability goals; measure the impact of technology and build sustainable tech; and accelerating sustainability outcomes by leveraging the company’s ecosystem,” Sanjay Podder, managing director and global lead of technology sustainability innovation, told me in an email.

 

The promise of digitalization

Which technologies are particularly important for building more discipline around the collection and management of data is integral to operationalizing sustainability. It’s the usual suspects: artificial intelligence, sensors and other gadgets associated with the Internet of Things, blockchain and cloud computing services. Indeed, Accenture figures that about 70 percent of the companies that have successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions in their production and operations have used AI to do so.

In our email exchange, Podder cites the example of a building materials company that is using machine learning to assess the strength of cement during the production process, with the aim of reducing emissions during its creation. The goal is to cut the amount of CO2 spit out by its plants by 3 million metric tons — saving about $150 million along the way.

Another area Podder talks up as especially important is “green software development.” Recentering the principles by which a company designs, deploys and manages its fundamental business applications will be critical for making sure that embracing technology to support ESG goals doesn’t wind up increasing corporate emissions or water consumption. He notes that seven areas require particular attention:

How custom software applications are written — not just the time taken for creation but also how features are crafted to use the least amount of energy possible
Design choices associated with user interfaces, so that the way information is displayed uses minimal power
How machine learning and AI processes are constructed — again, with energy usage in mind
Where cloud services are hosted and the generation sources behind the electricity used by those data centers
The types of servers and equipment used for data processing
The algorithms used by any blockchain technology selected for transactions
The life cycle of any hardware used to support a company’s information technology needs — not just how long those servers last, but how they can be recycled and reused at some point in the future
As Podder notes, “Companies need to focus on building trustworthy systems. The environmental aspects of sustainability are important, but they’re not the only issue that matters. For sustainable technology to cover all the bases, it must also consider the human and social impact of technology and — in turn — its effect on company performance. Finally, organizations need to ensure that they’ve created practical governance mechanisms to make technology sustainable.”

Obviously, these are things sustainability professionals think about but aren’t necessarily expert in addressing. All the more reason it’s time for CSOs to start working more closely with CIOs.

 

 

Source Greenbiz

2020: a dismal year for coal power

Posted on by dishanth
2020: a dismal year for coal power

Long seen as a critical emerging market for coal power, South and Southeast Asian countries radically reconsidered their commitment to it last year in the face of new economic realities following the spread of coronavirus.

According to a new analysis from Global Energy Monitor (GEM), four of the region’s largest emerging economies— Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam—may have cancelled nearly 45 gigawatts (GW) of coal power in 2020, equivalent to the total installed capacity of Germany.

Prospects for a revival of coal development plans in 2021 have also been limited by announcements from major coal financiers in South Korea and Japan of new restrictions on coal power investments beyond their borders.

Analysts have for years warned that coal power expansion plans in several countries in South and Southeast Asia risked overcapacity in the sector, wasted capital and asset stranding—not to mention greenhouse gas emissions and environmental costs. The year 2020 may prove to be when the regions’ coal power expansion plans were finally re-evaluated in the face of the pressing need for climate action and the reality of declining low-carbon technology costs.

 

Falling one by one

Perhaps the most dramatic development in Asia’s energy sector last year was the summer flurry of coal power plant cancellations and postponements. It started in Bangladesh in June when Nasrul Hamid, Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, unexpectedly announced that the government was planning to “review” all but three of the country’s under-development coal plants, capping coal power capacity at 5GW. Suddenly, planned coal plants totalling 23GW were in doubt. By November, Bangladeshi media were reporting that the plan to scrap most of the country’s planned coal was awaiting approval from the prime minister.

A month later, details of Vietnam’s draft Power Development Plan, which is due to come into force next year, became public. The draft plan proposed cancelling seven coal plants and postponing six others until the 2030s, by which point it is highly unlikely they will go ahead. The 13 plants represent almost half of Vietnam’s planned coal power development.

Then, in November, the Philippines’ Department of Energy proposed a moratorium on new coal power plants which, according to analysis by GEM, could lead to 9.6GW of cancellations. And, in December, on the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Pakistan’s Imran Khan announced that the country would not construct any new coal power plants, though the real-world impact of this grandiose announcement has been questioned.

