The greenhouse gases produced by customers and supply chains typically account for more than 70% of a company’s carbon footprint.
This reality means companies cannot credibly pledge to address their environmental impact without tackling this massive source of emissions, known as Scope 3.
At the same time, problematic data issues attached to Scope 3 emissions have become legendary while some have argued companies have limited ability to influence their value chains anyway. The complexity of the topic, unsurprisingly, has proven to be a barrier for some companies trying to set net-zero targets.
But the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the world’s largest verifier of corporate climate goals, said we may be looking at the issue the wrong way.
In a paper published this week, SBTi put forward a possible new approach aimed at enabling companies to “better assess and communicate their climate performance” in a way that goes beyond simply disclosing aggregate Scope 3 emissions.
For Doreen Stabinsky, professor of global environmental politics at College of the Atlantic, who is also a member of SBTi’s Technical Council, the Scope 3 paper is a welcome offering.
