Boston Consulting Group’s analysis (see slides) of responses from 1,290 organizations with at least 1,000 employees and revenues from ~$100 million to more than $10 billion across nine industries worldwide revealed significant challenges and gaps in greenhouse gas emissions measurements and reduction.
Noteworthy findings include:
Companies care about emissions reductions - 85% of respondents say carbon emissions reductions are important or very important to their organization, and 96% have set targets for reducing emissions in at least one emissions scope category. However, only 11% have realized more than 75% of their emissions-reduction targets in the past five years.
Measurement lags aspirations/goals - Only 9% measure their Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions, and only 10% fully measure their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, as shown here:
Two-thirds of respondents don’t report any Scope 3 emissions; however, these emissions account for approximately 90% of their total emissions.
Most companies unable to measure - More than 75% of respondents say they are unable to measure the full carbon footprint of their products and services, including product usage and end-of-life impact.
Resource constraints impeded measurement, reporting - Although 87% of organizations want to increase the scope of their reporting, more than one-third of respondents identified these resource constraints (in descending order): time or budget, advanced tools, access to emissions factors, access to primary data, and access to operational data.
Estimated error rate is high - Respondents estimate an average error rate of 30% to 40% in their emissions measurements. Just 22% of respondents have automated processes to measure their emissions; the vast majority record and report their emissions manually using spreadsheets.
See BCG’s release; “Over 90% of Firms Aren’t Measuring Emissions Correctly, BCG Says” (Bloomberg); our recent report: “Scope 3 Emissions: Best Guesstimate?”; and additional information & resources on our Climate Risk & Disclosure page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!