ecoHQ

We will look at developing a comprehensive strategy that includes designing, executing, measuring, reporting, and monitoring sustainability goals.

At ecoHQ, we have developed an almost comprehensive sustainability strategy. Several topics have mounds of procedures and how-tos that one can familiarise themselves with. Once the overall sustainability strategy is explained, we will delve into subtopics.

Setting Purpose and Values

We first start with setting a Social cum Sustainability vision and mission as well as a higher-purpose Ambition for the company, which goes beyond just profits and satisfying customers to giving back to the community, designing higher-level strategies for the same. We want to look at the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), about 17, to determine such objectives. 

Rethinking Business Models

Setting out some impact-driven objectives would lead us to rethink our existing business models and tweak them to more value-driven ones, such as frameworks like the circular and regenerative business model canvases. 

Targets and Goal Setting for Sustainability, Climate and More

Peer and sector benchmarking

We first benchmark using frameworks like the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)  or Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to understand how similar businesses like ours have set their goals and targets. 

Then comes our materiality analysis. Single materiality measures financial materiality; it evaluates how climate change affects the company and its stakeholders. The primary audience for it is investors. Double materiality measures not just financial but also social and environmental materiality, covering how climate change impacts the company and how the company’s activities impact the broader world. The primary audiences of the latter are consumers, employees, civil society, and investors.

I may segue here a bit, BUT

We need to understand what sets frameworks, standards and protocols apart to do Goal setting effectively. 

To do the same, we first look at a higher/ superficial level sustainability assessment based on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria and undertake an ESG gap analysis. We may need the help of an ESG framework to do that. 

Frameworks

Sustainability Reporting or ESG frameworks are high-level rules and methodologies that help organisations that help organisations identify, assess, and report on sustainability concerns that affect their operations. These frameworks enable firms to compare their performance to industry peers and worldwide best practices and convey their progress to investors, regulators, customers, and employees. 

Standards

On the other hand, standards are more detailed guidelines (built upon the frameworks) that outline precise performance indicators, measurements, and requirements that organisations should use to report on specific sustainability topics. For instance, GRI has a generic framework applicable to all organisations, but it also has sector-specific and topic-specific standards for reporting. For example, GRI has different metrics for the oil & gas sector and coal sector, with their common ‘likely’ material topics to report on being air pollution, water and effluents, Indigenous people’s rights, land & resource rights, occupational health and safety, forced labour and slavery. 

However, for the Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing sectors, the material topics to be reported on may be soil health, pesticide use, food safety, supply-chain traceability, animal health and welfare, etc. 

Topic-specific standards in GRI may include Biodiversity, indirect economic impacts, procurement practices, anti-corruption, materials, energy, water and effluents, emissions, effluents and waste, employment, labour management, Diversity and Equal Opportunity, supplier environmental assessment, security practices, local communities, marketing and labelling, or customer health, privacy, and safety.

Protocols

These specialised tools assist organisations in measuring, monitoring, and reporting their sustainability performance by bridging the gap between framework and standards. Protocols provide specific instructions on gathering, calculating, and disseminating data consistently and accurately. 

For instance, frameworks, in general, may tell us that measuring greenhouse gas emissions becomes a priority for organisations of any sector, given the current threats the world is facing. Standards may tell us that measuring methane emissions from cattle may be necessary in animal agriculture. At the same time, protocols may give us calculations on how to measure and report such emissions.  

Frameworks tell us ‘why’ it is crucial to measure an issue or topic like climate change, air pollution, or changes in land usage. Standards tell us ‘what’ to measure (based on our industries), and protocols like the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG-P) tell us ‘how’ to measure. 

GHGs are Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3), and Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6). The GHG-P requires us to measure and report our emissions, which are Scope 1 (Direct emissions from our facilities and vehicles), Scope 2 (Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, steam, heat, cooling) and Scope 3 (Indirect emissions occurring upstream or downstream in a company’s value chain that are not included in Scope 2). 

We want to extend our gratitude to Terra.do, OnePointFive Academy and Climatebase for helping us make sense of the Alphabet soup of frameworks, standards and protocols.

Short-term and long-term goals for net zero

After benchmarking and conducting baseline assessments, we may set out the goals and targets for net zero using frameworks like the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and communicate our pledges for climate action. Year after year, we must disclose our milestones. 

Next, we set goals and roadmaps beyond greenhouse gas emissions or climate change. They cover more issues like the nine planetary boundaries: climate change, atmospheric aerosol loading, chemical pollution and the release of novel entities, stratospheric ozone depletion, ocean acidification, biochemical flows (phosphorus and nitrogen flow to the biosphere and oceans), freshwater consumption and the global hydrological cycle, land-system change, biosphere integrity (biosphere loss and extinction). 

If we are strictly looking at reducing our environmental footprint, the above may suffice. However, if we are looking at our eco-social footprint, we may have to look at other issues such as ethical Labour practices, Human Rights, health, education, resource scarcity, inequality, overconsumption, overproduction, affordable goods and services, eutrophication, poverty, or governance, which would, in essence, work out to be our ESG goals. 

We will next delve into Measurement and Analysis in the upcoming week.

Credits

The article is written by Deepa Sai, the founder of ecoHQ.