In today’s climate-conscious world, businesses are increasingly expected to track and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions.
This practice is crucial for demonstrating accountability, fostering trust, and driving progress toward sustainability goals.
Here’s how your organization can effectively disclose emissions annually in line with best practices.
Annual Emissions Disclosure
To maintain transparency and clarity in your environmental reporting to stakeholders it is important to follow these key steps:
1. Clear and Understandable Format: Present greenhouse gas emissions data in a way that is easy to comprehend for stakeholders, including employees, investors, and the public.
2. Breakdown of Emission Sources: Provide detailed information on the sources of emissions, such as energy consumption, refrigerants, transportation, and manufacturing processes.
3. Historical Data Presentation: Show historical emissions data for the same sources to highlight trends and progress over time. Like-for-like comparisons should be provided wherever practically possible.
4. Activity Data and Emission Intensities: Include metrics that correlate emissions with business activities (e.g., emissions per unit of product produced) to provide context for the data. This also enables efficiency, a key component of decarbonisation to be woven into business operations.
5. Location-Based & Market-Based Accounting: Present emissions using both location-based (physical location of emissions) and market-based (accounting for the electricity’s origin) approaches. This provides transparency and is comparable to stakeholders as well as enabling an organisation to understand the role green procurement can play in emission reduction approaches.
6. Subsidiary Emissions: Ensure that emissions from all subsidiaries are included to provide a complete picture of the organization’s carbon footprint.
Setting Specific & Substantiated Targets
To effectively reduce emissions and align with global climate goals, it is essential to set clear, ambitious, and scientifically substantiated targets:
1. Comprehensive Coverage: Explicitly state that your targets cover all Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased electricity), and Scope 3 (all other indirect emissions) emissions.
2. Specific Reduction Targets: Set a specific emission reduction target that is independent of offsetting claims. Ensure that this target is aligned with a 1.5°C or 2°C compatible trajectory or relevant sector benchmarks as your primary commitment.
3. Interim Targets: Establish interim targets that align with your long-term vision. These should require immediate action and accountability, ideally within a five-year timeframe to maintain momentum and demonstrate progress. Given the ability to
Reducing Emissions
To achieve your emission reduction goals, implement comprehensive and effective decarbonization measures:
1. Decarbonization Measures: Adopt deep decarbonization measures and share detailed information about these initiatives. This transparency not only supports replication by other organizations but also helps in identifying new solutions.
2. Renewable Energy Procurement: Commit to procuring the highest quality renewable energy available. Disclose the full details of your renewable energy procurement efforts to ensure transparency and build trust.
Climate Contributions and Offsetting
While reducing emissions should be the primary focus, contributing to climate mitigation beyond your value chain can also play a crucial role:
1. Financial Support for Climate Mitigation: Provide substantial financial support to climate change mitigation activities that are beyond your value chain. This should be done without claiming to neutralize your own emissions.
2. Offsetting Claims: Clearly disclose if your company makes any offsetting claims. If so, ensure that these claims are not misleading. Only procure high-quality credits that offer a measurable, additional, and permanent climate impact.
3. Offsetting Plans: If your company plans to offset emissions, avoid making misleading pledges. Commit to procuring high-quality credits from ambitious projects and ensure corresponding adjustments are applied to limit the risk of double counting.
By following these guidelines, your organization can ensure transparent, accountable, and effective emissions reporting and reduction strategies. This not only enhances your credibility but also contributes meaningfully to the global effort to combat climate change.
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