Scope three emissions can be managed today – there is no reason to wait

Once a year on 22 April,?the world?comes together for?Earth Day to highlight the urgent action needed to save our planet.

I’ve been giving consideration to the fact that on average,?scope three?emissions account for between 80-97%?of the total emissions for an enterprise. However, because they’re indirect and dispersed down an organization’s supply chain they’re the hardest to measure (and hence manage). Direct emissions tend to be viewed as the “low hanging fruit” that can be managed today and form the focus of most organization’s efforts to reach net zero. But with such a small proportion of the total output they’ll never reach their objectives until scope three is addressed.

Thankfully the technology is now there to provide enterprises with the power and tools to manage their indirect emissions where beforehand they would have been powerless. What needs to happen?

Scope three is about collaborating with suppliers and setting shared commitments. It is essential to do the following:

1)?????Collect data from existing suppliers

2)?????Set targets and a strategy to meet them?

3)?????Implement a reduction strategy that includes collaborative initiatives, renewable energy and other procurement strategies

It is imperative to start with data collection as this is the foundation for creating a heat map of?hotspot suppliers. Using this commodity approach, you can identify what raw materials are having the biggest impact (and from what suppliers) while identifying corrective action such as reducing the amount of that raw material, switching to a lower-carbon alternative, working with that supplier on their own footprint and more.?CDP Supply Chain?is a globally recognized membership program to score your suppliers based on their disclosure which enables supplier engagement and procurement processes.

We are excited about industry initiatives such as the?Science Based-Targets Initiative (SBTi)?where more than 1,800 companies have committed to setting science-based targets. If companies and their suppliers are both part of this initiative, it means that everyone is on the same page and measuring their outputs in the same way. We are proud to say that Avery Dennison itself has had our emissions targets approved by the SBTI.

With scope three, granularity of detail across the supply chain is key. Avery Dennison is working with many brands and retailers, including a global sportswear brand, to track over 20 billion items at an item-level to build a meaningful picture of the total product lifecycle emissions of individual products. Now, using atma.io we’re able to track the carbon footprint of an individual product as it moves through the supply chain, we’re able to provide brands and retailers with a more accurate picture of what their?scope three?emissions are.

Scope three has all too often been perceived as ‘tomorrow’s problem’ – this is no longer the case and it’s time organizations address the ‘80%+ problem’ to start tackling net zero today.

#EarthDay #ScopeThree #NetZero