Issues around Scope 3 have appropriately gotten a lot of attention lately. Scope 3 emissions (or “value chain” emissions) often make up the majority of a greenhouse gas inventory and so adequately accounting for these emissions is crucial. It is becoming clear that the greenhouse gas accounting system as designed currently is ill-suited to serve its fundamental purpose: driving corporate actions to reduce, avoid, and remove greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 inventories are often seen as an end in and of themselves, yet from a climate perspective they are only tools – and only useful if they help lead to emissions reduction. 

While SBTi’s recent announcement on market-based mechanisms indicates a move in a positive direction, we need to act quickly to design an effective Scope 3 system on the timeline that science calls for.

Green Strategies’ President Roger Ballentine has published a paper in Frontiers’ Sustainable Energy Policy journal which helps shine light on problems with Scope 3 accounting and how we might make it better — for companies and the climate. We recommend giving it a read!

Frontiers Sustainable Energy Policy – Scope 3: What Question are We Trying to Answer?

A poll from the Sustainability Speakers Agency lists the top 20 speakers on sustainability, including Pia Heidemark Cook, IKEA’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Kate Brandt, Google’s Sustainability Officer, and Roger Ballentine, President of Green Strategies, among others.

Speakers who are experts on sustainability are in increasingly high demand as organizations are looking to pivot towards a greener future.

According to the poll, the Top 20 Sustainability Speakers are:

• Pia Heidenmark Cook
• Kate Brandt
• Mike Barry
• Sue Garrard
• Roger Ballentine
• Dorthe Scherling Nielsen
• Håkan Nordkvist
• Christiana Figueres
• David Howell
• Richard Reed
• Chris Hines
• Charles Perry
• Nigel Topping
• Steve Howard
• David Mayer De Rothschild
• Sally Uren
• Tony Seba
• Melissa Sterry
• Liz Bonnin
• Pen Hadow

Microsoft GM of Energy & Sustainability Brian Janous on July 9, 2020. (Photography by Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures)

We are thrilled to announce that Brian Janous, former Vice President of Energy at Microsoft, will be serving as Senior Advisor to Green Strategies, Inc. During his 12 years at Microsoft, Brian established himself as global decarbonization leader and as a pioneer of innovative approaches to marrying sustainability with business strategies. Brian will continue to apply his unique talents towards a rapid, complete, and just energy transition through advising new clients. We have no doubt that Green Strategies’ work as one of the country’s oldest and leading boutique sustainability and climate strategy consultancies will benefit immensely from Brian’s unique experiences and insights.

Green Strategies, Inc. joined Clean Air Task Force (CATF) and a diverse group of stakeholders including NGOs, large buyers, investors, carbon-free electricity suppliers, data and analytics providers, electricity sector experts and others in a call for updates to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 2 guidance that will drive global decarbonization and better recognize effective corporate clean electricity procurement.

Signed by 17 signatories, the letter recommends a framework of critical reforms that are aimed at increasing transparency, modernizing accounting to incorporate new data and analytic methods, supporting increasingly ambitious clean electricity procurement strategies, and encouraging the development of the diverse mix of resources required to decarbonize electricity grids.

More information may be found here and the letter may be found here.

Earlier this month, Oxford University Press published Roger’s paper looking at how current greenhouse gas accounting rules and leadership programs like SBTi may actually be holding back progress in addressing the climate crisis:

The unusual suspects: are well-meaning environmental stakeholders and institutions undercutting the contributions that companies can make to fighting climate change?