We are excited to announce that the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), supported by McKinsey & Company as its knowledge partner, has reached a major milestone for cross-industry transparency on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accelerating corporate climate accountability. Together with stakeholders from the ecosystem – including iPoint-systems, our innovation hub CircularTree (Member of iPoint Group) as well as IBM, SAP, and Siemens – a first exchange of standardized data was realized using several interoperable technology solutions. This is an important step 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 the Pathfinder 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. “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.”
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. 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. “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,” states Gunther Walden, CEO and founder of CircularTree (Member of iPoint Group).
This first exchange of data sets in stone the foundations for the creation of the Pathfinder Network. Next, with the further support of 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.
Learn more about the latest milestone of WBCSD’s Partnership for Carbon Transparency here.
Read the mission paper of WBCSD's Value Chain Carbon Transparency Pathfinder here.
Access the Pathfinder Framework, a guidance for the calculation and exchange of product-level carbon emissions data across value chains, here.