2024: A Year in Review

2024 brought many exciting opportunities for the Green Strategies team to impact and advance progress for a better climate future. Our team worked with clients across diverse sectors to solve complex business sustainability problems. As we look ahead to 2025, we are excited to continue doing what we do best – helping our clients do good and do well by bringing environmental impact and solutions to the marketplace.

Keep reading to see some of our highlights from this past year.

 

Developing an Expansive Net Zero Framework

Companies and standards setters are grappling with the issue of how to account for and incentivize Net Zero, both at the company and global level. Key questions include: How can we fund crucial nature-based solutions like conservation and ecosystem remediation? What should a company do if it can’t reduce all emissions in its value chain? Should companies take a larger role in spurring systems change, and how can they get credit for this if it doesn’t fall within their emissions inventory?

The conversation around Net Zero is shifting to climate transition plans and actions, in addition to accounting for emissions in an inventory. We are working with a group of climate leaders to propose solutions to these problems, and spur meaningful action to eliminate emissions through a more expansive Net Zero framework.

The concept of ‘Net Zero’ is not a marketing term. It is derived from the reality that we need to eliminate emissions to stabilize our climate, and we need to leverage all decarbonization opportunities as soon as we can by moving beyond the narrow scope of corporate boundaries as we currently think of them. In 2025, we expect versions of a more expansive approach to Net Zero, including policy advocacy, enabling decarbonization technologies, and an evolution in company purpose to move more towards the forefront.

 

Going ‘Beyond Value Chain Mitigation’ to Reduce Emissions

With the release of SBTi’s reports on beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM), our clients have started to ask how to pursue BVCM by supporting nature-based solutions with carbon credits. While it is unclear if standard-setters like SBTi will formally allow carbon credits to ‘count’ towards science-based targets, there is increasingly clear recognition that companies should do what they can to mitigate ongoing emissions on their way to net zero – and protect nature, with its biodiversity and carbon sequestration benefits at the same time. As noted by the IPCC in 2022, natural climate solutions like ecosystem protection and restoration, are crucial cost-effective approaches to limiting warming that can be implemented now.

We are helping our clients develop high-integrity carbon credit strategies to help reduce global emissions while simultaneously reducing their own share of those emissions. As part of this best practice strategy, our clients are focused on carbon credits that will deliver co-benefits like biodiversity, and limit planet-warming emissions starting this decade.

In to these nature-based credits, we have counseled our clients on emissions avoidance projects that are aligned with their businesses, including actions such as refrigerant destruction and methane emissions avoidance. Avoiding these climate super-pollutants is another solution that can be implemented now and reduce the chance of overshooting mid-century emissions targets and stabilize the climate. For our clients, funding the destruction of these emissions demonstrates stewardship beyond their role in climate change, while simultaneously working to stop the emissions in the first place.

We anticipate that beyond value chain mitigation will become more popular as we recognize the value of pulling all levers to reduce emissions as soon as possible.

 

Advancing Company-wide Sustainability Strategies to include Packaging, Water, Waste, and More

This year, we worked with a mid-sized, private company develop its first companywide strategy on sustainability. Working closely with a greenhouse gas accountant, we gave expert insights and counsel as they calculated their first greenhouse gas inventory and began efforts to increase efficiency to reduce their inventory numbers. Moving beyond greenhouse gases, this client has made great strides to reduce the amount of plastic in its packaging, set a business-wide policy for water efficiency in buildings, and is working to divert waste from landfill in its headquarters and manufacturing facilities. These efforts also included starting a composting program and instating reusable containers at its cafeteria.

We had a ton of fun working on a diverse range of sustainability projects with this client and look forward to continued progress in the new year.

 

Promoting Conservation and Clean Energy on Public Lands

Despite both offering significant climate and environmental benefits, sometimes conservation and clean energy end up at odds with one another. This year, the Green Strategies team worked closely with a consortium of conservation groups and clean energy companies to find agreement in the need to balance essential renewable energy projects for a climate-safe future with a responsibility to protect some of our most ecologically sensitive and important lands across the US.

In May, the Bureau of Land Management published its Conservation and Landscape Health Rule (aka the Public Lands Rule) which advances the agency’s mission to protect public lands. The rule will ultimately help conserve important wildlife habitat and intact landscapes, maintain unique cultural resources on public lands, and improve the health and resilience of lands impacted by a changing climate, all while expanding outdoor access and recreation alongside thoughtful and responsible development.

 

Expanding Clean Energy Procurement

This year, the Green Strategies team worked to advance clean energy procurement from both the buyer and the developer sides. In one case, we helped a major manufacturer and buyer of renewable electricity craft a strategy to modernize its procurement approach in response to growing stakeholder interest in maximizing the climate and social impacts of renewable buying as well as navigating anticipated changes to Scope 2 accounting rules.

We also worked closely with solar developers who were looking to better understand the clean energy procurement landscape from the buyer perspective, and helped develop practical strategies for honing their approach in order to successfully launch new clean energy projects and products for buyers of clean electricity.

 

See something that sparks your interest? Get in touch with the team to see how we can work together.

A Note from Green Strategies’ President

What is one of the most asked questions we have been getting the past few months? Not surprisingly, it is about what the changed political landscape in the United States means for corporate sustainability and corporate climate action.  Will companies abandon their climate goals? Will they deprioritize sustainability? The people who ask me these questions are worried that the answers will be yes. In our view, nothing fundamentally will change.

