ENERGY MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABIL ITY
electricity, heat, steam and cooling purchases. Companies striving to drive carbon reduction across their supply chain will also report on Scope 3 emissions, which include all other indirect emissions across their value chain.
A targeted approach In the absence of a mandate to define what action organisations must take, there are stark differences between how organisations are both interpreting net zero and using it to label their actions.
“With no standard framework to report or measure net zero yet in place, many organisations have opted to create Science Based
Targets to define their pathway to decarbonisation.”
Some businesses are focused on becoming carbon neutral, meaning their activities result in no net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because they are balanced by actions to reduce or offset the emissions they generate. While schemes such as Science Based Targets provide very clear guidance for approaching ‘decarbonisation’, there is currently no mandatory ruling dictating how much must be achieved by a significant
reduction of emissions and how much of their residual emissions can be ‘offset’.
Generally, organisations would initially focus on eliminating carbon emissions from their direct activity - a step towards zero carbon rather than simply ‘net’ zero. In those areas where decarbonisation is still technically very difficult, such as air travel, a business might plant enough trees to soak up enough CO2 to offset their ‘residual’ emissions in order to achieve net zero.
Some organisations are now even identifying opportunities to become ‘net negative’, where the sum of a business’ actions result in more greenhouse gases being removed from the atmosphere than is put into it.
It’s easy to see why this new generation of ‘carbon jargon’ can cause confusion, but it also risks undermining the efforts of many businesses to seriously transform their operations.
With no standard framework to report or measure net zero yet in place, many organisations have opted to create Science Based Targets to define their pathway to decarbonisation. These targets are developed in line with what the latest climate science says is necessary to meet the Paris Agreement goal, meaning a continual reduction in emissions between now and 2050 rather than simply acting in the future.
The targets also give organisations a clearly defined goal to work towards, with five to fifteen-year targets that cover Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions and have to be formally approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Beyond this, the SBTi is now developing a rigorous framework specifically for Net Zero Targets – which should be in place in the next year or so.
Moving past the jargon Despite the new terminology that surrounds the new sustainability agenda and array of choices facing organisations, the direction of travel is clear: businesses will have to achieve significant emissions reductions over the next few decades, starting now.
Inspired Energy is already working with businesses to map out their decarbonisation goals and accelerate their emissions reductions. In the immediate term, and at lower cost, this can be as simple as reducing a firm’s carbon footprint through green energy tariffs and acting upon opportunities identified in a company’s ESOS audit. More complex actions that require greater cost or time investment can include a roll-out of electric vehicles across a company fleet, signing up to a Corporate Power Purchasing Agreement, and on-site renewable generation such as solar photovoltaics, and replacing gas heating systems with heat pumps.
Decarbonisation will continue to rise in prominence over the next few months and years, as more firms move to define their own plans and Government shares its expectations and requirements of businesses to fulfil the UK’s legally-binding targets.
www.inspiredenergy.co.uk www.tomorrowsfm.com TOMORROW’S FM | 31
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