When it comes to Scope 3 topics, data is often the first-cited bottleneck to truly understand and track a company’s value chain emissions. Scope 3 data challenges cover roughly three categories: how to standardize calculation methods, how to collaborate across the value chain for data collection, and how to effectively manage and use data internally.
Combient Pure’s Scope 3 Decarbonization Accelerator convened for the second time in November 2024, with nearly 60 attendees from 20+ Combient companies sharing learnings and challenges related to the data challenge. Dive into the day’s highlights and key takeaways below.
Standardization frameworks can ease Scope 3 action
Comparing suppliers or demonstrating the effectiveness of a company’s own emission reduction efforts largely rest on the ability to move away from industry average to primary, supplier- or product-specific data. Underlying this primary data must be common and standardized ways of calculating and reporting emissions for specific product categories. The workshop highlighted one such effort to harmonize product carbon footprint calculation methods, with the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) presenting their framework to aid the transition from secondary to primary data. Company case examples also demonstrated how product carbon footprint calculations can help in leading Scope 3 work internally and responding to customer needs.
Data itself is not the only thing that needs to be standardized - many of the day’s discussions highlighted “form-fatigue” and the challenges suppliers have in answering a broad range of data requests. Supplier emissions data and Scope 3 calculations are often funnelled through diverse IT systems or at worst, a stack of Excel files. This mismash in ways of working and technical systems makes it difficult to not only easily compile and compare data, but effectively harness that data for decision making. This is where AI may provide interesting pathways to put emissions data to work in companies, using forecasting and models to weigh choices or benchmark other companies’ efforts in Scope 3.
Collaboration and withstanding imperfection keys to moving forward
As standardization frameworks are being developed, gathering the necessary resources for Scope 3 data collection and management will require upskilling and engaging functions across organizations. While more hands-on involvement in Scope 3 data collection and management is needed from various functions like IT, sourcing, product and business development, the session highlighted that waiting for perfect data is not an option.
The ambition for top management and sustainability alike is to treat sustainability data with the same rigour and certainty as financial data, but the complexity of Scope 3 data still requires comfort with uncertainty across the organization. The resources and challenges to get primary data for all emission categories may exceed the value of having that data, so prioritizing primary data for e.g. 80% of emissions and leaving 20% covered by industry averages may be a sufficient goal. This challenge needs to be understood at the very highest levels of the organization, and in the interim we need to find different ways to measure progress on Scope 3 emissions. Sharing best practices, learnings and even failures can help in this journey.
Combient Pure’s Scope 3 Decarbonization Accelerator continues in Q1 2025 with Mini-accelerator sessions focused on decarbonizing steel and internal carbon pricing. The third and fourth modules of the Accelerator will take place in April and May.
Sign up for the Mini-accelerator on steel decarbonization in February, the third Accelerator module in April or the fourth in May through Twin to join us (only available for Combient companies).
For more information on the Accelerator and upcoming modules, please don’t hesitate to contact us, we would be happy to tell you more!
Anna Pakkala, Business Development Manager, anna.pakkala@combient.com
