## 2.2 Key sustainability frameworks and initiatives

The ecosystem of climate- and sustainability-related frameworks and initiatives has grown significantly over the past few years. In this section, we are providing an overview of selected key frameworks and initiatives that you will likely come across during your net-zero journey.


### Greenhouse Gas Protocol

Mission: Develop internationally accepted, harmonized GHG accounting and reporting standards for businesses.Adoption: Widespread adoption across emission frameworks (9 out of 10 Fortune 500 companies use it).The Greenhouse Gas Protocol has been created by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBSCD). It has developed a set of standardized frameworks for GHG emissions, such as the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, providing the accounting platform for virtually every GHG reporting program worldwide, including GRI, SBTi, TCFD, and CDP. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol also provides a comprehensive offering of guidance documents, calculation tools, and training courses for emissions measurement and management.

[Link](https://ghgprotocol.org/)


### GRI

Mission: Help businesses, governments and others to measure & manage impact on issues such as climate change, human rights, etc.Adoption: Most widely used sustainability reporting standard: 67% of Fortune Global 500 reported using GRI as of 2021.The GRI provides standards for reporting an organization’s impact on the economy, environment, and people. The GRI Standards are segmented into three series of standards: the GRI Universal Standards (applying to all organizations preparing a GRI-aligned sustainability report), the GRI Sector Standards (e.g. GRI 11 oil and gas), and the GRI Topic Standards (e.g. GRI 305 for emissions). The GRI sector and topic standards contain recommended disclosures and metrics for specific sectors and material sectors.

[Link](https://www.globalreporting.org/)


### IFRS

Mission: Create sustainability-related financial reporting standards catered to meet investors' needs.Adoption: Once finalized, fast route to adoption in several countries likely (e.g., UK or Singapore).The IFRS provides a reporting and disclosure framework to ensure companies can provide sustainability-related information alongside financial statements. The disclosure standards builds on the four TCFD pillars but entails more detail and requirements for climate reporting than TCFD. GRI and the ISSB have also coordinated their standard-setting activities; ISSB provides investor-focused standards while GRI adopts a multi-stakeholder perspective.As of June 2023, two IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards have been issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB): IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures. Further standards are expected to be released to provide a more comprehensive ESG framework.

[Link](https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/ifrs-sustainability-standards-navigator/)


### TCFD

Mission: Develop climate-related financial risk disclosure framework for companies, catering to the investment community.Adoption: Underlying standard for climate-related reporting in multiple jurisdictions (e.g., UK) and other standards (e.g., ISSB).The TCFD framework provides recommendations and guidelines for more effective climate-related disclosures, that can be included in mainstream financial filings. Core elements of the framework include governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Of these four core elements, TCFD provides 11 disclosure recommendations in total.From
2024, IFRS has transferred TCFD's monitoring responsibilities to ISSB. For more
information, read here.

[Link](https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/recommendations/)


### TPT

Mission: Provide a “gold standard” for transition disclosure, and thereby address the varying detail and quality of existing corporate transition plans.Adoption: To be adopted in the UK, with the goal to be adopted in other jurisdictions as well.Transition plans describe a company’s plan for the net-zero transition. The Transition Plan Taskforce offers a Disclosure Framework, which can be found here, as well as a supporting Implementation Guide here. TPT recommendations are structured around five elements: foundation, implementation strategy, engagement strategy, metrics and targets, and governance. The metrics and target disclosure element requires absolute Scope 1-3 GHG emissions, Scope 1-3 reduction targets, and intensity measures.

[Link](https://transitiontaskforce.net/)


### CDP

Mission: Develop disclosure system with annual submission cycles to measure & manage environmental impacts.Adoption: As of 02/2023, 18,000+ companies and 1,100+ local governments disclose through CDP (world’s largest climate disclosure system).The CDP is a global disclosure and rating system to manage environmental impacts. The core elements of the CDP questionnaire structure are governance, strategy, risks and opportunities, and metrics and targets. The CDP climate change questionnaire translates TCFD recommendations into disclosure questions and a standardized annual format, i.e., the CDP disclosure platform provides a mechanism to report in line with the TCFD recommendations. The CDP also provides support at each stage of the disclosure journey through guidance documents and other supporting materials, which can be referenced here.

[Link](https://www.cdp.net/en/guidance/guidance-for-companies)


### The SME Climate Hub

The SME Climate Hub is a global initiative to empower small to medium-sized companies to take climate action. The Climate Hub bridges the gap between corporations and SMEs by providing a pathway to reduce SME emissions.The Climate Hub’s SME Climate Commitment encourages SMEs to commit to climate action through three asks: 1) to halve greenhouse gas emissions before 2030, 2) achieve net-zero emissions before 2050, and 3) disclose their progress every year. The Climate Hub also offers a free carbon calculator, the ClimateFit course on how to reduce emissions, and additional support resources. For more free tools and resources for SMEs, refer to the SME Climate Hub. The SME Climate Hub is an initiative founded by the International Chamber of Commerce, The Exponential Roadmap Initiative, the We Mean Business Coalition and the UNFCCC Race to Zero campaign.

[Link](https://smeclimatehub.org/)


## The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) drives ambitious corporate climate action by enabling businesses and financial institutions globally to set science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.It was formed as a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the We Mean Business Coalition. The SBTi’s goal is to enable companies worldwide to do what climate science requires of the global economy: to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero before 2050.The SBTi develops criteria and provides tools and guidance to enable businesses and financial institutions to set GHG emissions reduction targets in line with what science tells us is needed to keep global heating below 1.5°C. Please refer to the SBTi website here.


### Sectoral Decarbonization Approach (SDA)

The SBTi develops sector-specific decarbonization pathways and targets that take the sectors’ ability to decarbonize into account (i.e., the Sectoral Decarbonization Approach, SDA). The SDA allows companies in specific sectors to align their emissions reduction targets with a 1.5°C-aligned pathway according to their industry carbon budget. The SDA looks at high-emitting sectors that have well-defined activities and physical intensity data, including road transportation, aviation, the generation of electricity or the production of basic materials like cement. These activity-specific metrics reflect the different pace at which different sectors and economic activities decarbonize, including activities that decarbonize faster than the global average (e.g. power generation) or others that decarbonize at a slower pace (e.g. cement production). The SBTi clearly defines the SDA and companies that should use the method here. Alternative names for the SDA include the physical intensity convergence or sector-specific intensity convergence.


### Absolute Contraction Approach (ACA)

The Absolute Contraction Approach (ACA) is also referred to as the cross-sector absolute reduction method. It requires companies setting targets to deliver absolute emissions reductions at the rate required to keep global warming under 1.5°C, irrespective of initial emissions performance. The ACA can be used by any company besides those in the power generation, maritime transport, and forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) sectors. Most companies setting science-based targets choose the ACA to set targets limiting global warming to 1.5°C. For further information on the ACA, refer to SBTi corporate manuel here. To learn which methodology your company should use, reference p. 3 of the SBTi introductory guide here.


## Guidance on emissions factors

Emissions factors play a pivotal role in the conversion of activity data into emissions values, and serve as an essential tool for corporate baselining, abatement analysis, or other relevant activities within your organization. Typically, emissions factors are derived by gathering data from empirical lab-based studies (such as energy produced from the combustion of natural gas), utilizing results from industrial tests (e.g., average drive cycles by vehicle class), or deploying real-world information (i.e., data obtained from airlines on fuel consumption per flight). As such, emissions are calculated as a direct product of activity and the corresponding emission factor. Several emission factor databases exist, encompassing both freely accessible and paid options. Below is an overview of the selected databases.