AI’s new Potential for Scope 3 Decarbonization

In order to meet climate targets within their supply chain (Scope 3), companies must gather and interpret extensive data on emissions, climate risks, and other factors from their suppliers. Until now, this widely dispersed data could only be acquired through manual processes and individual supplier consultations, demanding significant time and resource investments. However, a transformation is underway. Advanced AI technology now enables the quick and automatic aggregation of climate-related supplier data from public sources, facilitating its analysis for scope 3 decarbonization.

Unlock the Potentials of AI for your Supply Chain Decarbonization! Get Exclusive Access to our AI Supplier Screening Programm, to manage Scope 3 Data and implement Actions.

How exactly can this work? That’s what we shared at CHOICE Event #61 with Yasha Tarani (CEO) and Nikolas Martens (Head of Engineering) from The Climate Choice. Find here their most important insights.

Why is Scope 3 Decarbonization important? 

Deloitte conducts an annual study that delves into the priorities of top executives (CxOs) in large companies across the globe, shedding light on why they choose to address specific issues. Their findings reveal a significant shift in the corporate landscape. Notably, climate change has ascended to a position of paramount importance, second only to economic outlook. This signals a pivotal moment where climate concerns have permeated the highest echelons of corporate leadership. However, it’s imperative to recognize that the impetus to act on climate issues doesn’t merely stem from regulatory pressures. It also emanates from a multitude of stakeholders who demand action.

One crucial aspect that emerges prominently is the role of supply chain emissions (Scope 3). These emissions represent the lion’s share, comprising an average of 85% of a company’s total emissions. Yet, addressing supply chain emissions is a formidable challenge due to their indirect nature, which presents multiple complexities and obstacles.

Why is Scope 3 Decarbonization so hard?

Companies striving to meet their Scope 3 decarbonization targets encounter several significant challenges when it comes to effectively utilizing supplier-specific data. These challenges can impede their ability to take meaningful actions. Here’s a breakdown of these challenges and their implications:

Continuous Tracking:

• Challenge: Managing annual data collection from a vast network of thousands of suppliers can be a daunting and resource-intensive task.
• Implication: This continuous tracking requirement demands a robust system that can efficiently gather data from a multitude of sources without overwhelming the company’s resources. It also necessitates real-time or near-real-time data updates to stay current.

Data Quality:

• Challenge: Supplier data often comes in various formats, documentation styles, and may lack comparability, making it difficult to draw meaningful insights or comparisons.
• Implication: Ensuring data quality is paramount. Implementing standardization protocols, data validation, and normalization processes is crucial to derive accurate and actionable insights from diverse data sources.

Assessment Fatigue:

• Challenge: Suppliers are frequently inundated with data requests from different customers, each with varying data needs, creating a state of assessment fatigue.
• Implication: Companies must adopt a more strategic approach to supplier engagement. This includes minimizing repetitive requests, streamlining communication, and aligning data requests with suppliers’ capabilities and priorities to maintain productive relationships.

Lack of Incentives:

• Challenge: Encouraging suppliers to actively engage in decarbonization efforts can be challenging, as they may lack motivation or a clear understanding of the benefits.
• Implication: To address this, companies must develop a Theory of Change that outlines the incentives and benefits for suppliers to participate in sustainability initiatives. This may include cost savings, improved market access, or enhanced brand reputation.

The solution: the Climate Intelligence Platform

At The Climate Choice, we focus on solving the key challenges of Scope 3 decarbonization. We have therefore built the first climate-specialized platform that unites supplier data & engagement to rapidly reduce emissions. Our approach is designed to help companies kickstart their supplier climate program in days rather than in months.

So what does the approach look like? Here are the key steps:

1. Leveraging AI for Scope 3 Analysis: Begin by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze suppliers with publicly available data. This automated analysis provides valuable insights into their environmental performance, emissions, and climate-related practices. This initial assessment sets the foundation for informed decision-making.

2. Engaging Suppliers without Public Data: Recognize that not all suppliers may have publicly accessible environmental data. For such suppliers, the approach shifts towards assessing their maturity level in terms of sustainability practices. This assessment serves as a starting point, allowing you to provide constructive feedback and guidance.

3. Focused Benchmarking and Incentives: Identify your top suppliers and those contributing significantly to emissions within your supply chain. These key players warrant a more detailed and granular benchmarking process. Additionally, consider implementing incentive mechanisms to encourage these suppliers to actively reduce their environmental footprint. Incentives can take various forms, such as financial rewards or preferential treatment within your supply network.

The first step: AI Supplier Screening

To speed up the launch of your supplier engagement program while minimizing resource requirements, we present our new AI supplier screening program. This program leverages cutting-edge technology to streamline the process, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness throughout. Here’s a breakdown of how the AI supplier screening program operates:

1. Comprehensive Data Collection: The program incorporates an AI-driven data pipeline that autonomously gathers detailed Scope 3 information from diverse sources. This data pipeline is designed to collect granular data pertinent to your supplier profiles.

2. Robust Data Analysis: Once the data is collected, our system performs a meticulous analysis. It scrutinizes a range of climate data documents and taps into publicly available data sources to create a comprehensive profile of each supplier. This analysis extends beyond surface-level assessments to provide a deeper understanding of their climate-related practices.

