Spark Newsletter – May 2023
The May 2023 Spark newsletter examines:
- How digitalization can drive efficiency and productivity gains
- The growing pressure to manage and report financed emissions
- Implementing life cycle thinking to drive decarbonization in the automotive sector
- The EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)
- What PFAS are and how to identify and address them in your products
5 Ways Digitalization Drives Efficiency and Productivity Gains
Using digital tools for managing safe work processes enables safety leaders and supervisors to manage risks more efficiently. Companies can also enforce standardization and ensure safety across the organization or site locations.
Learn how digitalization can drive efficiency and productivity gains.
What to Know About Financed Emissions in the Current Risk Landscape
Don Reed, a managing director at PwC, joined Sharlene Key, Sphera’s director of ESG product management, on the SpheraNOW ESG podcast to discuss financed emissions, the growing pressure to manage and report them and where they fit in the risk landscape.
When discussing the challenges and strategies involved with obtaining quality financed emissions data, Don noted:
“I think the first things to keep in mind here are that you want to understand what you actually have, what is reported, what is reported and assured, what is in the emissions data and what is estimated and how it is estimated. And PCAF has a very useful framework for scoring that data quality more broadly. You always want to be applying that to the data you have to understand that the portfolio sector and other sorts of levels—what is the data quality you have? Where you have totally missing emissions data, how are you estimating that? How do you understand what your vendor may be estimating? And then, where they have gaps, how you might estimate that, and what are the better estimation techniques and the least favored estimation techniques? And try to be always moving up to having enough data to improve your estimation.”
Listen to the podcast now to hear the full conversation on financed emissions.
How Life Cycle Thinking Can Drive Automotive Sector Decarbonization
The need for decarbonization of the automotive industry is clear: The European Green Deal set 2050 as the target date to reach net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and transportation is the second largest contributor to global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions after the power sector. To comprehensively quantify emissions, assess reduction possibilities and track decarbonization progress, automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers alike need to implement life cycle thinking and get access to reliable supply chain data.
Read more about how life cycle thinking can drive decarbonization in the automotive sector.
Understanding the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
The EU’s sustainable finance framework includes the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which applies to financial market participants (FMPs) and financial advisers (FAs), as well as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which applies to large and listed companies.
How to Identify PFAS and Address Them in Your Products
Change is a constant problem for product stewards. This is especially true when it comes to regulations—there will always be new ones that will present compliance challenges for your organization. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) regulations should now be on your radar.
Knowing where PFAS may be lurking in your organization’s products and taking steps to replace them will be key to staying compliant with current and proposed regulations.
Read more about PFAS, how they are being regulated and how to identify and address them.