October 4, 2022
SBER Q3 Symposium – Part Two – Getting Net Zero Done
Our Third Quarter Sustainable Business & Enterprise Roundtable (SBER) Symposium was held both in person in New York City and virtually on Thursday, September 22nd as an Official Climate Week event. The second half of the symposium focused on on “Getting Net Zero Done.” During this session, we discussed emerging best practices in global decarbonization and heard from Member Executive Jacqueline Drumheller, Global Sustainability Program Manager at Bio-Rad Laboratories about her efforts to lead the company’s emission reduction efforts.
Key findings highlighted during this session include:
- The Science-Based Targets Initiative remains the dominant corporate decarbonization framework
- The number of corporations committing publicly to set SBTs looks to double to ~4,500 just within 2022
- 75% of companies who had committed by 2021 have approved targets
- Underpinning this acceleration is corporations’ awareness that the projected 1.50 carbon budget is on track to run out within 10 years
- To help accelerate global decarbonization, companies with SBTs – and those looking to set SBTs – are detailing specific strategies to achieve Scope 1, 2, & 3 emission reductions within the SBTi framework
- Companies typically prioritize Scope 2 emission reduction solutions focusing on those with the greatest real impact (e.g., carbon abatement) and least financial cost / risk
- Today, VPPAs in the U.S. and Europe are typically the primary renewable energy strategy deployed despite recent costs / risks due to disruptive supply chain dynamics and regulatory uncertainty
- After selecting the preferred solutions, companies then develop a detailed Scope 1 & 2 decarbonization roadmap and business case
- To get approval to set Science-Based Targets, companies also need to detail strategies to address large Scope 3 emission categories like Purchased Goods and Services (#1) and Use of Product (#11)
- Aggregated VPPAs (like the recent successful SR Inc Net Zero Consortium for Buyers 2022 Aggregated Procurement III) also provide opportunity for companies to include customers and key suppliers as part of their Scope 3 reduction strategy
- News from Bio-Rad: Bio-Rad’s recently announced goals of 100% renewable electricity in the U.S. and reducing Scope 1&2 emissions 46% globally by 2030 against a 2019 baseline and reported on this and other ESG progress in its first comprehensive Corporate Sustainability Report
- Key Advice from Jackie Drumheller: When starting at a new company, engage with key stakeholders and evaluate current performance against peers to lay out a case to move beyond compliance and towards an integrated ESG strategy with bold climate goals that is aligned with the company’s purpose and mission (e.g. ultimately for BioRad, “Saving Lives”)
We look forward to deepening our Member-Client based guidance on achieving Net Zero throughout 2022. Our year-end Executive Symposium will be held in Washington, D.C. – which is once again leading globally on decarbonization – on December 8th.
Member-Clients can find a copy of the presentation deck from our Q3 Symposium in our Digital Library.
