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Reports | Thursday December 9, 2021

Human Rights Assessments: Identifying Risks, Informing Strategy

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Why Assess Human Rights Risks?

Identifying the human rights risks associated with business is the first critical step in preventing and mitigating harm to people due to business activity.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) lay out the expectation that companies should avoid infringing on the human rights of others and should address adverse impacts with which they are involved.¹ To achieve this, businesses should carry out human rights due diligence, which is a four-step process for identifying and assessing actual and potential impacts, implementing measures to prevent and mitigate impacts, tracking the effectiveness of these measures, and reporting on how impacts are being addressed.² Human rights assessment is the first step in this process.

Reports | Wednesday December 8, 2021

Keeping Workers in the Loop

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The environmental and commercial benefits of a transition to circular fashion are clear, but the social impacts have received less attention. While a shift to circularity will create new roles and important opportunities for entrepreneurship, there are also serious challenges around marginalized groups, reskilling, and labor market disruption. 

This report explores the job impacts of the circular fashion transition, informed by BSR’s 18-month collective research with industry leaders and stakeholders via Keeping Workers in the Loop (KWIL). From automation to climate disruption, it considers the impact of a changing industry context and dynamics on workers and offers recommendations to industry and policymakers on creating a just, fair and inclusive circular fashion system.

KWIL has been supported by Laudes Foundation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); is led by BSR, in partnership with Catalyst Management Services, India and economists from the University of Lincoln; and includes H&M Group, Shahi Exports, The Renewal Workshop, Target, and VF Corporation as industry partners.

Blog | Wednesday December 8, 2021

The New SBTi Standard Places Science at the Heart of Corporate Net-Zero Targets

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The launch of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Net-Zero Standard just before COP26 marks a significant milestone. It is the first independently certifiable standard that assesses a company's net-zero targets, and importantly it clearly grounds them into 1.5°C-aligned short-term and long-term action.

Experts from civil society, corporates, and academia worked together over the past year to develop the standard, which was then piloted by more than 80 companies. The result brings much-needed clarity to corporate net-zero targets—a rapidly evolving, and sometimes criticized, topic.

The standard finally invites climate science to the net-zero conversation and, importantly, distinguishes between near-term and long-term science-based targets.

Near-term science-based targets focus on a short timeframe (5-10 years). They require companies to align their Scope 1 & 2 targets with a 1.5°C goal, while Scope 3 ambitions should retain a threshold of well below 2°C.

Setting longer-term targets is an important development. It requires companies to achieve 1.5°C-aligned decarbonization by their net-zero target year, but by no later than 2050. Achieving that ambitious goal translates to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 90 percent for the vast majority of Scopes 1, 2, and 3.

These changes are significant in that they provide a mechanism for increased accountability in the near term, but also for the longer term, when a company pledges to reach net zero. With this robust new framework, the question for businesses is no longer “by how much should I reduce emissions and on what scopes?” but rather “how do I transform my business to align with the 1.5°C ambition?”  

And that is why this new SBTi standard is so important: it enshrines 1.5°C across scopes as the minimum ambition, in alignment with the UN Race to Zero initiatives. And, as a standard, it provides a pathway to independent verification. This is a much-needed and welcome development, which provides companies with a clear framework for action.

The standard also clarifies the meaning of the "net" in net zero. The mounting criticism of net zero has focused on companies claiming net zero by simply offsetting emissions without decarbonizing.

The new standard addresses this critique by clearly stating that a company will not be able to claim it has achieved a net-zero goal until the long-term decarbonization target is met. When companies reach such deep decarbonization across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 at their target year, they are required to net their emissions by balancing out residual emissions with permanent carbon removals.

This means that in their target year, companies should reach net zero by netting a portion of emissions by investing in technological or nature-based solutions that effectively remove GHGs from the atmosphere. What this also implies is that avoided emissions or reduced emissions credits will not be part of the "net" of net zero.

Companies will need to plan for their carbon removal strategies. Companies should expect additional guidance on this topic in 2022, both from SBTi and initiatives such as the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI).

