Emissions among digital companies rose by 8% between 2020 and 2022. Regardless, GHG emissions reporting by digital companies suffers increasingly from transparency issues. According to the GHG Protocol guidance, disclosing scope 2 location-based emissions is mandatory, while market-based emissions should only be included if applicable. However, some companies only report the generally lower market-based figure, which can be misleading as it does not accurately reflect their actual emissions from electricity consumption. Furthermore, as companies increasingly consider upstream and downstream emissions (scope 3), they sometimes shift emissions from one scope or category to another, hampering transparency and comparability.
Some digital companies have large supply chains with significant GHG emissions. Supply chain emissions generally far outnumber companies’ operational emissions. It is, therefore, crucial for companies to work with their supply chains to reduce emissions. Some companies already obligate suppliers to meet some type of environmental obligations, particularly for GHG emissions (e.g. reporting emissions inventories, moving to renewables, establishing an emissions reduction target).


Research Guidance:

This element will be BASIC if:
Valid Targets >= 1
Additional conditions to be STANDARD:
ALL of the following conditions should be true:
Number of S1+2 valid targets >= 1
ANY of the following conditions should be true:
The following statement should not be true:
Significant S3 Emissions
Number of S3 valid targets >= 1
Additional conditions to be ADVANCED:
If:
Significant S3 Emissions
Then:
Valid Targets >= 4
Else:
Number of S1+2 valid targets >= 2
Additional conditions to be NEXT PRACTICE:
Valid Targets >= 4
Additional conditions to be LOW-CARBON ALIGNED:
ALL of the following conditions should be true:
Number of S1+2 SBTi validated targets >= 2
ANY of the following conditions should be true:
The following statement should not be true:
Significant S3 Emissions
Number of S3 SBTi validated targets >= 2