Insights

December 16, 2021

Summit for Sustainable Business VII – Scope 4 Impacts on Climate Policy

It was a privilege to host the Summit for Sustainable Business VII virtually on Friday, December 10^th, for 200 sustainability executives from over 100 global companies. The Summit began with a keynote by Andrew Winston, co-author of the new book Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. Winston advised executives to look beyond their company’s four walls and align the company’s purpose, vision, and goals to provide benefit to society. According to Winston, enormous opportunities exist for companies to profit from solving the world’s problems and focusing on multi-stakeholder, long-term value creation.

The Summit revolved around the theme, “Providing Net Positive Global Leadership,” and included two sessions on defining and decarbonizing global Scope 2 & 3 emissions, ending with a segment on corporate best practices in Scope 4 climate policy.

Listeners heard from five outstanding Member-Client presenters:

• Bob Hoffman, Global Head of Site Services & Utilities Sourcing at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

• Mike Mattera, Director of Corporate Sustainability at Akamai Technologies

• Jennifer Wright, Director of Global EHS & Sustainability at Biogen

• Sean Kinghorn, Global Sustainability Leader at Intuit

• Allison Rose, Director of Government Affairs at Autodesk

Key takeaways from the conversation on Scope 4 and our new Member-Briefing on the topic include:

1. What constitutes being “climate responsible” is being contested, and post-COP26, decarbonizing global operations by 2030 is recognized as necessary but in no way sufficient
2. In 2019, EDF President Fred Krupp recognized CEOs “need to unleash the most powerful tool they have to fight climate change: their political influence”
3. Climate breakdown is now “unequivocally” attributed to human action, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels, and the Glasgow Climate Pact has embraced IPCC 1.5˚ C guidance and the need to reduce emissions 45% by 2030 globally
4. The climate emergency has been recognized as the world’s number one health issue, with UNICEF reporting nearly a billion children at “deadly risk” of climate impacts in the 33 most climate-vulnerable countries
5. The increasing urgency, depth, and breadth of climate breakdown warrants it being examined as a human rights crisis, and the UN Guiding Principles may guide corporate engagement
6. Engaging with “Scope 4” political influence is critical to “talk the walk” on climate action, and CEO messaging strategy grounded in climate science & human rights would be differentiating and “game changing”

Autodesk’s Director of Government Affairs, Allison Rose, presented brilliantly on the company’s work in both corporate sustainability and public policy. In addition to advancing internal sustainable business practices and partnering with customers to innovate more sustainably, Autodesk aims to advance industries through cross sector collaborations and policy advocacy. Allison advised executives to join multiple types of policy organizations – from climate focused organizations indicating public commitments, to climate-focused organizations that actively lobby, to industry organizations that may engage on climate-related policy – in order to have a well-rounded and effective climate advocacy program.

Member-Clients will find a copy of the presentation and our new Member-Briefing on this topic in SR Inc’s cloud-based Digital Library.  We will post additional blogs with detailed takeaways from the Scope 2 and 3 sessions throughout the next two weeks.

We look forward to helping a host of Member-client Executives and Companies follow the outstanding example of leading Member-clients and breakthrough in 2022.  We will nominate the 2022 research agenda at our next meeting on January 20th which will be modified and ratified in February.  More details to come.

It is time for a host of Member-clients to follow in the path of our top leaders and breakthrough to the recognized leadership in corporate sustainability in 2022.

Jim Boyle is the CEO & Founder of Sustainability Roundtable, Inc.  For more than a dozen years, Jim has led full-time teams of diverse experts to assist nearly 100 Fortune 500 and growth companies in their move to more sustainable high-performance.  Specifically, SR Inc has helped world-leading corporations, real estate owners, and federal agencies to set goals, drive progress, and report results in their move to greater Corporate Sustainability.  Mr. Boyle led in the creation of SR Inc’s Renewable Energy Procurement Services (REPS), which advises and represents Fortune 500 and fast growth companies across the U.S. and internationally in the development of renewable energy strategies and the procurement of both on and off-site advanced energy solutions.  Before founding SR Inc, Mr. Boyle co-led Trammell Crow Company Corporate Advisory Services in San Francisco and returned to his native Boston and Trammell Crow Company’s market leading team in Greater Boston where he received the Commercial Brokers Association’s Platinum Award for the highest level of commercial real estate transactions.  Earlier, he advised companies on real estate and environmental matters as an attorney at a large law firm based in Boston.  Jim is a graduate of Middlebury College, where he co-captained the football team, and Boston College Law School.  Early in his career, he served as a federal law clerk, an aide to John F. Kerry in the U. S. Senate, and on Vice President Al Gore’s campaign for President.  Jim lives in Concord, MA with his wife and kids a half mile across the street from Emerson’s house and museum on the route to Walden Pond.