you measured your carbon footprint…now what?
published 5.15.24
Whether you are a one- or 10-person sustainability team, creating a cohesive climate strategy that is credible, effective and engaging can be daunting. There’s the alphabet soup of standards, frameworks and regulations to consider, the maze of data gathering and knowing what to tackle first.
At qb., we approach climate strategy work with a practical mindset to create realistic, implementable solutions.
While the concept of measuring, reducing and offsetting emissions is not new, we’ve found that many companies get stuck at step one: measure. But to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5°C, we need more companies to take step two.
If you’re looking to measure, reduce, and offset emissions, here are insights to consider:
Measuring Your Emissions
The carbon dioxide equivalent that is emitted when you turn the lights on in your HQ or heat the building using natural gas, rev up the company vehicle to attend a client or site meeting, the energy it takes to power home offices or get your team to a company event — these are all carbon-emitting activities AKA your scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions — and they can all be measured.
Hint: Regardless of how much of the lion's share of operational emissions are in Scope 1 and 2 (your office lights, etc.), your company will have significant opportunities to address Scope 3 emissions (company travel, purchased goods and services, etc.).
Gathering GHG data can be onerous. For example, obtaining accurate energy utility data can seem straightforward, but it can also feel impossible depending on the complexity of your portfolio. Working across finance or property management departments to get this data takes time! Then, once your process of collecting and calculating your data is established, that’s just the start.
Fortunately, the GHG Protocol has been around since 2001, and it was built into reporting frameworks and tools like SBTi and referenced across climate reporting regulations like California’s Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act SB-253. There is also a healthy ecosystem of consultants and providers who will take your data and data sources and create accessible reporting outputs with visualization dashboards that highlight the trends in your Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
Send us a note if you’d like our take on GHG accounting providers.
Creating Your Emissions Reduction Plan
Now that you’ve measured; it’s time to reduce—because reporting isn’t the ultimate goal. We’re going for absolute emission reductions or intensity-based reductions — both metrics will help make timely decisions on how to address carbon emissions.
Analyzing your baseline data is the first step in creating an emissions reduction plan. You want to identify carbon-intense hot spots so you can develop a strategy for reducing or mitigating them. (Many consultants and providers will do this analysis for you!).
With hotspots identified, let’s talk about actions. Some actions are easier to put guardrails around to reduce emissions. Internally, it might look like standardizing behaviors that lead to emissions reductions over time.
Examples our clients have implemented include:
standard green building leases
investing in minor energy efficiency retrofits in owned and controlled sites,
putting caps or controls on corporate air travel,
developing a sustainable procurement policy
rolling out an entire procurement program internally
Incremental efforts altogether can be extremely effective. Not sure where to start? The EPA has long published an excellent resource for reduction strategy ideas and programs your company might consider.
While a large component of a climate strategy is ensuring its credibility through measurement and target setting, real effort is needed to activate cross-functional teams. Engaging people across your organization is an essential component in emissions reduction. Without the right level of buy-in, internal partnerships and collaboration across functional units to tackle complex supply chains, implementation is unlikely to succeed.
We recommend engaging stakeholders, tapping into employee insights on how the company can impact the climate, providing internal education and training and enlisting peers to deliver emissions reduction work. People are critical to developing holistic climate transition plans.
Offsetting for Broader Climate Impact
Beyond emissions reduction, companies can also consider carbon credits to compensate for their carbon emissions. Offsets can certainly be a part of a strong climate transition strategy. They can accelerate investments in credible and proven climate solutions in projects like clean energy or carbon capture. Offsetting allows companies to continue closing the corporate climate finance gap.
Check out part 2 of this series — on how companies can make credible claims and utilize carbon credits in your broader climate strategy — here.
by Erica Chan Glueck
Environment Lead