That’s not to say nothing will change.

Companies may change how – and how much – they talk about climate and environmental sustainability. And some companies might revise their goals “downward” – we have already seen a little of that happening over the last year or so – but not because of a changed political landscape. Many companies set ambitious 2030 goals at the beginning of this decade and four years in are facing some real challenges in the marketplace in achieving the progress expected and we are seeing some level-setting going on. But in most cases, in our view, those changes are less about a reduction in ambition or political sensitivities and more about the realities of executing on, versus setting, tough goals.

Why don’t we think there will be fundamental change? Because we believe what we have been saying at Green Strategies for the past 23 years: sustainability is not a trend or a task. Sustainability is a tool for unlocking value. In the climate context we call this “climate capitalism”, which holds that by incorporating climate considerations and emissions mitigation strategies into their businesses companies can spur innovation, mitigate risk, aid in hiring and retaining top employees, and provide valuable reputational benefits. We don’t think that changes, even in these turbulent times.

We will continue to help our clients out-compete their peers and become more profitable by reducing their environmental impact. We will continue providing solutions to climate change and other environmental challenges.

Best wishes for the New Year.

Roger

Patrick Falwell to Serve on Power Sector Expert Advisory Group to SBTi

Green Strategies’ Vice President, Patrick Falwell, has been selected to serve on the Science-Based Target Initiative’s (SBTi) Expert Advisory Group that is providing advice and feedback to SBTi as it prepares new guidance for target setting to power sector companies. As one of 31 selected experts, Patrick is providing technical guidance using his understanding of the power sector, climate change mitigation, and science-based corporate target setting.

This project is part of SBTi’s actions to develop sector specific standards, which will provide electric utilities and power generation companies with criteria for setting near- and long-term science-based targets in line with 1.5°C.

We look forward to supporting Patrick as he works on this exciting evolution of power sector action on climate!

You can learn more about Patrick on our leadership page.

 

SEC Climate Disclosure – What’s Going On?

In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a final rule to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures by public companies. The SEC says the rule responds to investor demands for information on the financial effects of climate-related risks and how a registrant manages those risks while balancing the associated costs of the rules. The final rule requires large filers and large accelerated filers to disclose material information about Scopes 1-2 emissions. Scope 3 was not included in the final rule. On April 5th, the SEC announced they will pause the implementation of the rule until litigation by a range of opponents including companies, Republican-led states, and the Sierra Club, is resolved.

Many companies already report and collect climate-related risk data, their GHG footprints, and their GHG reduction goals and other climate efforts, either for voluntary sustainability programs, or for emerging regulation in jurisdictions including California, the EU, UK, and others. In fact, a Duke survey found that many large corporate respondents did not anticipate high marginal costs for complying with a new SEC climate rule, because they already find and disclose the information that will be required under the rule, either for voluntary initiatives or regulations in other jurisdictions.

The exclusion of Scope 3 in disclosures by the SEC underscores many of the challenges with current Scope 3 reporting and guidance. As emissions disclosure becomes mandatory, companies need to meet a higher standard to verify the information they disclose – a task that is difficult under the current Scope 3 accounting norms. Scope 3 emissions are often the majority of a companies’ footprint, and a range of stakeholders, including investors, urge companies to account for and take action to reduce Scope 3.

Despite litigation delays, most companies are likely facing demands to report climate-related information in other jurisdictions. As such, they should be prepared to collect the necessary information sought by emerging disclosure requirements and ensure that they meet steps for data assurance and validation.

Is Beyond Value Chain Mitigation the New Leading Edge of Climate Leadership?

SBTi released new guidance on the Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM), currently a recommendation – not a requirement – under their Net Zero Standard. Under SBTi’s definition and guidance, BVCM activities are not accounted for in a Scope 1-3 inventory and can include both carbon avoidance, reduction, and removal activities, including investments in and purchases of carbon credits.

SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard identifies four components: near-term reduction targets for a company’s Scopes 1-3 value chain, long-term reduction targets, the neutralization of residual emissions, and Beyond the Value Chain Mitigation, which refers to a range of activities outside of a company’s value chain that SBTi advises “should” be undertaken now. and increase even more thereafter to stay below the 1.5C threshold globally. Beyond enabling companies to meet their GHG reduction targets, climate finance also needs to support a range of complementary activities including preserving nature, restoring ecosystems, and scaling up different forms of carbon removals. Many companies have already gotten started, and SBTi’s BVCM is among the set of recent emerging guidelines to inform company decision making.

BVCM is not the only guidance advising companies on how to integrate carbon reductions outside of their boundaries into their climate strategies. Last year, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) published its Claims Code of Practice that allows companies to indicate that they are both credibly reducing emissions while purchasing high-quality carbon credits. (VCMI is also launching a Scope 3 “Flexibility Claim” that will allow companies to buy an amount of carbon credits equal to the gap between their current and future Scope 3 emissions reduction target). Oxford recently revised their Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting, which outlines principles companies can follow when purchasing carbon credits as part of their net-zero strategy, only after prioritizing direct emissions reductions in a given year.

Does this replace direct, rapid emissions reductions? Absolutely not. But BVCM is crucial.