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Designing a carbon strategy is currently a key issue for many companies. Indeed, a large number of initiatives, such as the Climate Pledge (supported by Amazon) or the Climate Act (signed by over 250 companies), are being launched to move towards carbon neutrality.
The reasons why companies integrate carbon emissions into their strategy can, however, be diverse. Whether it's to win or retain market share, to comply with current and future regulations, to find investors or to reduce financial and climate risks, all companies have an interest in factoring their carbon emissions into their long-term strategy.
But how do you go about it? What steps are needed to put in place a solid, coherent carbon strategy ?
First of all, you need to know exactly what you're emitting. How can you effectively reduce something you haven't quantified? To do this, we need to carry out a carbon assessment. It's the first step in any carbon strategy.
Once you have an accurate picture of the carbon emissions produced by your company, you can identify your emissions sources and put in place an action plan to reduce your emissions.
Once an action plan has been put in place, it may be that some of our carbon emissions cannot (or not yet) be avoided, in which case we can offset them. This means buying carbon credits from projects that develop carbon sinks.
The final step is to monitor carbon emissions over time, so that you can adjust your trajectory, or not, to achieve the targets you've set.
Step 1: Drawing up your carbon footprint
Every choice has an impact on a company's carbon emissions: the use of one flour rather than another, the choice of energy supplier, the location of its site (which may mean longer commuting distances for its employees, or which is better served by public transport)... Various characteristics therefore influence the quantity of carbon emissions emitted by a company, and the role of a carbon footprint is then to account for them.
What is a carbon footprint?
The carbon footprint lists the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by a company or organization. These include carbon dioxide, of course, but also other gases with global warming potential, such as methane (mainly emitted by ruminants) and nitrous oxide. However, in order to be able to compare all these gases with each other, they are converted into a quantity of CO2 equivalent (written CO2e) according to their global warming potential. For example, methane has 25 times more impact on global warming than carbon dioxide, so 1kg of methane is equal to 25kg of CO2e.
How is a carbon footprint organized?
Carbon assessments are governed by conventions such as the Bilan Carbone© method, the GHG Protocol and the ISO 14064 standard.
It is therefore organized into 3 parts called scope :
- Scope 1 covers greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the consumption of carbon-based fuels. This could be the diesel used in a fleet of vehicles, the quantity of refrigerant or the consumption of heating oil.
- Scope 2 covers carbon equivalent emissions from the consumption of other energy sources. The purchase of electricity, heating or steam emits greenhouse gases indirectly, as carbonaceous materials were consumed during their production. It is these carbon-based materials that are indirectly accounted for, as the simple consumption of electricity does not emit greenhouse gases.
- Scope 3 covers all greenhouse gas emissions not related to energy consumption. This can include: the purchase of raw materials, waste management, business trips and all upstream and downstream logistics.
Carbon emissions are therefore classified into 3 categories, and all sources must be taken into account, whether upstream or downstream. This means that emissions from your suppliers and emissions from the use and end-of-life of your products are also included in your carbon footprint.
Once you've finalized your carbon footprint, you'll know how many greenhouse gases your business emits. It's time to reduce these emissions.
Step 2: Reduce your carbon emissions
In order to comply with global agreements, notably the Paris climate accords, we need to reduce our carbon emissions as much as possible.
To do this, we need to set targets that are commensurate with the climate challenge, and then draw up a clear, detailed action plan to achieve these targets.
This action plan will depend on your sector of activity and your emission sources. In a way, each action plan is unique. Nevertheless, there are some fairly widespread practices that you can implement in your organization. We'd like to share them with you right now!
Electricity
Using electricity from renewable sources is a simple and effective way of reducing your company's carbon emissions.
What's more, the use of energy-hungry servers is becoming increasingly widespread, which has an impact on your carbon footprint. There are, however, more environmentally-friendly servers that try to reduce their carbon footprint.
Suppliers
For many companies, the majority of their carbon emissions come from the products and services they buy. You can therefore encourage your suppliers to take action to reduce carbon emissions or, if they refuse, switch to a more environmentally-friendly supplier.
This is becoming common practice in the industry. Microsoft, for example, has drafted a clause requiring all its suppliers to take action to combat global warming.
Employee travel
Employees generate a huge amount of carbon emissions, whether for commuting or business travel, and this is part of your carbon footprint.
It is possible to drastically reduce the carbon emissions of business travel by using new working practices such as video calls or collaborative working software. If it is not possible to substitute these trips, then it is necessary to choose carefully the means of transport used to get to your meetings. The train is the most efficient for long-distance travel, and can easily replace the plane. Choose it to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.
What's more, implementing a telecommuting policy can reduce emissions caused by your employees' commuting to and from work. Telecommuting is not a miracle solution, however, and depends on a number of factors. Take the test to find out if telecommuting is right for your organization.
Workplaces
Your company's premises can also be the site of major carbon savings. Optimizing heating, ventilation and lighting are relevant actions to include in your action plan.
Workplace catering can also be the site of carbon reductions. Offering more vegetarian meals and considerably reducing beef consumption can also improve the performance of your company restaurant.
Step 3: Offset irreducible emissions
Reducing carbon emissions will always be a priority for companies, and there are many solutions available to combat climate change. Nevertheless, there will always be emissions that cannot be totally eliminated, or at least not immediately. That's why it's possible to encourage the development of impact projects in exchange for carbon credits. The idea behind these credits? You finance part of a project developing carbon sinks, in the form of donations, and in exchange they provide you with carbon credits that "compensate" for the carbon emissions you were unable to cancel out.
Step 4: Monitor your carbon emissions
Drawing up a carbon footprint and an action plan are the first steps in a long-term process. It is necessary to repeat the operation on a regular basis to be able to track emissions and visualize progress. A SaaS solution like Traace enables you to quickly update your data and track the progress of your projects, so you can build an ambitious climate strategy and effectively reduce your carbon emissions.
In short, whether it's to satisfy employees, investors and consumers, or out of a sense of ecological awareness, it's essential to devise a corporate carbon strategy.
Companies like Traace are here to help you achieve your carbon reduction goals. Contact us for a demo of our SaaS tool.
