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Tag: carbon business

Net Zero or Carbon Neutral? What’s the difference?

Posted on by dishanth
Net Zero or Carbon Neutral? What’s the difference?

PAS 2060, a Publicly Available Specification that has been used as a guideline for demonstrating carbon neutrality, makes it clear that carbon neutral should be used to mean all scopes not just scope 1 & 2 (fuels burned on site and in vehicles and electricity consumption). However there has been a growing habit over recent years to use “carbon neutral” to mean just operational emissions – ignoring the value chain (scope 3) even though for most companies between 70 and 95% of their emissions are from the value chain.

To be truly carbon neutral, a company needs to reduce emissions from all sources as much as possible and then offset or actively remove the remainder.

Net Zero uses the same concept but at a larger scale, aiming for emissions from all sources to be reduced as much as possible and the remainder mitigated through removals from the atmosphere. These could be through supporting natural systems which sequester carbon (forest, peat, wetlands, seagrass, etc) or through technology like carbon capture and storage and buried solid carbon sinks.

The ISO 14068 standard will be a certifiable standard that ensures that emissions from all scopes are considered. (Click here to request a link to a recording of our ISO 14068 webinar or a copy of a factsheet.)

As time goes on, we need to be more cautious about avoided emissions (like technology sharing to reduce dependence on wood burning for example) as that prevents emissions that would otherwise have happened but doesn’t actively remove anything. So, it’s more like moving a share of emissions from one emitter to another, but on a global scale we need to be keeping total emissions to a minimum not just reducing in one place and emitting in another. It’s really important to support low carbon international development, but I think we’ll see a change in attitude to the value of avoided emissions in offsetting in future. A simple 2 tonnes avoided per 1 tonne allocated offset credit (for avoided emissions projects only) would work for example, as for every tonne emitted in location A, 2 tonnes are prevented in location B ensuring the overall emissions are net zero.

In short, a company that is carbon neutral is also net zero (calculated on a year-by-year basis), as in both cases the tracking of carbon emissions and removals need to match.

 

 

 

 

Source edie

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

Surviving to thriving in the low-carbon economy

Posted on by dishanth
Surviving to thriving in the low-carbon economy

Climate change presents complex challenges for businesses, so how can sustainability teams move from surviving to thriving in the low-carbon economy?
At the end of July, the UK government’s net-zero strategy was found to be ‘unlawful’ in the High Court, marking the latest high-profile litigation case to find in favour of climate activists. This sort of action is neither new nor unique and the impact of cases like this reaches beyond constitutional reform and far into the business world.

The low-carbon economy is complicated. Litigation is just one test that can await businesses as they face down the very real and very current challenges presented by climate change. The risk of inaction can lead to customer attrition, supply-chain breakdown, reputational damage, direct legal action and, ultimately, serious financial impact. It has never been more important for companies to move the marker from merely surviving amidst these complex challenges to unearthing the opportunities and thriving as a business.

 

 

Taking in the view
Often overlooked, transition risks, business-related risks that follow social, economic and political trends related to a low-carbon and more climate-friendly future, are, by their very nature, more near term – presenting a significant challenge for businesses, now. We live in a fickle, fast-moving world. Consumer sentiment ebbs and flows on the rising tides of popular opinion; investors decide which companies dive, survive and thrive; and reputations can be wiped out with one extreme event. Often presented as a cost-prohibitive challenge, climate action actually gives companies an opportunity that business leaders can’t afford to miss.

Analyses carried out by Risilience found that the valuation of businesses failing to take climate action could be eroded by as much as 30% over the next five years, depending on company profile and how aggressively they tackle climate change. As climate-related legislation increasingly takes hold across the globe; from the proposed European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to the UK’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), the temptation to view climate change as a problem for tomorrow’s enterprises has been eclipsed by the reality that it is a very real problem for businesses today.

 

A look ahead
Detailed analysis for where these pressures are likely to erode the value of the business shows where new opportunities can be found. The low-carbon economy is competitive and plays to the changeable nature of consumers, who can be highly discriminating and prone to switching brands according to how sustainable they believe the company to be –an opportunity for early movers to gain market share. We can take the lesson from the nineties when early changemakers saw the Internet economy coming.

Today we have the green economy, which is gaining momentum, so the choice is whether to grasp the opportunities that it creates or wait until it erodes your business model and, ultimately, the bottom line. Key actions involve upgrading manufacturing technology in processing plants to reduce emissions; substituting raw materials and suppliers for lower-emission alternatives; changing transportation and distribution fleets to electric vehicles and shortening the distribution footprint.

Finally, companies are finding that motivation and changing attitudes in their management and wider workforce are key to bringing about internal change from within an organisation. Internal incentivisation, shadowcarbon pricing and mandating changing practices, such as updating corporate travel policies, are all ways to instil a culture that seeks to prioritise climate action at both the strategic and operational levels of the business. To develop a comprehensive strategy, each of these initiatives needs to be evaluated for the volume of emissions that are saved relative to the costs and effort required, in terms of capital investment budget and operational change; and the resulting benefits and opportunities that the initiative provides for reducing risk.

A net-zero planning framework is essential and starts from a detailed understanding of the business and where its emissions come from, combined with detailed analyses of the costs and benefits each proposed initiative, respectively, requires and delivers, as part of an integrated strategy.

 

Data for a fresh perspective
A successful net-zero strategy is founded on three elements; climate-change science, business transformation and technology. When combined, and driven by data, all three provide sufficient visibility and operational efficiency such that the business can progress and thoroughly prepare for all risks that lie ahead. This same data will also be needed to seek and acquire buy-in from the top to ensure the value of acting, and fiscal damage for failing to, are highlighted to decisionmakers and budget holders in the business.

In addition, as we know, actionable insights are essential for driving momentum and evolving strategies. Organisations should seek risk analytics to shape their net-zero journey and truly understand the internal and external pressures that come from their customers, competitors, board and legislators –challenges that don’t lie in the future but sit very much in the here and now.

 

 

Source Sustainability 

TEDTalks – The energy Africa needs to develop and fight climate change

Posted on by dishanth
TEDTalks – The energy Africa needs to develop and fight climate change

 

In this perspective-shifting talk, energy researcher Rose M. Mutiso makes the case for prioritizing Africa’s needs with what’s left of the world’s carbon budget, to foster growth and equitably achieve a smaller global carbon footprint.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

 

 

 

Source: TED