Harmonizing corporate carbon footprints.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Corporate Sustainability
• Climate Change Mitigation

Background:

• Global efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C necessitate reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.
• Increasing pressure on companies to disclose carbon footprints drives commitments to carbon neutrality and negativity.
• Accurate quantification of corporate emissions, especially scope 3 (value chain) emissions, is a critical first step but current practices are inconsistent and non-comparable.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel framework for harmonizing scope 3 emissions accounting.
• To address inconsistencies, boundary issues, and activity exclusions in corporate carbon reporting.
• To provide a tool for identifying and closing gaps in corporate carbon footprints.

Main Methods:

• Development of a framework to standardize scope 3 emissions accounting.
• Analysis of corporate reporting practices, focusing on inconsistency, boundary incompleteness, and activity exclusion.
• Case study application within the technology sector.

Main Results:

• Corporate carbon reports were found to omit approximately half of the total emissions.
• The framework effectively identifies significant gaps in current scope 3 emissions disclosures.
• The tech sector case study demonstrates the framework's utility in revealing underreported emissions.

Conclusions:

• Existing corporate carbon accounting for scope 3 emissions is significantly incomplete.
• The proposed framework offers a systematic approach to harmonize and improve the accuracy of scope 3 emissions reporting.
• This work supports companies, investors, and policymakers in achieving more reliable carbon footprint assessments and effective climate strategies.