Recently, an increasing number of MNCs and SMEs have been paying more and more attention to their Carbon footprint. These companies are looking for different international initiatives to help them to reduce their Carbon footprint.
To make it easier for companies to choose from a myriad of organizations, TERAO selected six of them and conducted a detailed survey: Carbon Trust, Climate Action 100+, SBTi (Science Based Targets), CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), RE100 (Renewable Energy 100%) and UN Global Compact (United Nations Global Compact). We will make a cross-sectional comparison of these initiatives in terms of their origins, popularity, and how to join them.
This article will focus on an analysis of SBTi (Science Based Targets Initiative), Climate Action 100+ and Carbon Trust. A second article will focus on the 3 other platforms.
Carbon Trust
Carbon Trust, which is backed by the British government, is an older platform, having been established in 2001 and has had an office in China since 2009. It has cooperation with businesses, governments and public sectors. Perhaps because of its focus, it has a smaller number of members, 21 in total, which include Samsung and Bentley. Noticeably, Carbon Trust launched the world’s first Carbon footprint label in 2007, allowing companies to provide third party assurance of carbon measurement, reduction and neutrality claims, which is now used in thousands of products. Contact: china@carbontrust.com .
Carbon Trust can advise your enterprise on strategy, risks and opportunities, target-setting, carbon reduction plans and transitioning to a low carbon world; measure and analyse your Carbon footprint, resource efficiency, and environmental impact; help design, implement and evaluate policies, business models and large-scale projects; provide independent certification and assurance services.
Climate Action 100+
Climate Action 100+ was established in 2015 under the Paris Agreement as an international cooperation organisation. It has so far partnered with 167 companies, 34 of which are Chinese. Before joining Climate Action 100+ , companies must be a member of one of its five investors, AIGCC, Ceres, IGCC, IIGCC, or PRI, and, if they are Asian, AIGCC. To join, companies can complete the application form on the website or contact directly info@climateaction.org.
Climate Action 100 + will take action to reduce GHG emissions throughout the company by implementing a strong governance framework, assessing company disclosures against various standards and posting them on the official website.
Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi)
In 2015, the two historic organisations that we will introduce in our 2nd part article, CDP and UN Global Compact, partnered with the World Resources Institute and WWF to launch a new platform, SBTI. With its rapid growth, SBTI now has 1602 member companies, 35 of which are located in Asia, for example JD Logistics.
Joining SBTI requires submitting the company emission reduction targets under the SBTI standards to SBTI for validation. After that, SBTI announces your targets, tracks target progress annually, and reports the company-wide emissions each year.
According to its website, SBTI appears to be the most mature of the 3 analyzed organisations in terms of carbon footprint reporting: full details of how to join, how it works, costs and time are posted on the website. None of the other two websites mention this information, but only provide a contact form or a direct email inquiry. Only Climate Action 100 + has published the list of basic criteria for companies to become members.
While all three initiatives focus on the area of the carbon footprint, they are different: Carbon Trust works more with governments and public sectors than with companies; Climate Action 100 + is more for companies that already join their investor groups; SBTi is more open to all companies.
If a company is looking for popularity and convenience, then SBTI (created by CDP and UN Global Compact) is the best bet.
To sum up, companies that want to show their strong commitment to carbon reduction can choose the platform(s) based on their type, needs as mentioned in this article. We would be happy to assist you in this decision. Please contact our Business Development Manager Gaspard Lemoine-Scelles for more information at glemsce@teraochina.cn.
Written by Anne.L.
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