I had the privilege of speaking about innovative solutions for a greener world at the Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit. As a panelist, I was able to share my thoughts on topics ranging from the importance of granular data to lionizing Chief Sustainability Officers. Below, I’ve highlighted four of the key points from our discussion, and have included a link to the full video from Bloomberg Live at the end of the post.
Why the era of global average emissions factors is over
At Unravel Carbon, we have a strong focus on helping companies measure their Scope 3 emissions by using the most granular emissions factors available.
A key reason we do this is because at the moment, many businesses rely on generic industry averages as inputs when calculating their carbon footprint.
While this may be useful when it comes to meeting a compliance or reporting requirement, there’s an inherent lack of precision that can lead to concerns related to accuracy, and how actionable these insights truly are.
With granular data from Scope 3 measurements, companies can develop a much deeper understanding of the emissions tied to their business, and work more efficiently toward decarbonizing their operations and supply chains.
Globally, there’s a noticeable shift toward companies being expected to lower their carbon footprint, either based on their internal climate goals or in alignment with SBTi targets, rather than simply measuring their emissions, but not actually implementing any decarbonization solutions.
Whether your business is in the early stages of embracing sustainability or already has existing efforts in place, we strongly recommend using more precise data in order to anchor your carbon reduction initiatives to a solid foundation.
By depending on industry average emissions factors, organizations may end up in an expensive, repetitive cycle of having to re-baseline every 2-3 years.
With granular data, companies can put themselves in a much better position to comply with requirements that may be expected of them in both the near and long-term.
Lionizing Chief Sustainability Officers
Addressing climate change is a task that’ll require all of us working together, and to that end, an area where we focus a lot of our attention is in supporting Chief Sustainability Officers.
In many companies, CSOs often encounter internal challenges due to their limited influence in crucial areas such as shaping the organization's direction, securing representation on the board, expanding sustainability efforts, and determining budget allocations.
By providing CSOs with access to real-time data, they can make better decisions that are rooted in granular insights. As a result, they’re able to carry out tasks with a higher degree of efficiency and amplify the scope of their impact.
For instance, through our Climate Program, both CSOs and CFOs are able to work collaboratively on solutions that improve bottom lines by reducing expenses, boosting profits and mitigating carbon emissions.
We also place a strong emphasis on crafting measures that align with existing regulations, and that take into account requirements that could be mandated down the line. Our climate team ensures our product is designed to help CSOs achieve success with both their current and long-term objectives.
Thoughts on hiring in climate tech
At Unravel Carbon, we're noticing a promising trend in the area of hiring. The best talent in fields ranging from data science to AI to engineering and sales are expressing a strong interest in joining the climate tech sector.
In terms of what’s propelling this, it seems to be directly connected to the fact that people want their careers to be an extension of their personal values.
The candidates we meet are actively pursuing a sense of purpose by channeling their expertise toward addressing the most pressing existential challenge of our generation: climate change.
As an example, many members of our own team have kids, and are motivated to work on advancing sustainability to provide a better future for their children.
The future of decarbonization in APAC
As an APAC-focused company, our goal is to help support businesses as they navigate the transition to a zero-carbon economy.
From our perspective, we anticipate that we’ll continue to see an increase within industries and across jurisdictions toward requiring companies to reduce and disclose emissions.
Also, it’s key to remember that even if a company hasn’t begun their sustainability journey yet, it’s not too late to get started. For any organization, the most important thing you can do is to take the first step—however small it may seem—and initiate the process of working toward net zero.
To help facilitate this transition, we have a Portfolio Module for PE funds and banks to evaluate climate risk exposure within their investment strategies, we can assist the built environment sector in measuring embodied emissions, help fashion companies in retrieving better data from their suppliers and so on for other industries. In addition, our platform is able to auto-fill and generate emissions reports for our customers as well.
Ultimately, the sooner a company gets started, the better positioned they’ll be to do the right thing both for the environment, and for their organization’s long-term success.
Interested in learning more about how Unravel Carbon helps companies reach their sustainability goals? Get in touch with us
Watch the full panel discussion on Bloomberg Live's channel:
