Reducing Emissions in the Supply Chain is Crucial to Tackle Climate Change
Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. To meet the Paris Agreement and limit global warming to well below 1.5 degrees, there is an urgent need to decarbonize global emissions. This has been a well-established fact for several years. And when it comes to driving global change, companies of all sizes have an important role to play.
As a result of the increased focus on sustainability in recent years, expectations on companies to monitor and reduce their environmental impact have also increased drastically. We have, therefore, asked 400 Nordic companies how they work with these issues. Our study shows that most companies (two out of three) already measure and report at least one out of the three Scopes of greenhouse gas emissions. But many seem to underestimate the share of emissions from their value chain (Scope 3 emissions).
Emissions from the value chain account for more than 70 percent of a company’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Underestimating the share of Scope 3 emissions thus imply a risk in a company’s way towards reduced emissions. This is something that needs to be highlighted to drive change on a large scale. Focusing only on emissions from the own operation is not enough. Rather, companies can improve their climate footprint substantially by optimizing their supply chain.
In our first-of-a-kind report, we have taken a closer look at how Nordic small and medium-sized companies (SME:s) and large companies within different sectors work with targets for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, what Scopes of emissions they measure and report, and how they work to reduce emissions from their value chain. We have also collected our best advice on how to create a more sustainable supply chain.
Some of our Key Takeaways from the report
- More than four out of five Nordic companies have set sustainability goals that they work towards.
- Up to half of Nordic companies have set a target for eliminating emissions.
- Four out of five Nordic companies with a target for eliminating emissions plan on doing so within the next ten years.
- Large companies are more likely than SME:s to set targets for eliminating emissions
- There is a clear similarity among the Nordic countries although they all vary in mindset and focus.