How AI Supplier Screening Works:

• List of Suppliers: The process commences with a list of your suppliers, encompassing the entirety of your supply chain network.
• Identify Company: The AI system employs advanced algorithms to identify each supplier as a distinct entity, ensuring accuracy in the subsequent steps.
• Identify Reporting Entity: It further distinguishes the reporting entity within the supplier organization, recognizing the entity responsible for providing climate-related data.
• Identify Data Sources: The program identifies and categorizes the various data sources associated with each supplier, whether internal or external.
• Extract & Verify Data: Leveraging state-of-the-art data extraction techniques, the AI system extracts and verifies the pertinent climate data from these sources, ensuring data accuracy and reliability.

What are the tangible outcomes of the AI supplier screening?

The AI supplier screening program yields a range of tangible outcomes that can significantly benefit your organization in its pursuit of Scope 3 goals. Here are the notable advantages and insights that emerge from this innovative approach:

Automated Analysis of Thousands of Companies: The program’s capabilities extend to the automated analysis of thousands of companies within your supply chain ecosystem. This extensive coverage ensures that you can comprehensively assess and engage with a wide array of suppliers, maximizing the program’s effectiveness.

Inclusion of Meta Data: In addition to climate-specific data, the analysis encompasses meta data that provides valuable context. This includes details such as revenue figures and sectors in which these companies operate. Such comprehensive insights enable more informed decision-making.

Audit-Ready Data: The data generated through the AI screening program is audit-ready, ensuring that it meets the highest standards of accuracy and reliability. This audit readiness is pivotal, especially when it comes to compliance requirements and reporting.

Accessibility via API: The convenience of accessing the data via an Application Programming Interface (API) streamlines its utilization within your organization’s existing systems and workflows. This seamless integration enhances the efficiency of your sustainability initiatives.

Key Insights Uncovered

The program goes beyond data collection to uncover key insights that can inform your sustainability strategy. These insights encompass:

Supplier Maturity Structure: You gain a clear understanding of the maturity levels of your suppliers concerning sustainability practices. This allows you to tailor engagement strategies accordingly.

Trends in Climate-Related Data: The program identifies and highlights trends in climate-related data, providing valuable intelligence for decision-making and future planning.

Scope 3 Emission Breakdowns: Detailed breakdowns of Scope 3 emissions help you pinpoint areas of focus and prioritize decarbonization efforts.

Decarbonization Actions: The program’s analysis identifies potential decarbonization actions that can be taken. It offers actionable pathways to reduce emissions and improve sustainability performance.

Join the Early Access Program today

You can now seize the opportunity as one of the early adopters, accessing the full array of AI benefits for your Scope 3 targets through our exclusive Early Access program. By joining, you’ll experience firsthand the advantages we offer. We anticipate an average savings of 90% in both time and cost for the collection and analysis of supplier data. Don’t miss out on the chance to be at the forefront of this transformative technology.

Request to join the Early Access Program today, it’s limited!

3 Key Steps to Use Competitive Climate Intelligence

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, staying ahead of the curve requires more than just traditional market insights. The emergence of the future low-carbon economy has ushered in a new era of competitiveness. Companies now need to start navigating the complexities of climate information and strategies to maintain their edge. This is where the concept of competitive climate intelligence comes into play. In this article, we’ll delve into what competitive climate intelligence entails and outline three essential steps to effectively leverage it for your company’s success.

Understanding Competitive Climate Intelligence

“Competitive climate intelligence” is the systematic gathering and analysis of climate-related data and insights to drive informed decision-making. Stemming from the broader concept of “competitive intelligence,” which focuses on understanding market dynamics and competitors, competitive climate intelligence delves into climate-related aspects of business strategy. This intelligence goes beyond understanding the environmental impact of your operations. It encompasses understanding how your competitors are positioning themselves, identifying emerging opportunities, and assessing potential risks.

Benefits of Competitor Climate Insights

Here’s why incorporating information about your competitors’ climate strategies is crucial for positioning your business at the forefront:

1. Benchmarking: Analyzing your competitors’ climate data allows you to benchmark your performance against industry leaders. This comparison helps identify gaps in your sustainability efforts and set ambitious yet realistic goals to outperform.
2. Innovation Insights: Monitoring competitors’ climate strategies unveils innovative practices that can inspire your company’s approach. By learning from their successes and failures, you can adopt best practices and refine your own initiatives.
3. Market Positioning: Understanding how competitors position themselves in the low-carbon landscape helps you differentiate your brand. Identifying gaps in the market and addressing unmet sustainability needs can accordingly enhance your company’s appeal to conscious consumers.
4. Risk Management: By assessing competitors’ responses to climate risks and regulatory changes, you gain insights into potential challenges and opportunities. This proactive approach ensures your business is prepared for shifts in the regulatory and consumer landscape.
5. Collaboration Opportunities: Collaborative efforts within your industry can amplify impact. Analyzing competitor data highlights potential partners for joint sustainability initiatives, fostering a collective drive towards a greener future.
6. Investor Confidence: As environmental concerns grow, investors increasingly value companies with robust climate strategies. Demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of competitors’ approaches bolsters your credibility and attractiveness to investors.
7. Adaptive Strategies: The low-carbon economy is evolving swiftly. Analyzing competitor climate data aids in fine-tuning your strategies based on real-time insights. This adaptability allows your company to seize emerging opportunities and stay resilient in the face of change.

The key steps for Competitive Climate Intelligence

So how can your company take advantage of this and successfully implement climate competitive intelligence? Here are the three most important steps.

Step 1: Data Gathering and Analysis

The foundation of competitive climate intelligence lies in robust data collection and analysis. The first step is to identify and gather relevant data from both internal and external sources. While internal data might include your company’s carbon footprint and sustainability initiatives, external data encompasses market trends, competitor activities, regulatory changes, and public sentiment around climate issues. This is where AI tools shine, as they can efficiently sift through vast amounts of public data to provide actionable insights. By utilizing these tools, you can uncover hidden patterns, emerging trends, and valuable competitor strategies that inform your decision-making.

