The life of a company’s chief sustainability officer is not easy. She needs to not just convince the various departments in the business to take actions that will reduce emissions, but also convince the Treasury to fund those activities.
Alas, the top standard-setting body, the Science-Based Targets initiative , has an idea – laid out in a new report, Above and Beyond – that provides credibility at a more affordable price. SBTi sets a new strategy to help the world get on track to meet climate goals.Step one for a company is to set out a net-zero plan and get it verified by SBTi. More than 4 000 firms have already done that. Step two is to apply a carbon fee to the company’s current emissions.
There is at least one company that takes it all the way to the carbon swear jar idea. Since 2012, Microsoft has charged itself a carbon fee for its emissions. The process works by calculating the carbon dioxide that was generated by a business unit in one year, then multiplying that with a carbon price. Microsoft has said for something like business travel this could be as high as $100 a metric ton.