Governance: the key to unlocking climate action

Companies can’t achieve their climate goals without collaboration. 

The difficulties of measuring and reducing a business carbon footprint no longer lie in Scopes 1 and 2. For these two emission scopes, primary data is available, as well as accurate emission factors – so the reduction strategies are in most cases relatively straightforward to implement. 

When it comes to climate action, the real challenge lies in Scope 3, the indirect emissions that occur in a company's value chain, beyond its own operational boundaries.

According to the CDP, your company’s value chain emissions are more than 11 times greater than the emissions from your operational activities. The challenge is therefore considerable in view of its size, but also due to its specific nature: responsibility for Scope 3 emissions is shared. 

As we’re interdependent to take climate action, dialogue is essential. The slightest change in the carbon footprint of one company is clearly visible in that of another. This means that you won’t achieve your science-based targets without working with the stakeholders who share your carbon footprint. 

This climate action collaboration has many faces – it can take place between large enterprises and small companies, within the same industry or between different sectors, and even across countries. 

Responsibility should also be shared within companies, with each team member playing their own part in the climate strategy related to their business area. In this new forward-thinking organization, certain figures are emerging, such as the Chief Procurement Office or the IT Director, who help the Chief Sustainability Officer to achieve a collective objective. 

To meet the challenge of effective collaboration, governance is necessary. This corporate climate governance aims at setting rules, facilitating decision-making and effectively sharing information.

The ultimate goal is to make your company’s climate action more effective and therefore more legitimate