Step 2: Integration with Business Strategy

Climate intelligence should not exist in isolation; it must be seamlessly integrated into your company’s overarching business strategy. This involves aligning climate-related goals with core business objectives and identifying synergies that drive value. For example, using climate intelligence to optimize supply chain efficiency not only reduces emissions but also enhances cost savings. By weaving climate considerations into product development, marketing, and operations, you not only contribute to sustainability but also bolster your competitive position in the market.

Step 3: Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation

The future low-carbon economy is dynamic, with changes in regulations, technologies, and consumer preferences shaping its trajectory. As such, competitive climate intelligence is not a one-time effort but an ongoing practice. Establish a framework for continuous monitoring and adaptation. Regularly update your data sources, track competitor moves, and stay informed about industry shifts. This adaptive approach enables you to seize emerging opportunities swiftly and mitigate risks effectively.

Conclusion

As the business landscape transforms to embrace the challenges and opportunities of a future low-carbon economy, competitive climate intelligence emerges as a critical tool for success. By systematically gathering, analyzing, and integrating climate-related data, businesses can not only contribute to a sustainable future but also enhance their competitive advantage. With the aid of AI tools, the data collection process becomes more efficient, empowering companies to make informed decisions. Embrace these three key steps and start now to position your company at the forefront of the evolving business paradigm.

Are you ready to harness the power of competitive climate intelligence for your company’s success? Then use our new AI screening tool for your company’s benefit. Find more information here.

Top 5 Questions AI can answer for Scope 3 Decarbonization

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool in addressing complex challenges. Specifically, its potential for tackling climate change has gained significant attention. Today, effective climate actions require us to collect and interpret vast amounts of data on emissions, climate risks, and more. Not only from one’s own company, but also along whole value chains. This is because most of a company’s emissions – even up to 90% – occur in Scope 3. A transparent data basis is therefore needed on which to effectively collaborate with suppliers on joint decarbonization measures. 

This is where AI plays a crucial role. According to a survey by Boston Consulting Group, 87% of 1,000 executives consider AI a helpful catalyst for climate transformation. Through the use of AI, companies can now quickly access data from public sources about their suppliers on a large scale, allowing them to better collaborate with them on decarbonization efforts. On top of that, they can gain essential strategic insights about the climate maturity of their business partners and competitors. In this article, we explore the top five questions that AI can answer for Scope 3 decarbonization, empowering you to make informed and impactful climate decisions.

1. Has the company calculated Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions?

When assessing the climate maturity of your supply chain, one of the fundamental questions in evaluating a company’s commitment to decarbonization is the extent to which they have calculated and disclosed their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. AI can help assess whether a company has comprehensive coverage of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. By analyzing public data, AI algorithms can identify relevant information from your supplier’s sustainability reports, public statements, and other disclosures. This allows you to assess your own emissions in more detail and compare them with industry benchmarks along your supply chain, setting a foundation for meaningful decarbonization strategies.

2. Has the company set climate targets?

Setting ambitious climate targets is crucial to driving action and holding companies accountable for their emission reduction efforts. The next important question is therefore to what extent a supplier has set and communicated climate targets and ambitions. To get answers, AI algorithms can extract and aggregate information from public announcements, reports, and social media activity regarding a company’s specific emissions reduction goals. This knowledge enables you to benchmark your company’s own targets against industry peers and business partners in order to identify areas for improvement.

3. Has the company a climate transition plan in place?

To achieve your own climate targets, you need a transition plan that outlines how your company navigates the complex process of decarbonization. And so do your suppliers need such a roadmap to implement reduction measures. AI can help determine whether a supplier has a transition plan in place by analyzing public disclosures and sustainability reports. This allows you to gaining insights into the decarbonization strategies, initiatives, investments and businesses activities of your business partners as well as competitors. Doing so, you can identify potential synergies or areas for collaboration.

4. Is the company engaging their suppliers for climate action?

As seen above, your suppliers play a pivotal role in your Scope 3 strategy and significantly impact your decarbonization journey. Therefore it is crucial to know if a supplier is actively engaging and monitoring its own supply chain with regards to emission reduction. Public supplier reports, sustainability initiatives, and collaboration programs convey the extent of a company’s engagement with its suppliers. This information allows you to assess the effectiveness of your own existing supplier management and identify opportunities to collaborate on decarbonization measures with peers.

5. Has the company communicated concrete decarbonization measures?

Last but not least, communicating concrete decarbonization measures is essential to demonstrate commitment, become accountable and inspire others to follow suit. Leveraging AI’s capabilities, you can assess whether your own organization as well as suppliers have effectively communicated its decarbonization initiatives – and which one in particular. This analysis allows you to gain insights into industry-wide actions, identify leading best practices and improve your own impact.

Conclusion

AI offers a powerful tool for companies seeking to enhance their decarbonization in Scope 3 by leveraging climate-relevant information on a large scale. Employing AI algorithms empowers decision makers to answer critical questions related to emissions data, climate targets, transition plans, supplier engagement and decarbonization measures. This way, businesses gain valuable insights into their own operations and those of their stakeholders. Equipped with this knowledge, organizations can collaborate more effectively with suppliers, benchmark their progress against industry peers and strategically position themselves to drive meaningful change. Through the power of AI, companies can take significant steps towards Scope 3 decarbonization and contributing to a sustainable future.

