Geneva, 14 April 2022: The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), supported by McKinsey & Company as its knowledge partner, is moving towards enabling confidential and secure exchange of granular, primary and verified product emissions data across organizations. A first exchange of standardized data was realized using several interoperable technology solutions, marking a key milestone in the development of the Pathfinder Network – which will provide an open, decentralized network infrastructure allowing different technology solutions to connect and support peer-to-peer sharing of data across value chains and industries. The development of this network is being driven by the reality that a plethora of technology solutions and platforms for carbon data exchange are emerging, all of which need to be interoperable if true transparency is to be created.
Over the past year, tech-for good organization SINE foundation and leading technology players have been jointly working toward this goal, with this first exchange realized with solutions by CircularTree, IBM, SAP and Siemens. The creation of transparency is a key driving force in enabling accountability and delivery against climate targets and commitments made by organizations – and is in high demand from target setters, investors, policy makers and consumers alike. It will mean a clear step-change for organizations on their net-zero journeys. With this, they will be able to take informed sourcing and product-development decisions, invest in targeted decarbonization activities in their supply chains, make more accurate disclosures, measure and track decarbonization progress and adhere to legislative requirements around environmental transparency.
Scope 3 emissions – occurring in the value chain – account for over 80% of emissions across most business sectors, and yet these emissions remain a big unknown. As companies are under pressure to accelerate decarbonization activities, there is an increasing need for transparency. So far, however, organizations are lacking the means to create this. This poses a significant risk for progress on the achievement of net zero targets as well as wider reduction ambitions, as organizations simply cannot track and reduce what they cannot measure. PACT is tackling this issue together with its ecosystem of decarbonization partners, based on the notion that collaborative thinking, close alignment and integration across methodological and technological aspects of the challenge are required in order to succeed.
“This exciting milestone builds on the strong foundations laid down by PACT since its inception”, highlights John Revess, Senior Director for Net Zero Transformation at WBCSD. “PACT published the Pathfinder Framework at COP 26 and in the meantime includes over 60 WBCSD member companies as well as a diverse range of industry initiatives and other core stakeholders. With collaboration at the heart of unlocking the transparency challenge, the ecosystem is clearly accelerating towards jointly finding tangible solutions – WBCSD is thrilled to be supporting this journey”.
This first exchange of data sets in stone the foundations for the creation of the Pathfinder Network. Next, with the further support of Amazon, iPoint, Microsoft and SAGE Group, PACT will be putting in place new technology components, enabling organizations to use the Pathfinder Network to exchange emissions data across their supply chain by end of year – an essential step towards making the joint vision of transparency a reality.
“To decarbonize supply chains, it needs an ecosystem of interoperable solutions to easily exchange product carbon footprint information. We are excited to be part of this ecosystem and to support companies in achieving their sustainability targets.” – Gunther Walden, CEO and Founder of CircularTree
“Our work with WBCSD and the Partnership for Carbon Transparency progresses the ability to identify, measure & track Scope 3 emissions and use technology with process re-engineering to tackle emissions reduction. This is a game-changer.” – Sheri R. Hinish, IBM Consulting Sustainability Services Global Lead
“SAP is very pleased to be one of the first companies to exchange emissions data across technology systems. The success of this pilot represents a big step forward to achieving cross-industry transparency and will enable businesses to make informed decisions for sustainable business outcomes. Sharing sustainable business data across networks is fundamental to our collective success.” – Daniel Schmid, Chief Sustainability Officer of SAP
“Verifiable primary data-based PCF connected along the supply chain enable partners to take action where it’s most efficient. This requires cross-company collaboration and exchange that protects all partners’ full data sovereignty. We are happy to be part of the WBCSD’s landmark initiative with our SiGREEN solution.” – Dr. Gunter Beitinger, Senior Vice President Manufacturing & Head of Product Carbon Footprint/SiGREEN, Siemens AG
"Our collaborative development approach brings Enterprises and IT Solution Providers together to define the necessary technical and non-technical foundations for the network - based on principles of interoperability and open standards. With this agile and use-case centric approach, we reached this important milestone with unprecedented speed.“ – SINE Foundation
