March 22, 2022
Our First Quarter Sustainable Business & Enterprise Roundtable (SBER) Symposium, hosted in person at the ART Hotel in Denver as well as virtually, was a resounding success. We are happy to be able to host meaningful discussions once again in person with leading sustainability executives while maintaining the reach of our global Member-Client network virtually. A special thanks to our two presenters Andy Smith, Sr. Manager of Global Energy Management & Sustainability at Cisco Systes, and Mike Mattera, Director of Corporate Sustainability at Akamai Technologies.
The second half of our symposium focused on groundbreaking work to maximize carbon impact on the road to Net Zero emissions. Mike Mattera, Director of Corporate Sustainability at Akamai, participated in an interactive discussion with SR Inc’s COO and Senior Advisor David Osborn on his work in this area.
David first explored with the group best practice strategy for impactful corporate environmental goals, which begins with understanding the various Scope 1-3 decarbonization options. Companies often begin their decarbonization journey with Scope 2 emissions, which can have implications for Scope 1 & 3 strategies and can be the key to enabling corporations to commit to Science Based Targets (SBTs), RE100, and handprint/Net Positive goals. However, few companies understand that current protocol and reporting practices for Scope 2/renewable energy goals enable a misalignment of renewable electricity and emission reduction claims. This misalignment centers on differing (REC) production and (footprint) consumption carbon intensities. To avoid this misalignment, leading energy consumers like Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook are evolving strategies like 24/7 renewable electricity sourcing to more directly match their consumption emissions to avoided emissions from renewable energy procurement.
As achieving 24/7 is not practically or financially viable for the vast majority of companies, companies like Akamai instead employ a leading practice of reporting carbon abatement from the location where the REC is produced. This practice elevates the value of sourcing new renewable capacity in more carbon intensive locations, such as Missouri or Illinois. It additionally:
Mike Mattera elaborated further on how this reporting practice forms the backbone of Akamai’s goal strategy. To achieve its 2030 goals of 100% renewables, 100% mitigation of platform emissions, and a 50% more efficient platform, Akamai is exploring opportunities to make the network as efficient as possible, working with data center partners to provide carbon-free electricity solutions, placing vPPA projects in more carbon intensive markets to have a higher abatement impact, and searching for emerging carbon/emissions technologies to capture emissions out of the air. While Mike acknowledged that 100% renewable electricity is a worthy and necessary goal, he also argued that carbon emissions are the real problem, so companies should evolve their GHG accounting practices and renewables procurement to maximize carbon abatement.
SR Inc hopes to help members contribute to, and lead in, the relevant Clean Energy Buyers Association/Future of Internet Power committees focused on influencing the WRI and GHG Protocol on RECs, emissions quantification, and Scope 3 reporting to help accelerate carbon abatement. As always, we look forward to deepening our Member-Client-based guidance on global ESG leadership throughout 2022. Our next Symposium will be held in the Boston area on June 16th, with more details to come. Member-Clients can find a copy of the presentation deck from our Q1 Symposium in our Digital Library.