You are curious how you can benefit from CLIMATE AI? Learn more about our new AI Supplier Screening program!

How Coca Cola Engages Suppliers for Science Based Targets

The Science Based Targets (SBTs) initiative helps companies set climate targets that are consistent with the latest climate science. A particular focus of SBTs is on supplier engagement, as 90% or more of companies’ emissions occur in their supply chains. Corporations have to work closely with their suppliers to set and achieve their SBTs. How does a major global company still on the path of climate transformation, like Coca Cola, deal with this challenge?

That’s what we learned at the CHOICE Event #53 from Cornelia Folz, Vice President Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability (PACS) at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Germany. Here you will find the most important insights from her presentation.

What are the Science Based Targets?

The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) was founded in 2015 in the year of the Paris Climate Agreement by four NGOs – CDP, WWF, UN Global Compact and World Resources Institute. The initiative is considered a leader in both guiding science-based climate target setting and validating it. It defines and promotes best practice in emissions reduction and net-zero targets in line with climate science. Teams of experts provide companies with independent assessment and validation of targets.

The change has already begun and action is gaining pace. Over 2,000 organizations worldwide are leading the transition to a net-zero economy by setting reduction targets grounded in climate science.

Coca Cola’s commitment to Science Based Targets

Together with the Science Based Targets initiative, Coca Cola Europacific Partners has set an ambition to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040. Over the last decade, the company has already reduced GHG emissions across its entire value chain by 30.5%. Coca Cola now concentrates on reducing its value chain emissions even further, with a focus on scope 3 emissions where the biggest impacts occur. In all of this, Coca Cola is committed to an approach that prioritizes reducing greenhouse gas emissions wherever possible.

Key focus: mobilizing suppliers on climate change

In order to reach this target, Coca Cola puts a key focus on mobilizing its suppliers on climate change. Over 90% of the organizations GHG emissions are scope 3 emissions. Those scope 3 emissions include raw ingredients (25%), packaging (43%), operations and commercial sites (7%), transport (9%) as well as cold drinks equipment (16%). 

So to really achieve the net zero ambition, Coca Cola has to work closer with its suppliers and support them in their decarbonization journey. To do so, the company has decided to start very easy with three clear and direct questions they are asking their suppliers:  

1. Can you set your own SBTi-validated GHG emissions reduction targets by 2023?
2. Can you commit to using 100% renewable electricity across your operations by 2023?
3. Please share your carbon footprint data with us.

Supplier Carbon Reduction Program

These three questions form the basis for activation and close cooperation with suppliers. Once the ambitions, plans as well as the existing know-how regarding the setting of science-based targets, the transition to 100% renewable energy and the sharing of carbon data from suppliers are clear and known, the real work can begin. From this, Coca Cola has launched a program to motivate and support suppliers with knowledge and resources.

Together with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the Science Based Targets initiative, Coca Cola has created specific training programs for their suppliers. Suppliers that are just starting their climate transformation can join these programs, receive guidance, and learn how and with what best practices to set science-based targets. They also learn about different emission factors and approaches to identify carbon hotspots, start reduction measures and track real progress.

Practical example: The Transport Tender

So how does this all impact the day to day work? Let’s have a look at the example of the transport tender that Coca Cola is sending to out logistics companies. It includes a clear message to suppliers that sustainability is one of the 3 key objectives of the tender. Via a bidsheet, suppliers can then offer prices for green solutions (rail, waterways, gas, biofuels, electric). This allows Coca Cola to transparently learn about and compare the extra costs of decarbonization measures with actual GHG savings. 

On this basis, Coca Cola can discuss together with the suppliers on possible short and mid-term solutions. The decision making process is supported by formal calculations to weight tCO2e reduction vs oncost. Here, different alternative scenarios are created, which include the highest tCO2e reduction scenario, the cheapest scenario, and so on. 

Conclusion: From easy to complex

The Transport Tender example shows how a simple question at the beginning evolves into more specific details and an ever finer process of collaboration and shared decision making as it progresses. This is exactly how every company should approach the process of decarbonizing its own supply chain. Because one thing is clear: the task is big and complex and can seem overwhelming at first. However, we are all still at the beginning of climate transformation and need to learn together step by step.

Start with the AI Supplier Screening

Through the use of AI, you can now quickly access data from public sources about your suppliers on a large scale, allowing you to better collaborate on decarbonization efforts. On top of that, you gain essential strategic insights about the climate maturity of your business partners and competitors.

Embark on your Scope 3 climate journey today! Together, we’ll pave the way for informed climate choices and a sustainable transformation that makes a real difference.

Get more information about our AI Supplier Screening.

THE CLIMATE CHOICE says thank you for a special 2022!

What a year for climate champions! We all faced major new challenges in 2022 – especially companies that were particularly hard hit by the energy crisis and supply chain bottlenecks. Despite everything, you, the CLIMATE community, have continued to work with us to drive the transformation to a low-carbon economy. There have been many positive highlights and developments for which we at THE CLIMATE CHOICE want to say thank you. Let’s take a look at how 2022 allowed us to boost climate transformation all around the globe!

Kicking off the year with strong, new partners

Our year began with a firework of climate action. We were able to start working with many new major and influential customers for the Climate Intelligence Platform, including, as two special highlights, the corporate projects with the mobile phone provider o2 Telefónica and the baby food manufacturer HiPP. We kicked off inspiring collaborations to elevate the transparency of emissions along their supply chains by using our platform.

HiPP was able to successfully identify climate-related risks and potentials of five suppliers with the help of our software tool. HiPP’s Head of Sustainability Management Dr. Johannes Knubben reflects: “The software tool from THE CLIMATE CHOICE enables us to implement a scalable and reliable process to increase the climate-relevant transparency of our supply chain.”

