Carbon Trust’s new Climate Leadership Framework aims to assess businesses’ preparedness for the net zero transition
Carbon Trust has become the latest consultancy to launch a dedicated new service designed to help businesses navigate the net zero transition.
The company unveiled its new Climate Leadership Framework earlier this week, explaining it that it would help assess and develop companies’ strategic response to climate change, providing them with strong foundations for the net zero transition.
Using the framework, Carbon Trust said it would work with each client to assess its current operations, including its up- and downstream value chain. It then aims to guide them in identifying opportunities for measurable improvements by sketching out a low carbon roadmap.
“Organisations are more aware than ever of the need for bold action on climate change,” said Hugh Jones, managing director of business services at the Carbon Trust.
“The recent publication of the Committee on Climate Change’s Net Zero report and heightened public and political awareness of climate change issues have highlighted the need to transition to sustainable, low carbon economies across the world. This framework enables businesses to play their full part and ultimately become climate leaders.”
The framework sets out a procedure for appraising the spectrum of activities firms must undertake as part of their strategic response to climate change. These include setting targets, implementing actions to pursue those targets, identifying key climate change issues in their business environment, working with other stakeholders, and asking what more innovative or radical steps could be taken to maximise climate readiness.
Once its assessment is complete, each company agrees and receives a scorecard showing its current state of progress and a bespoke roadmap containing practical next steps in order to make progress towards achieving net zero emissions, the Carbon Trust said.
The Carbon Trust tested and refined the framework in partnership with five leading businesses: Pearson, Quorn Foods, SGN, Sky, and Marshalls.
“The framework enabled Pearson to measure progress against different perspectives and delivers a comprehensive and robust set of recommendations,” said Matthew Rowland-Jones, Sustainability Manager at Pearson.