The standard also provides initial guidance on climate solutions beyond companies’ value chains. While the standard insists on the essential importance of deep decarbonization, it recommends that companies also step up action beyond their Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by investing in appropriate climate solutions; e.g., by investing in forest conservation to eliminate deforestation by 2030 on their way to net zero.

The urgency of the climate crisis could not be more acute, and immediate action is needed. The new SBTi standard makes science-based decarbonization across scopes the baseline for businesses. Climate leadership will increasingly require companies to concurrently look beyond their value chain, with additional investments to slash methane emissions and scale nature-based solutions, on the way to net zero.

Further guidance and clarity on the role of SBTi to encourage climate action beyond the value chain is needed. Here are a few things to look out for in 2022:

• Increased company uptake of the SBTi Net-Zero Standard: SBTi had validated the targets of seven companies by launch, including Transform to Net Zero member Wipro. Early signs suggest more than 70 companies are already interested in validation, and this is poised to grow further.
• Increased clarity: Two main SBTi projects are in the works. A review and development of long-term Scope 3 target-setting methods will help build confidence in comprehensive Scope 3 decarbonization targets; the cited "beyond value chain mitigation" project will bring clarity on expectations for climate investments to supplement decarbonization efforts.
• Guidance on forest, land, and agriculture: The forest and agriculture sector especially requires additional guidance; e.g., accounting rules for land-based removals. The release of the forest, land, and agriculture (FLAG) methodology will help and likely trigger updates in the standard.
• Net-Zero Standard for financial institutions: It is worth noting that a separate process is ongoing for financial institutions, with more information available here.

As we recently wrote after COP26, it is very clear that net-zero corporate commitments are here to stay, and so is the pressure to define what good looks like.

The key pillars of the SBTi Net-Zero Standard delineate the backbone of robust corporate net-zero implementation. We encourage businesses to embrace them and think strategically about the business transformation needed to achieve them.

The publication of the SBTi Net-Zero Standard is a start and not an end, as some topics need additional guidance—but we now have the "what." The challenge ahead lies in the "how" companies will reach those targets through business transformation in a just and equitable way.

Blog | Tuesday November 23, 2021

COP26 Made Climate Action Mainstream Business and Put 1.5°C on Life Support

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At COP26, the global community made meaningful progress. Unfortunately, it also is wholly insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals.

National 2030 targets announced in Glasgow take us to 2.4°C of warming by 2100, a noticeable improvement from our path six years ago in Paris, but these are still very far from the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The stretch target of 1.5°C, which the UK hosts aimed to keep alive, is now on life support. 

That is why the Glasgow Climate Pact asks countries to strengthen commitments by the end of next year, in 2022, instead of waiting until 2025. It also calls on countries to accelerate “the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.” The UN outcome also enabled countries to apply carbon credits to their national targets and to have credits flow across international borders.

International cooperation was not limited to the official negotiations.

• Over 100 countries joined the Global Methane Pledge to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030. Conspicuously absent, however, were the largest methane emitters: China, India, and Russia.
• In one of several nature-related announcements, 140 leaders whose countries account for 90 percent of global forests joined the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use to work collectively to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.”
• A disappointing 40 Ministers supported the Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement to transition away from unabated coal power generation. This group did not include some of the major producers and consumers of coal.
• The US and China issued a joint declaration, making climate a rare issue of cooperation between the two largest emitters.

COP26 also clearly showed how climate action has become mainstream business. 100 pavilions inside the official site and many parallel conferences outside of it produced announcement after announcement. Future COPs will be more trade fair than international negotiation. Among the highlights:

• The formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board, which will consolidate the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), is a major breakthrough for unified ESG reporting.
• The First Movers Coalition will gather companies to use their purchasing power to create early markets for innovative clean energy technologies in industries whose emissions are hard to abate.
• The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, an umbrella initiative grounded in the UN’s Race to Zero criteria, includes 450 financial services firms managing US$130 trillion of private capital.
• A multistakeholder COP26 declaration accelerated the transition to 100 percent zero-emission light vehicles.