Our next goal is to extend the software-driven climate data collection initially to other partners and ultimately to HiPP’s supply chain. Through an integration of THE CLIMATE CHOICE software tool into HiPP’s sustainability and procurement strategy, the full potential of climate-relevant supplier management is to be exploited.

Our corporate project with o2 Telefónica also successfully identified climate-related risks and potentials of the selected suppliers. The company is now able to develop a transparent, scalable process for collecting comparable data on the climate maturity of suppliers.

In the next step, we will integrate our platform into the procurement dashboard of o2 Telefónica. The climate-relevant data collection for the decarbonization of Scope 3 will be extended to around 1,000 suppliers.

CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION Summit 2022

The climate action kept on flowing and reached a new peak at our #CTS2022. For the third year in a row, we brought together international climate leaders and procurement experts for our two-day 100% online Climate Transformation Summit. 

We welcomed 64 speakers, who interacted with over 1,000 attendees from 59 different countries. Attendees had the chance to participate in 12 limited workshops together with our Partners from B.A.U.M. e.V., First Climate, BearingPoint, AXA Climate School, Enviria, Fairantwortung gAG, Katjes Fassin GmbH & Co. KG, Regionique, IBM, Make-IT Alliance, Telefónica Germany, EcoVadis, Alice Schmidt, ESG Portfolio Management,  Sustainable Procurement Pledge Germany, Development and Climate Alliance Foundation and WWF Germany. THE CLIMATE CHOICE says thank you!

More good news: We just announced the date for #CTS2023! We cannot wait to welcome you on May 11 & 12 2023 for two days full of climate action! Our focus this year: Making it happen – the decarbonization of supply chains! Together with you and leading experts, we will find out how we can impement CO₂ reduction along the value chain.

You can’t wait to secure your spot?
Get your Super Early-Bird ticket now!

You want to be a speaker, workshop host or partner? 
Let’s get in touch.

Launching CLIMATE Readiness Check

The most important insight we gained from the discussions at the #CTS2022 was that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular still find it very difficult to get a quick start in climate transformation because they often do not have sufficient know-how and/or resources. In response to this challenge, we worked over the summer on a new solution offering.

The result: In October, we launched our digital and freely available Climate Readiness Check in partnership with 10 leading sustainability organizations. Among those B.A.U.M. e.V., Bundesverband Nachhaltige Wirtschaft e.V. (BNW), Stiftung Allianz für Klima und Entwicklung, Jaro Institut für Nachhaltigkeit und Digitalisierung e.V., and the Deutscher Mittelstands-Bund (DMB).

The Climate Readiness Check offers SMEs an easy entry point into their climate transformation: through knowledge and insights into their own climate maturity, benchmarks, suggestions for improvement, and access to a B2B climate data platform.

Our Launch was a full success! We are beyond happy to see so many companies kicking off their climate transformation with our Climate Readiness Check! We can’t wait to see who will join us in 2023!

You too can conduct the Climate Readiness Check for your company now and get free access to our platform!

Kickstarter Program 2022

In addition to the projects we developed ourselves, this year we were also part of pioneering external initiatives. Among them, one highlight: In August, we were selected from more than 2.000 applicants for the Climate Lab and Kickstart Innovation scale-up program in the finance and insurance track! Kickstart is one of the largest European Innovation Platforms. Each year they chose a select number of the best international startups to participate in a 10-week program.

We were honored to work in the program with corporates – such as Swisscom, Credit Suisse, AXA, Sanitas, Post Finance, La Mobilière, Coop, CSS, SATW – from the DACH region, who strive to reduce climate risks and emissions in value chains.

Thanks for the EU ‘Best Digital Solution’ Award

The cherry on top of 2022 was winning the “Best Digital Solution” award from the European Commission. The award recognizes the development of our software platform for the collection of climate-relevant data from suppliers and attributes it great impact potential for the greening and digitalization of European industry.

On behalf of the European Commission’s DG GROW, Deputy Director General Hubert Gambs emphasized: “Digital solutions are not only useful to be competitive and provide better value to European customers. They are also key to making our economy greener and European businesses more resilient to future shocks.”

We are so grateful and can’t wait to enable more businesses in boosting their climate transformation!

Many, many thanks for driving our Mission together!

Our mission at THE CLIMATE CHOICE is transforming every company into a climate champion and enabling businesses to make procurement decisions that are aligned with the 1.5-degree-goal! We have summarized our mission for you in this short video.

We are very grateful to work with inspiring companies – and that media is increasingly sharing our mission. THE CLIMATE CHOICE says thank you Süddeutsche Zeitung, t3n, Berliner Morgenpost, Gründerszene and many more, for featuring our platform and allowing us to gain more visibility on our mission! 

Our Wrap up, 2022!

Let’s wrap it up before we go back to wrapping presents. 2022 was a complicated year for the world. We learned that the energy transition is a major driver for the overall climate transformation. We literally saw that it is interlinked with peace and has a positive impact on people, planet and profit. At the THE CLIMATE CHOICE we are therefore honoured that we were able to work on one piece of the puzzle – bringing us towards a regenerative future. These are our 5 highlights:

1. Started working with major new customers, including HiPP and o2 Telefónica
2. Held our 3rd 100 % digital CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION Summit with 64 speakers and 1.000 participants from 59 countries 
3. Launched our new Climate Readiness Check, accessible for companies of all sizes for free to kick off their climate transformation
4. Won the EU ‘Best Digital Solution’ award of the Get Digital Initiative from the European Commission and the European DIGITAL SME Alliance
5. Süddeutsche Zeitung, Gründerszene, t3n, Berliner Morgenpost, Beschaffung aktuell and many more shared our work

Our biggest ‘THANK YOU’ goes to you, Climate Champion! If you are reading this, you are dedicating your valuable time to make this climate transformation a positive one. Whether you are Sustainability Manager, Procurement Expert, or Tech Champion: You are on a mission to strive together with us for an economy that allows the world to stay below 1.5 degree. Let’s start the new year with the same energy and even more climate action. Cheers to 2023!