Adding in proposed project cancellations in Indonesia, GEM estimates that the coal power pipeline in South and Southeast Asia’s four major emerging economies may have dropped by as much as 62GW in 2020. That leaves just 25GW under development, an 80 per cent decline from just five years ago. Exact figures for cancelled and remaining plants will depend on how last year’s flurry of announcements is manifested in specific policies.

 

Source: Global Energy Monitor (GEM)

 

The financial drought continues

One contributing factor to the wave of coal power cancellations and moratoriums around South and Southeast Asia last year was the decline in finance. Banks faced growing public pressure to identify and manage the climate and biodiversity risks associated with coal power development and respond to the climate crisis by committing resources to renewables. A recent report from Greenpeace Japan estimates that Southeast Asia’s renewable energy market could be worth up to US$205 billion over the next 10 years.

In Japan, 2020 saw banks Mizuho, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group announce restrictions on coal power investments. In Korea, state financial institutions Korea Export-Import Bank and KSURE both stepped away from involvement in coal power projects, while Samsung corporation and the state-owned Korea Electric Power Corporation pledged no further investments in overseas coal projects.

The Japanese government also committed “in principle” to limit investments in overseas coal power plants, declaring that such investments would be contingent on the use of ultra-supercritical technology and the host country having a decarbonisation strategy. There have also been strong moves within the Korean parliament this year to ban Korean financing of coal power overseas, with progressive MPs from the ruling Democratic Party proposing related bills on four occasions.

The wave of announcements comes on the back of Singapore’s three major banks announcing an end to coal power financing in 2019. This leaves Chinese banks increasingly the “lender of last resort” to coal power projects around Asia. According to the Global Coal Public Finance Tracker, Chinese banks have provided finance to a total of 53GW worth of under construction or currently operating coal power, far more than the 21GW propped up by the second biggest financier in overseas coal, Japanese banks.

 

Source: Global coal public finance tracker • Note: The data covers all projects under development since 2013, including currently proposed projects, which have received or are likely to receive public finance.

 

All eyes on China’s policymakers

But movement may be on the horizon in China too. At the beginning of December, a report released by the BRI International Green Development Coalition and supported by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment detailed how the Chinese government could establish a “classification mechanism” of overseas project types based on their impacts on local pollution, climate change and biodiversity. The mechanism labels coal power and coal mining as “red”, meaning that involvement of Chinese actors in such projects would be off-limits. Eyes are now on policymakers to adopt the report’s suggestions.

The growing number of national pledges to reach carbon net-zero has arguably given impetus toward “greening” the Belt and Road Initiative. Though China’s new 2060 net-zero goal is targeted at the domestic economy, numerous voices are calling for the expansion of the development target to overseas investments.

While these dizzying developments in Asian energy are certainly welcome news, “king coal” is still clinging on in several places. Countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, despite their large-scale cancellations, are still pursuing the construction of significant quantities of coal power, while Cambodia has announced new coal power projects, backed by Chinese finance and construction. Meanwhile, despite its welcome net-zero announcement, China is still building new coal-fired power plants at an alarming rate at home.

Asia’s journey away from coal will be a long one but in 2020 many countries at least picked up the pace.

 

 

By Tony Baxter, China Dialogue

Source Eco Business

Oxford Offsetting Principles: Academics launch new guidelines for carbon offsetting

Posted on by dishanth
Oxford Offsetting Principles: Academics launch new guidelines for carbon offsetting

Academics from the University of Oxford have today launched a new standard for carbon offsetting, in a bid to ensure the growing number of net zero strategies adopted by state and corporate actors are effective in their stated goal of halting increases in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.

As things currently stand, a patchwork of voluntary and regulatory standards govern approaches to offsetting and how net zero is defined, a lack of cohesion that critics claim has led to a glut of low-quality offsets that undermine the credibility and effectiveness of net zero strategies.

