The Race to Zero: Science-based Targets & Net Zero Announcements

Throughout 2020 and into 2021 companies have declared their commitment to science-based targets and achieving net zero emissions, often tied to the 2030 deadline set by the Paris Climate Accord. Again, first-mover businesses like German multinational manufacturing and automation company Siemens set the stage for these types of commitments back in 2015, but others have joined. Among them, the major global accounting firms, which are among the biggest spenders globally for business travel. 

Accenture committed to a net zero emissions target in December 2018 and by October 2020 tied that target to a 2025 timeline. BCG announced its goal to be net zero by 2030 on Sep. 1, 2020. Deloitte and PwC followed that path just two weeks later each with its own declaration. EY, which had previously announced goals for carbon neutrality in 2020, declared its net zero ambitions in January 2021, with the same 2025 deadline as Accenture. McKinsey & Company joined the group in March this year.  

Both Deloitte and McKinsey called out business travel in their emissions reduction targets publicly available at Science Based Targets (www.sciencebasedtargets.org), an initiative that assists companies in setting science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets to achieve net zero goals. Deloitte’s targets include reducing scope 3 GHG emissions from business travel by 50 percent per full-time employee by 2030 from a 2019 base year. The firm additionally has committed to ensuring 67 percent of its business travel supplier partners will have science-based targets by 2025. McKinsey has committed to reducing scope 3 GHG emissions from business travel by 30 percent per full-time employee by 2025.  

Companies on the SBTi website have committed to GHG emissions reduction and they have 24 months to set science-based targets as evaluated against the SBTi criteria or they are removed from the registry. In 2018, just 100 companies had registered for the initiative. As of October 2020, there were more than 1,000 companies registered in 60 countries. Several companies BTN spoke to—Salesforce and Novo Nordisk are profiled in this issue—cited their commitment to science-based targets as evaluated by this initiative. 

Yet the companies name-dropped above—and many that have signed up to science-based targets—can’t yet be considered typical in their focus on sustainability. Rather, they are among the vanguard of corporations making the highest levels of commitments, undoubtedly out of sincere concern about climate change but also, for some, with a clear commercial upside that not every company can use to accelerate investment in sustainable practices. 

But companies don’t have to be on the vanguard to make a difference. Even the SBTi initiative recognizes this: Small and midsize companies can participate and have a simplified process for setting emissions reduction targets.