Your #TeamClimate

THE CLIMATE CHOICE

Schneider Electric’s Path to Scope 3 Decarbonization

To meet their climate targets, global corporations must reduce CO₂ from their supply chain in particular, which can account for up to 90% of their total emissions. The problem: they cannot reduce these Scope 3 emissions themselves, but instead have to enable their suppliers to do so. This collaboration requires, above all, holistic data on the climate performance of suppliers, which does not yet exist.

How does a global enterprise such as Schneider Electric deal with this challenge? This is what we learned at the the CHOICE Event #47 from Kanishk Negi, Sustainable Procurement Director at Schneider Electric. Here you will find the most important insights from his presentation.

Schneider Electric’s corporate sustainability strategy

Schneider Electric SE, the multinational leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, is aiming to accelerate sustainable progress for its customers, employees, partners and communities everywhere. For this purpose, the organization has set six long-term commitments:

• Act for a climate positive world
• Be efficient with resources
• Live up to our Principles of trust
• Create equal opportunities
• Harness the power of all generations
• Empower local communities 

To ensure compliance, Schneider Electric has committed to achieving 12 measurable goals by 2025.

The particular importance of procurement is reflected in the fact that one-third of these targets depend mainly on Schneider Electric’s supply chain (marked with a blue arrow in the graphic). Of these four procurement-dependent commitments, let’s now take a closer look at how Schneider Electric is trying to reduce the CO₂ emissions of its top 1,000 suppliers by 50%.

The challenges of Scope 3 decarbonization

Decarbonizing Scope 3, or supply chain emissions, is a complicated and challenging undertaking. This is especially true for a large and diversified company like Schneider Electric. The multinational organization employs more than 128,000 people in 115 different countries. Its procurement spend last year was over 14 billion euros. Because of its well-balanced global presence, Schneider Electric’s suppliers come from all parts of the world. Managing this global supply chain effectively is therefore a particularly complex task.

In addition, when Schneider Electric began looking at the climate maturity of its top 1,000 suppliers, further challenges came to light. As it turned out, 70% of these companies were actually new to the idea of decarbonization. This means that they had never calculated or quantified their carbon footprint and were not aware of the difference between Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Furthermore, two-thirds of the suppliers requested were found to be small and medium-sized enterprises. This added another nuance to the challenge, as smaller companies have only limited capacities and competencies when it comes to topics like sustainability and decarbonization. Accordingly, many suppliers initially took particular notice of the high cost factor involved in implementing climate protection measures.

Solving the problem: The Zero Carbon Project

After gathering all these insights and gaining a holistic understanding of the challenges, Schneider Electric launched a comprehensive support program in April 2021 and named it “The Zero Carbon Project”. Under the program, Schneider provides tools and resources in order to help suppliers set and achieve their climate targets. The suppliers participating in the program were first encouraged to quantify their CO₂ emissions using the company’s digital tools. This data was then used to set goals and strategies for emissions reduction. 

In order to provide suppliers with comprehensive support for climate actions, Schneider Electric has established a wide range of offerings. So far, more than 130 live training sessions on CO₂ calculation and decarbonization measures took place. In addition, Schneider Electric has provided its suppliers with various digital tools on its web portal. Among other things, they can use these for a digital emissions calculation as well as for best practice exchange with peers and partners to access other innovative solutions for decarbonization. The consultation is supported by specialized experts and is also adapted to the different geographical characteristics.

The results of all these intensive engagements have already been promising. 1,016 active suppliers are currently participating in the program and are being engaged in decarbonization measures. 90% of those suppliers have now calculated their CO₂e footprint. In addition, the participating suppliers have already reported around 8% reduction in their CO₂e emissions.

Streamlining Scope 3 decarbonization with digital tools

Schneider Electric’s pioneering efforts show that, despite today’s challenges, it is actually possible to successfully engage suppliers in decarbonizing the supply chain. Nevertheless, as it stands today, companies can only accomplish this extremely complex task with a great deal of effort, which is why digital tools are now more crucial than ever in order to streamline the process of collaborating with suppliers. 

One such tool is our AI Supplier Screening. Through the use of AI, you can now quickly access data from public sources about your suppliers on a large scale, allowing you to better collaborate on decarbonization efforts. On top of that, you gain essential strategic insights about the climate maturity of your business partners and competitors.

Embark on your Scope 3 climate journey today! Together, we’ll pave the way for informed climate choices and a sustainable transformation that makes a real difference.

Get more information about our AI Supplier Screening.

SMEs are getting Climate Ready – How to succeed in the race to zero!

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in the national economic development in countries worldwide. Globally, they account for about 90% of all companies, 50% of employment and a significant impact on supply chain performances. 

Like companies of all sizes, also SMEs are facing several challenges today. Global supply chains struggle, long term planning is difficult and upcoming climate regulations impose new guidelines on businesses. SMEs often lack resources and capabilities to deal with the fast changing circumstances.