The hope is that new principles, dubbed The Oxford Offsetting Principles, will help provide greater clarity to the broader industry on what consitutes a credible offset and become a key resources for cities, governments, and companies looking to avoid accusations of ‘greenwash’ as they seek to design and deliver robust net zero commitments that align with climate science.

“Adopting the Oxford Offsetting Principles and publicising their adoption can create the demand for offsets necessary to reach net zero emissions,” explained Professor Cameron Hepburn of the university’s Smith School of Enterprise and Environment. “Creating demand for long-lived greenhouse gas removal and storage is vital, whether we like it or not, to reaching the Paris goals.”

Credible net zero aligned offsetting is contingent on a number of key elements, according to the guidelines. First up, companies or state actors must prioritise emissions reduction before embarking on offsetting programmes, demonstrate the environmental integrity of any offsets that are sourced by the organisation, and disclose how all purchased offsets are then used.

Next, they should prioritise offsets that directly remove carbon from the atmosphere and offsets that remove carbon from the atmosphere permanently or almost permanently by shuttling it into long-lived storage.

Finally, all credible strategies should support the development of a ‘net zero aligned’ offset market.

Dr Ben Caldecott, Lombard Odier associate professor of sustainable finance and COP26 strategy advisor for finance, predicted the principles could prove a boon to the growing number of financial institutions looking to clean up their operations and portfolios.

“The Oxford Offsetting Principles can be used by financial institutions to design and deliver credible plans for achieving net zero,” he said. “Financial institutions can also assess the plans of investees and borrowers. This can inform risk and impact analysis, as well as engagement and stewardship activities.”

The new report also highlights the need for a “credible approach” to nature-based carbon offsets, such as forest restoration.

Professor Nathalie Seddon, director of the university’s Nature-based Solutions Initiative, emphasised that nature-based offsetting should be approached carefully. “Irrespective of any carbon benefits, scaling up the protection and restoration of ecosystems is vital,” she said. “While carbon offsets can help to fund some of this work, nature-based solutions should be valued and funded for the broad suite of benefits they bring, now and into the future. However, nature-based solutions are not an alternative to geological storage and rapid decarbonisation of the economy.”

 

 

By Cecilia Keating

Source: Business Green

Unilever pledges to invest €1bn in eliminating fossil fuels from cleaning products by 2030

Posted on by dishanth
Unilever pledges to invest €1bn in eliminating fossil fuels from cleaning products by 2030

Unilever has announced it is to invest €1bn in measures that could allow it to eliminate fossil fuels from its cleaning and laundry products by the end of the decade, an intervention it claims is critical if it is to deliver on its goal of reaching net zero emissions from its products by 2039.

The company intends to transition the products across its cleaning brands – which include Persil, Sunlight, Domestos and Cif – away from chemicals made from fossil fuel feedstocks and replace them with renewable or recycled sources of carbon, such as carbon captured using carbon capture utilisation technology or recovered from waste materials.

Unilever said the €1bn of funding will specifically finance biotechnology research, CO2 utilisation technologies, low carbon chemistry research, and biodegradable and water-efficient product formulations, while also helping the firm halve its use of virgin plastic by 2025.

In addition, the funding will support the development of brand communications that explain the various technologies to customers.

Peter ter Kulve, Unilever’s president of home care, predicted the newly launched ‘Clean Future programme’ would help “radically overhaul” the business. “As an industry, we must break our dependence on fossil fuels, including as a raw material for our products,” he said. “We must stop pumping carbon from under the ground when there is ample carbon on and above the ground if we can learn to utilise it at scale.”

The chemicals in Unilever’s cleaning and laundry products make up the greatest proportion of the company’s carbon footprint, accounting for roughly 46 per cent of its emissions. The firm expects its new programme to reduce the carbon footprint of its product formulations by a fifth.

The Anglo-Dutch company confirmed that work is already underway to wean its products off fossil fuel derived carbon across various global locations. For example, in Slovakia the company is working with biotechnology company Evonik Industries to develop the production of rhamnolipids, a renewable and biodegradable surfactant used in its Sunlight dishwashing liquid in Chile and Vietnam. Meanwhile, in Southern India Unilever is sourcing soda ash – an ingredient in laundry powders – from CO2 capture technology. The company intends to scale up both initiatives in the coming years.

