Understanding your organization’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a vital part of building a solid, effective ESG program. Armed with this detailed information, companies can begin defining emission reduction strategies and setting science-based emission reduction targets.
In 2021, a B Corporation Certified footwear company set out to create its first GHG inventory and set the stage for a robust emissions management program. As a regenerative business-an organization that aims to make a positive impact on the world, moving beyond simply reducing negative impacts-this forward-focused footwear leader set a high standard for its ESG programs.
As a part of the company’s ambitious sustainability commitments, its sustainability team hired ADEC ESG Solutions to advise on its foundational scope 3 emissions inventory. Their goal was to gain a deeper understanding of the company’s emissions—more specifically, the impact of its supply chain. This data would inform wider ESG strategy decisions and help set our client on the path to achieving its goals.
ADEC ESG’s extensive carbon reporting, data management, and supplier engagement experience made our team the perfect partner in developing our client’s first comprehensive GHG inventory. Since signing on in 2021, our partnership has grown to include additional support services to complement our client’s thriving ESG program.
For the 2019-2021 reporting years, ADEC ESG Solutions served as our client’s guide throughout the process of developing GHG inventories for scopes 1 and 2. This collaborative work ensured that the client’s team, facility managers, and other key stakeholders had everything they needed to develop accurate, comprehensive inventories.
These inventories also provided our client with a strong foundation for future GHG data calculations, tracking, and target-setting, serving as the first step on the company’s Sustainability Journey. Our systematized data collection and calculation processes make GHG accounting and reporting easier for our client year after year. We supported our client in establishing long-term processes, analyzing data sources, and revising templates to streamline data collection in the years to come.
For most companies, scope 3 emissions are a large-and often majority-part of their carbon, environmental, and social impact, so evaluating and understanding their scope 3 emissions were priorities for our client.
Our client’s goal was to identify major scope 3 emission sources and strategize around reducing those emissions. With limited resources allocated to this project, our team had to work efficiently to identify a few key sources on which our client would focus its efforts. We did this by analyzing client data, shortlisting two key sources of emissions, calculating each emission source’s impact per product, and developing roadmaps for each emission source.
These roadmaps took a deep dive into each emission source, the result of which was a clear path forward to reducing scope 3 emissions. This required extensive data collection, analysis, and engagement with internal stakeholders. Looking into transportation as a key source, for example, we needed to ensure consistent and complete tracking of transport emissions. To achieve this, our team mapped out detailed logistical flows to develop our understanding of how and where the client’s products and materials were transported, which informed our recommendations.
We also continue to work with the client team on improving their overall GHG emission reporting through enhancing data reliability, refining sourcing details, and closing data gaps. For example, in a raw materials breakdown, we analyzed key drivers of emissions per material as well as per style of footwear.
This two-pronged approach allowed our client to focus on certain high-emission materials and high-volume materials within its supply chain and inform future style redesigns for maximum impact. Scope 3 inventory data can also be used in future CSR reporting, CDP reporting, or other annual reporting.
In 2022, ADEC ESG assisted our client in identifying strategies to decrease emissions for select styles, with a focus on sourcing products used in manufacturing and designing future products with a reduced impact on the environment. We leveraged our analysis on materials used to define potential strategies and assess the feasibility of those strategies to address each source, such as renewable energy purchase, on-site energy generation, and substituting certain key materials for more climate-friendly materials. Subsequently, our team also assisted in planning around realistic strategy implementation scenarios and opportunities for public-private collaboration to achieve reduction goals.
This is an exciting time to be collaborating with a client that is so focused on and committed to making a positive impact on the world. ADEC ESG Solutions looks forward to continuing to support our client as they work to achieve ambitious goals around sustainability and beyond.
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