Find in the following how the freshly launched Climate Readiness Check supports companies to move towards climate transformation.

SMEs becoming Climate Champions

SMEs play a key role in achieving the 1.5 degree target. Not only as they are key economic players, but also as they are essential to any global supply chain. This is important, as emissions from supply chains are typically 11.4 times higher than direct corporate emissions. Many large companies therefore channel their climate protection requirements along the supply chain to their suppliers, often SMEs. 

This means whole businesses have to transform the way they create value! Every company needs to become a Climate Champion, contributing to a climate compatible and future-oriented economy. Customer inquiries and international climate reporting standards are increasingly demanding effective action. Climate action is thus one of the top priorities for SMEs today.

However, many SMEs still lack the necessary resources to get into the various aspects of climate transformation and to create a concrete roadmap based on this. The question is: How can SMEs manage their climate performance, prepare for climate-related risks and position themselves as reliable leaders for decarbonization within supply chains?

Go beyond Offsetting, manage your Climate Performance

It all starts with understanding the actual climate performance of a company. Which goes way beyond measuring CO₂ and offsetting it. International disclosure guidelines, such as TCFD, ask companies to assess, manage and report their climate performance holistically. The most essential five dimensions are: governance, strategy, transparency, KPIs & metrics and decarbonisation actions. 

However, collecting the relevant data within a company can be challenging, especially for SMEs. Lacking time, tools and know-how makes it difficult to gather, streamline and manage the needed information. 

Taking first steps towards Net Zero

In the last few years, we have witnessed the need for an easy start into the climate transformation journey. Many companies, especially SMEs, approached us with the questions how to set up priorities, identify most needed actions and start improving over time. 

“For a holistic change towards a sustainable economy, tools are needed that provide SMEs with an initial orientation on how they can transform their business in a climate-compatible way. For this challenge, THE CLIMATE CHOICE has developed a practical solution. The Climate Readiness Check is an accessible tool for SMEs that enables a new push in the strategic pursuit of climate targets in SMEs.”

Phoebe Köster, Climate Policy Manager at Bundesverband Nachhaltige Wirtschaft e.V.

This is why we are happy to release today our digital and free Climate Readiness Check! Which we launch in partnership with 10 leading sustainability organizations, including B.A.U.M. e.V., Bundesverband Nachhaltige Wirtschaft e.V. (BNW), Fairantwortung e.V., Foundation Development and Climate Alliance, Jaro Institute for Sustainability and Digitalization e.V., the German Association for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (DMB) and Zentrum für Nachhaltige Unternehmensführung (ZNU).

“Climate friendliness is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). On the way to climate-neutral operation, the Climate Readiness Check is a useful and low-threshold aid.”

Steffen Kawohl, Transition Manager at Deutscher Mittelstands-Bund e.V.

The Climate Readiness Check offers companies of all sizes an easy entry point into their climate transformation: through insights into their own climate maturity, suggestions for improvement and a basic access to the climate intelligence platform.

Get started with your free 5-minute Climate Readiness Check

The free Climate Readiness Check helps to overcome the initial barriers of Climate Transformation and to take the first step towards climate action. The software-driven climate self-test is manageable in 5 minutes and guides through the most relevant indicators of a company’s climate maturity.

Here is how the Climate Readiness Check empowers companies.

1. Be ahead of Climate Regulation

Completing the Climate Readiness Check will grant insights, which help companies taking first steps towards climate disclosure requirements.

2. Discover Quick Wins

Assessing the climate maturity of a company, the Climate Readiness Check proposes relevant areas for improvement and suggests immediate actions.

3. Access to Climate Platform

Successfully completing the Climate Readiness Check grants access to the Climate Intelligence Platform, where companies can discover like-minded businesses.

Climate Ready, Steady, Go!

“Climate Transformation is a goal we can only achieve together. Our free Climate Readiness Check gives first insights on a company’s individual climate maturity and allows access to the Climate Intelligence Platform, where companies can connect with other companies on their path to zero. We are excited to support businesses of all sizes to take first steps towards a low-carbon economy together.”

Lara Obst, Founder & Climate Officer at THE CLIMATE CHOICE.

You want to start your free Climate Readiness Check? Congrats, start now your climate transformation journey here!

New proposals for climate-related disclosure standards by ISSB – This is what you need to know 

International investors increasingly demand information on environmental, social and governmental (ESG) matters. Transparency around sustainability and climate-related affairs gains relevance today more than ever. According to the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) Foundation, the current regulations do not ensure that climate-relevant information is disclosed to a reasonable extent, but still encourages an inconsistent and selective application of voluntary standards. 

In November 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was announced. The ISSB is an independent private-sector body that operates under the oversight of the IFRS Foundation. Its aim is to develop a globally applicable and comprehensive set of sustainability disclosure standards that works for major economies as well as for emerging markets. 

Therefore, the ISSB has proposed two new standards, in order to create further consistency, comparability and reliability across climate disclosure. The standards require companies to reveal relevant information about its significant sustainability-related risks and opportunities, necessary for investors to assess a company’s enterprise value. The G7 welcomes the establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board and calls on all relevant stakeholders to participate in the ongoing consultation on the proposed standards. In order to create a practical, flexible and proportionate disclosure baseline, that is ultimately suitable for small- and medium-size enterprises, the G7 invites other reporting initiatives to cooperate in the process of elaborating the baseline.

Two ISSB proposals for sustainable-related disclosure 

Based on the work of existing investor-focused reporting initiatives – including the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the World Economic Forum´s Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics – the ISSB is working towards the incorporation of the global baseline into legal requirements, with the aim to become the global standards-setter for sustainability disclosure for the financial markets. 