Similarly, liquid detergent made by Persil – one of Unilever’s largest and most popular brands in the UK – has been reformulated to rely on plant-based stain removers. The new line is to be sold in British supermarkets from later this month.

And in order to demystify the different production processes to its consumers, competitors, and partners, Unilever has today published a ‘carbon rainbow’ model geared at outlining the range of alternatives to fossil fuel derived carbon. Non-renewable, fossil-based sources of carbon are labelled on the Carbon Rainbow as ‘black carbon’, while captured CO2 is referred to as ‘purple carbon’, plants and biological sources are branded ‘green carbon’, marine sources such as algae are labelled ‘blue carbon’, and carbon recovered from waste materials is described as ‘grey carbon’.

Ter Kulve urged other businesses to adopt the ‘carbon rainbow’ system. “Diversifying sources of carbon is essential to grow within the limits of our planet,” he said. “Our suppliers and innovation partners play a critical role through this transition. By sharing our Carbon Rainbow model, we are calling on an economy-wide transformation in how we all use carbon”.

The investment announced today comes just months after the company announced it would spend €1bn on a range of nature-based initiatives in support of its over-arching net zero emission goal, including reforestation, water preservation and biodiversity, through a Climate and Nature Fund.

 

 

By Cecilia Keating

Source: Business Green

Vodafone targets 100 per cent renewables-powered mobile network in 2021

Posted on by dishanth
Vodafone targets 100 per cent renewables-powered mobile network in 2021

Vodafone has announced plans to shift its entire European mobile network to run on 100 per cent renewable electricity by no later than July 2021, alongside a new target to help its business customers slash their climate impact over the next decade.

The telecoms giant on Friday said it aimed to operate a “Green Gigabit Net” for its customers across 11 European markets powered only be electricity from wind, solar and hydro sources within 12 months, covering countries including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy and Greece.

Around a third of Vodafone’s network is currently powered by renewables, and Friday’s announcement brings forward Vodafone’s existing target date for a fully-renewables-powered mobile network by three years.

Roughly 80 per cent of the energy used by Vodafone’s fixed and mobile networks will be supplied by renewables via Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and green electricity tariffs, it explained, with the remained covered by “credible” Renewable Energy Certificates.

Where feasible, the firm added, it will also invest in its own on-site renewable power generation, mostly via solar panels.

Mobile network base stations and data centres account for 95 per cent of Vodafone’s energy consumption, with just one base station using around 78kWh of electricity per day, roughly equivalent to the amount of battery power needed in a Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle to travel around 300 miles, it explained.

“As society rebuilds and recovers from the Covid-19 crisis, we have an opportunity to reshape our future sustainably to ensure that recovery does not come at a cost to the environment,” said Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read. “Our accelerated shift to 100 per cent renewable electricity on our European networks will change the way we power our technology for good – reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, helping our customers manage their resources more effectively and reduce their carbon emissions, while helping to create a healthier planet for everyone.”

In addition, Vodafone has also worked with climate consultancy the Carbon Trust to develop a new cumulative target to cut the equivalent of 350 million tonnes of CO2 from 2020-2030 across its value chain, which it said would largely be delivered through its Internet of Things (IoT) services, including logistics, fleet management, smart metering and manufacturing activities.

Over carbon savings are expected to be made through Vodafone’s healthcare services, cloud hosting and home working, it said, with its IoT services.

Altogether the latest announcements form part of Vodafone’s headline ambitions to halve its environmental impact by 2025, resell or recycle 100 per cent of its network waste, and support the shift to a more circular economy.

In 2020 so far, the company said it had invested €77m in energy efficiency and renewables projects, which had unlocked 186GWh of energy savings.

Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay said Vodafone had been working together with the organisation for the best part of a decade to quantify the carbon impact of its products and services.

“There is a growing and important opportunity for the ICT sector to develop and enable new solutions that help drive decarbonisation and this target represents a very high level of ambition for Vodafone to continue to drive this strategy, further developing its IoT and other services, and engaging with its business customers,” he added.

 

 

By Michael Holder

Source: Business Green