The Scope 3 Age...
With lots of news interest this week in the stock market moves of Unilever, the global ice cream (and much more) consumer brand giant, it would be easy not to see the equally substantial announcement made about how they will be taking forward their sustainability strategy.
https://lnkd.in/eXWYm-BG
Over the past decade, most major retail and consumer brands have pledged to achieve 'net zero' emissions (or as close as possible).
Since doing so, the focus has been mainly on two actions:
1. action to reduce emissions from the sources over which the businesses have the most control - in their owned facilities, the transport fleets and the working practices of the people that work for them (scope 1) and the energy they purchase and directly consume (scope 2)
2. building a consensus on the best way to baseline and measure those emissions is science-based reporting in its various forms.
However, the looming issue on all businesses' to-do lists has been how to tackle scope 3 ( emissions from parts of the supply chain over which the companies have far less control).
Now that most businesses' strategies have matured and they have hit their first wave of reporting milestones, it is time to get serious about scope 3—and it is not easy!
Unilever's plan, as reported here, is one of the best I have seen to illustrate how a Scope 3 plan would work in practice. It gives us clear insights into the kinds of choices entailed. First is far more extensive auditing and data requirements from its suppliers, changes to operating practices (like changing the set point of retail display freezers), and product reformulation and redesign.
All these changes come with trade-offs, cost implications, and consumer adoption risks. For Unilever, this is so significant in its implications that it requires a formal endorsement from the company's shareholders.
We are in the era of scope 3, and it is a period of reckoning; everyone at all stages of the supply chain will feel the effects and have to react accordingly.
We will continue to share insights and ideas and bring businesses together to learn how our industry can get ahead of the changing demands of cold chain customers - not least at our upcoming European Cold Chain Conference on the 10th to 12th April in Brussels - want to join us find out more here https://lnkd.in/eqZBR8P9