Both of the new standards are mainly built upon the recommendations of TCFD. While one of the proposals sets out general sustainability-related disclosure requirements, the other specifies on climate-related disclosure. Learn more about the climate-related disclosure requirements in the following.

What is the goal of the ISSB Climate-related Disclosure Standards?

The objective of „IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures“ is to require a company to disclose information about its exposure to significant climate-related risks and opportunities. This enables investors to access relevant information in order to make climate-compatible and sustainable financial decisions. The goal is to assess the effects of significant climate-related risks and opportunities and to understand how a company’s use of resources and activities support managing its risks as well as to evaluate the options to adapt planning, business model and operations to significant climate-related risks and opportunities. Companies are required to disclose information along the dimensions Governance, Strategy, Risk Management and Metrics & Targets. Find more detailed information on the disclosure regulations along those dimensions in the following section.

1. GOVERNANCE

• Governance body (e.g. board, committee, etc.) with oversight of climate-related risks and opportunities
• Skills and strategies that ensure that climate-related risks and opportunities are being tackled 
• Information on the extent to which climate-related opportunities and risks are being considered in the company’s decisions on major transactions and risk management policies

2. STRATEGY

• Effects of climate-related risks on business model, strategy and cash flows
• Climate resilience and flexibility (in terms of transitioning) of strategy and business model

3. RISK MANAGEMENT

• Identification and assessment of climate-related risks and opportunities (Data sources and covered scopes of operations)
• Prioritization of climate-related risks relative to other types of risks within the company
• Processes in comparison to prior reporting periods

4. METRICS & TARGETS

• Information relevant to the cross-industry metric categories, in order to create transparency around the assessment strategy of its performance
• Progress towards the targets it has set (e.g. mitigation or adaptation to climate-related risks or maximizing climate-related opportunities)

How do companies prepare for the ISSB requirements? 

Since enterprises will be required to disclose climate-related information along these four dimensions, they will face the challenge to collect climate-relevant data and analyze their climate performance. How do companies prepare for that?

Today, many companies are already using data-driven software tools, which helps them to analyze their climate performance holistically. The Climate Performance Assessment offers a fast and structured data analysis aligned with internationally recognized standards. It enables companies to holistically analyze their climate performance along the four dimensions Governance, Strategy, Metrics & Targets and Transparency. The Climate Performance Assessment is fit to meet the ISSB’s climate-related disclosure requirements as it covers the key disclosure information. 

You want to know more? Download our new Whitepaper to find more details on the upcoming ISSB standards and how to prepare for them here.

Image: Unsplash

Prioritizing Climate Transparency in the Technology sector

Interview partner: Karli Cumber is responsible for any marketing, social media communications, and sustainability related activates for Footprint Technologies. The Berlin start-up develops an AI based technology that enables users to always find the perfect fit for selected apparel during online shopping. In this way, Footprint Technologies provides online retailers with a solution to reduce the high number of returned products, and thus saving CO2 and costs.

In an interview with THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Karli shares Footprint Techologies’ challenges and progress in implementing their own climate transformation and how the Climate Readiness Check has helped them.

Can you briefly introduce yourselves to our CLIMATE Community?

At Footprint, our greatest climate goal is to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions related to returns and reshipments in the footwear industry. Our challenge is to reduce negative environmental effects caused by the processes of shoe returns, specifically due to improper fit. We have started in the children’s shoe segment and this year we are starting to make our way into the adult shoe segmentation. Our services offer a foot measurement technology, which is intended to find the correct-size fitting shoe based on the exact dimension of the shoes’ manufacturing. In 2021, we published our first ‘Sustainability Report’ for the company, where we discussed our climate commitments and partnerships such as with The Climate Choice, as well as reevaluate our current practices. This includes our internal climate code of conduct, to best support our overall climate mission.

What are the biggest climate-related challenges you face in your daily lives?

As we are mostly working digitally, also remotely, we don’t necessary encounter too many climate related challenges on a daily basis, such as transport or paper printing/usage. But because we are a green-minded company, in our Sustainability Report we summarize the day-to-day activities which support our climate mission. Some of these include our energy consumption of our software, mobility, team learning, and event participation. Overall, we make it a priority to choose more environmentally friendly options when available, and create a welcoming space for learning and open dialogue within our team. Additionally, we provide opportunities and encourage the team to learn about sustainable options, for them to pursue a sustainable lifestyle outside of work.

Together we carried out the Climate Readiness Check. What was your motivation?

Our motivation to conduct the Climate Readiness Check was to get insights on where our company currently stands at with our climate efforts and to increase our score as a company.

What were the most important lessons you learned?

From the results of our Climate Readiness Check, we learned that we are extremely transparent when it comes to our climate efforts. While this factor may seem obvious for a company that specializes in technical solutions, we find that our transparency is something that can serve as a model throughout our industry. Other than that, we also took note of the areas for improvement as we continue to look forward. We have learned, there are many different areas that are necessary to be considered during a Climate-Scoring.

What are the best practices that you would like to pass on to other organizations?

We would encourage other organizations to prioritize transparency and enable positive climate thinking. We recognize that it is important to consider the environment in our work solutions and moreover to implement this commitment as an integral part of our values. We want to drive forward change in our industry and encourage future partners or collaborators to think the same way. As technology has the favorable quality of constantly being ready to adapt, also our climate actions should be adaptable.

You want to know more about the Climate Readiness Check? Do not hesitate if you want to learn how our software service is enabling you to take the next steps forward. Contact us for more information.