At COP26, BSR launched or co-launched several collaborative efforts to build the net-zero economy, including:

• A free online training course for SMEs called “Climate Fit,” part of a set of tools that SMEs can freely access on the SME Climate Hub, which was developed with CISL.
• A 1.5°C Supplier Engagement Guide for the 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders, a group of companies making climate a key procurement criterion. The guide is an open framework available to any company, with clear steps and an open/evolving repository of best practices shared by leading companies.
• The Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions, a group of corporate funders and partners dedicated to increasing the scale and impact of carbon credits and other forms of climate solutions funding. BASCS is now open for new members!
• The Sustainable Freight Buyers Alliance, which will be incubated over the coming six months and aims to achieve 100 million tonnes of reductions in freight and logistics emissions this decade and to contribute to 1.5°C-aligned net-zero logistics by no later than 2050.

Finally, COP26 evidenced several trends which will intensify in coming years.

Net-zero commitments are here to stay. The release of the Science-Based Targets initiative’s Net Zero Standard will help to make them more consistent and environmentally integral. But with activists protesting for climate justice and decrying the credibility of those commitments, the main question for business will be how to implement net-zero goals quickly and equitably while benefiting local communities. Businesses will have to get their arms around climate justice.

The connection between climate and nature will become more prominent. Companies will increasingly be asked not only to decarbonize energy, but to look upstream at their impacts on land and materials they source. And there is growing momentum to rapidly reduce methane emissions. For business, this means an expectation to consider not just CO₂ but all greenhouse gases in their accounting and their decarbonization strategies, e.g., related to agriculture, waste, and land use.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that the “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.” So it was with COP26. The 1.5°C goal, with all the impacts that the IPCC documented in 2018, is slipping away, even as climate action mainstreams into the business community.

Reports | Tuesday November 16, 2021

Action for Sustainable Derivatives: Annual Update on Progress, 2021

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The latest update from Action for Sustainable Derivatives (ASD), BSR's collaborative initiative driven by palm oil derivatives users to transform their supply chains, shows that a centralized, collective approach to enhancing transparency, boosting engagement, and identifying risks is working.

Highlights include collective transparency for 825,000 tons of palm-based materials—nearly double the volume covered during the first year of ASD. This represents around 1.1 percent of the global palm production and 20-25 percent of the palm kernel oil-based oleochemicals market.

Learn more about ASD's impact. 

Blog | Wednesday November 10, 2021

Allbirds’ SPO Framework Is Step in the Right Direction for ESG Commitments by High-Growth Companies

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For the past quarter century, Silicon Valley has generated untold innovation and value from new business models that have transformed our world. For many of the original generation of disruptors, a formal look at environmental, social, and governance (ESG) questions would only come later, after they achieved the size and scale to merit scrutiny and, in some cases, after they made misjudgments of their impacts in the world.

This is why last week’s initial public offering (IPO) from Allbirds, an apparel and footwear company that has made sustainability an explicit part of its brand and value proposition, is so interesting. Indeed, Allbirds premised its entry to the public capital markets on an explicit set of 19 ESG criteria developed through partnership with an advisory council comprised of a mix of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, investors, and corporate governance experts. (Full disclosure: I chaired the advisory council and therefore participated in the development of the criteria, which are currently hosted by BSR at https://spo.bsr.org/ and where the full list of advisory council members can be found).

The Sustainability Principles and Objectives Framework (SPO Framework) includes topics ranging from climate change to value chains, human rights, labor practices, and governance.

In preparing to go public, Allbirds, which had already achieved B Corp status, found that there was no existing framework specifically designed for a company at its stage of development. This led to the creation of the SPO Framework, which is intended for late-stage private companies, companies preparing to go public, and early-stage public companies.

In the development of the Framework, several key principles were applied:

• The framework needed to be appropriately comprehensive for companies that, in many cases, do not—yet—have the institutional structures to develop, implement, and verify policies and practices. 
• It also aimed to be sufficiently ambitious to be meaningful, while not being limited to a tiny handful of companies.
• The Advisory Council also had a clear commitment to ensuring that the Framework was not seen as adding to the already quite crowded world of performance standards and reporting and disclosure frameworks. This is why the focus on companies at a specific stage of their development is so important.
• Finally, there is an intention on the part of all of us who developed the Framework to see the Framework grow and evolve, with plans for ongoing development yet to come.

This IPO may be the first of its kind, but it most certainly will not be the last. Since the SPO Framework was first released in August, we have seen considerable interest from investors, other companies at a similar stage of development, journalists, and the sustainability community more broadly. It seems highly likely that there will be more companies using this model to raise the level of their ESG commitments and to demonstrate to investors and stakeholders that they intend to make sustainability commitments right from the start.

And for Allbirds, a company whose initial product is athleisure shoes, it makes sense that they hope many companies will follow in their footsteps.

Blog | Thursday November 4, 2021

Companies Now Have a Powerful New Tool for Promoting and Protecting the Rights of LGBTIQ+ Employees

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A wave of anti-LGBTIQ+ policies, driven by populist movements, continues to rise around the world, threatening many of the rights-protecting victories achieved over the last several decades. 

In May, the Human Rights Campaign declared that “2021 officially [became the] worst year in recent history for LGBTIQ+ state legislative attacks as [an] unprecedented number of states enact [a] record-shattering number of anti-LGBTQI measures into law.” And that is just in the United States.

2021 has witnessed similar backlashes to LGBTIQ+ communities claiming their universal human rights in places like Hungary, Poland, and other parts of Eastern Europe, a region once deemed to be “a world leader on gay rights.”

In the face of this, the world’s leading companies have a tremendous opportunity to stand up and promote rights and protections for their LGBTIQ+ employees.  A new tool recently launched by a coalition of international organizations, including BSR and the Partnership for Global LGBTIQ+ Equality (PGLE), is helping companies to do just that.

While many companies have embedded protections and benefits for their LGBTIQ+ employees into their systems, the UN Standards present a framework for companies to go even further—by positioning LGBTIQ+ rights as universal human rights and building off the concepts embedded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Through the implementation of the UN Standards, companies have a path forward, and indeed a responsibility, to promote these universal rights within their spheres of influence—including business partners, governments, and the communities in which they do business.

In September 2021, a coalition of organizations launched the UN LGBTIQ+ Standards Gap Analysis Tool (Tool). Partners in this effort include BSR, PGLE, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and the World Economic Forum (WEF), with the generous support of BCG. The tool is a practical, step-by-step guide designed to help companies navigate the implementation of the UN Standards so it can be used across relevant departments and functions within your company. It is a complimentary and strictly confidential online platform that helps companies assess current policies and programs, highlight areas for improvement, and identify opportunities to set future corporate goals and targets when implementing the Standards.

Furthermore, the tool can provide companies with a roadmap to further align their practices, policies, and procedures in line with the UN Standards of Conduct.

We believe the UN Standards and our supportive tool are the authoritative frameworks for businesses to respect the human rights of LGBTIQ+ people across their value chains—including employees, those of their business partners, and LGBTIQ+ communities worldwide. It is also a catalyst for determining action and support for companies to use in house and provides an opportunity for DEI leaders to articulate the importance of providing enduring improvements for LGBTIQ+ community internally and within the communities in which they operate and provide services and products to.

We encourage BSR members and beyond to support the Standards and use this tool to guide them on this very important and worthwhile journey.

Blog | Wednesday November 3, 2021

The VRF and IFRS Foundation Join Forces: A New Day for ESG Reporting and Disclosure

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While it may lack of some of the drama of the net zero and deforestation pledges that have come already at COP26, today’s announcement by the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) that it intends to consolidate the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) may well prove to be one of the most important developments in Glasgow.

For purposes of transparency: I serve on the Board of the Value Reporting Foundation, and prior to that, on the Board of the International Integrated Reporting Council. The steadfast focus from these organizations to prioritizing outcomes over institutional interests has been fantastic to see: their leaders deserve immense credit for that vision.

Since ESG reporting and disclosure began more than 20 years ago with the launch of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), all participants in the reporting “system” have quite justifiably decried the confusion, duplication, and inconsistencies in reporting standards and frameworks.

Some of this duplication is to be expected. We have been witnesses to and participants in the creation of a new form of measuring value and providing transparency. The significance of this is massive, important, and complicated. 

Times have changed. Fragmentation serves no one’s interests. As ESG gains momentum and urgency, the era of “letting a thousand flowers bloom” is no longer fit for purpose. It is time to embed sustainability considerations in the basic functioning of the capital markets. That will only happen with universal disclosures that enable consistency.

The work of the nascent International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which will be significantly strengthened by the consolidation announced today, will advance with the objective of achieving comparable, consistent, and reliable disclosures on climate and other sustainability issues.

Much remains to be done and demonstrated. It will be essential that a fast-evolving landscape be embraced in the new ISSB to ensure that reporting reflects society’s expectations. This is particularly true when it comes to the “S” in ESG, which is sometimes harder to quantify: equity is not as easy to measure as carbon emissions. The new ISSB would be wise to take heed of the “double materiality” model that embraces not only things that are financially material today, but also those matters that are material to society, and which often become financially material tomorrow.  And other key actors—including the GRI, the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, and others—can and should be part of the shaping and implementation of the ISSB.

The news today from Glasgow may well mark a real turning point in how markets operate. A harmonized, universal system will align incentives, promote wider uptake, and enable comparability.  Consolidation should also do three other critical things:

• Unleash more business focus on creating long-term value for all stakeholders.  
• Allocate capital by investors to companies who embrace a long-term approach.
• Enable the public, and policymakers, to understand which companies are truly delivering in pursuit of a just and sustainable world.

We all celebrate the new commitments coming from COP26. We also know that commitments alone won’t get the job done. The alignment announced today may well provide the foundation on which ambition can be turned into action.

Reports | Tuesday November 2, 2021

Business in Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Contexts

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Overview

Businesses in conflict-affected and high-risk contexts (“high-risk contexts” in this brief) face heightened risks of involvement in serious human rights violations. This can lead to severe harm—including loss of life, liberty, and livelihoods—to community members, employees, suppliers, contractors, and customers, as well as reputational damage, operational interruptions, legal liability, and financial penalties for the business.

To prevent and mitigate human rights risks in high-risk contexts, companies should conduct “heightened” human rights due diligence. Heightened human rights due diligence goes beyond what is required by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by accounting for context and the business’s impact on that context. It requires ongoing stakeholder engagement, forward-looking trend analysis, proactive mitigation measures, and localized decision-making.

One of the central concepts we're advancing here is that business does not operate in a vacuum—they are parachuting in to a preexisting context with preexisting power dynamics and tensions, and by virtue of entering that context, they are changing it. Businesses may think that they are "neutral" because they don't take a position on the political situation in that country, but because they bring financial resources and interacting with people, economic systems, and the environment, they are having an impact (either positive or negative) on that context.

Defining High-Risk Contexts

High-risk contexts include situations of armed conflict and mass violence as well as areas with weak governance or rule of law; extensive corruption or criminality; significant social, political, or economic instability; historical conflicts linked to ethnic, religious, or other identities; closure of civic space; and a record of previous violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.¹

No one factor drives the conflict and instability seen in these contexts. Rather, a complex interplay of social, political, environmental, and economic factors fosters an environment where violence, oppression, poverty, human rights abuses, and state failure are more likely to occur. These factors include social divisions; governance grievances like political exclusion, weak state accountability, corruption, and inadequate service provision; economic grievances like limited economic opportunity and economic inequality between groups; and environmental factors, including climatic shocks and stresses as well as natural resource scarcity and degradation.²

Blog | Wednesday October 27, 2021

Transform to Net Zero: Five Key Steps to Setting Net Zero Goals

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While more than 3,000 businesses have joined the UNFCCC Race to Zero campaign and pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, many companies face challenges in putting this guidance into practice. 

Wipro is a founding member of Transform to Net Zero, a cross-sector industry initiative to accelerate the transition to an inclusive net-zero global economy. Our 2025 goal is for 1,000 Fortune Global companies to adopt targets backed up by transformation plans to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050.

To advance robust net-zero goal setting, Transform to Net Zero’s new Transformation Guide will share how three Transform to Net Zero members—Danone, Wipro, and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)—approached a net-zero goal-setting process that translates into meaningful business transformation.

Below are five steps of how your organization can navigate the net-zero goal-setting process and commit to meaningful emission reduction targets.  

Step 1: Understand Your Emissions

Every company’s decarbonization journey begins with a comprehensive value chain GHG baseline and footprint assessment. Knowing your footprint allows you to set net-zero targets, but it is often easier said than done, especially with regards to Scope 3 emissions, which are often the lion’s share of a company’s emissions. 

Scope 1 and 2 emissions are relatively straightforward to account for because they are derived directly from company operations and therefore within the direct control of a company to remediate. Scope 3 requires accounting for your entire value chain, much of which is outside your control either upstream or downstream, which make Scope 3 emissions a tough nut to crack.  

Measuring Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions are nevertheless a crucial first step in developing an accurate net-zero roadmap that demonstrates credibility to investors, customers, civil society, and other stakeholders. Amidst increased scrutiny of corporate net-zero targets, it is imperative that this accounting of your carbon footprint is reliable and transparent. 

Step 2: Set an Ambitious Net-Zero Goal with Clear Interim Milestones

Every company needs a north star commitment when it comes to emissions. For instance, Wipro has committed to net-zero GHG emissions by 2040, with a 55 percent reduction in GHG emissions by 2030. But making a commitment is not enough. Publishing a detailed plan explaining how you will get there is a major component as well. In an era where credibility is paramount, you must show your work. That means sharing key details regarding each phase of your GHG mitigations, including direct emissions (company facilities and vehicles), indirect emissions (purchased electricity, good and services), and yes, your value chain too (waste, transportation, business travel, employee commuting, and all downstream lifecycle activities related to your products and services). Creating and publishing a detailed roadmap accounting for every facet of your emissions with interim milestones will enable you to track and share your progress toward net zero with key internal and external stakeholders.  

Step 3: Engage with Leaders to Create and Sustain Organizational Buy-In 

Decarbonization doesn’t happen instantaneously. It’s a long process that requires the buy-in and support of many people over a period of many years. In the beginning, your leadership must be onboard because decarbonization requires major operational changes through your organization. Wipro has been working on decarbonizing its value chain for more than 15 years. Initially, the focus was on socializing with leadership the idea of developing a strong climate change program and obtaining consensus on commitments to the necessary investments and resources.  Over time, this process matured into a common shared understanding throughout the company of the need to constantly improve our net-zero and sustainability work. 

Step 4: Collaborate with Suppliers and Employees on Meeting the Scope 3 Challenge

Achieving net zero is not possible without tackling Scope 3 emissions, which by definition are not under the company’s direct operational control. For many companies, measuring and ultimately eliminating Scope 3 emissions offer the greatest potential GHG reductions, so it’s an incredibly worthwhile, albeit difficult, task. For example, 75 percent of Wipro’s emissions in FY21 are from Scope 3 sources, with business travel, employee commute, and purchased goods/services comprising a significant proportion. 

To help reduce your Scope 3 emissions, consider adopting some of the following strategies:  

• Work with local transport authorities to improve access to public transport for employees 
• Increase carpooling by employees 
• Develop robust processes to promote remote working and collaboration
• Reduce business travel, in particular air travel
• Increase the lifecycles of your products and their end-of-life treatments
• Reduce the waste generated by your organization as much as possible 

In addition, work with suppliers directly through industry associations to decarbonize purchased goods, such as IT hardware, telecom, and other business services. Your suppliers must be a key part of your reduction strategy because they most likely contribute most of your value chain’s emissions. 

Step 5:  Partner with Customers

The GHG emissions of the IT services sector tend to be relatively lower than more carbon-intensive industry sectors. For B2B businesses, while reducing your own value chain emissions to net zero is a significant contribution, you can also play an equally important role in helping customers reduce their own GHG footprint with the help of the right technology solutions and expertise. Organizations around the world are all facing the net-zero imperative, and your organization’s experience planning and executing a net-zero commitment is valuable and important. Share it with your customers. While many of the world’s largest companies have net-zero commitments, even more do not. It is essential that more and more organizations join the drive to net zero, and by sharing your story with your customers, you make their own journey that much more palatable. 

We will be sharing more in Transform to Net Zero’s Transformation Guide on Net Zero Goal Setting being published on November 8, 2021. 

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