This season, we at Optera are thankful for all of the companies taking meaningful steps to address climate change and we are thrilled to work with so many businesses leading the charge.
Large corporations hold the key to driving transformative progress in decarbonizing our society. Today, we’re highlighting three of our clients who have dedicated time and effort to understanding and managing their emissions and thanking them — along with all of our clients — for their dedication to reducing their impact on our planet.
Dell: Thank you for addressing supply chain emissions
The global nature of supply chains presents many challenges to measuring and managing Scope 3 emissions. Dell estimates that its scope 3, category 1 emissions comprise about 45% of its overall carbon output, meaning that addressing emissions along its supply chain creates a significant opportunity for them to move the needle on overall reduction efforts.
The Dell team has taken important, foundational steps to address their scope 3 emissions, including tracking and analyzing supplier-specific emissions for over 90% of Dell’s supply chain. This data has illuminated emissions hot spots, allowing them to create concrete, data-backed decarbonization strategies and measure their progress. These insights will help Dell achieve its science-based target of reducing scope 3, category 1 emissions by 45% by 2030.
Read more about Dell’s efforts to tackle supply chain emissions.
Bloomin’ Brands: Thank you for building the foundation for a sustainable future
Like many other companies, Bloomin’ Brands – a restaurant holding company that owns Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, and other restaurant chains– has experienced increased investor and board interest in its environmental sustainability strategy. To address these concerns, the Bloomin’ Brands team made a strategic effort to understand their emissions impact and set realistic targets to reduce those emissions.
Beginning in 2021, they began gathering and analyzing their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions data. Collecting both scope-specific and restaurant-level data empowered the company to build an impactful, actionable, and targeted reduction strategy.
Bloomin’ Brands has made significant progress in reducing emissions by upgrading to more efficient cooking, heating, cooling, and lighting equipment in their restaurants.
Read more about Bloomin’ Brands’ reduction initiatives.
BSR: Thank you for navigating the hurdles of small business emissions reporting
As a small, yet global, service-based organization, BSR faced several hurdles in its efforts to perform its first GHG emissions inventory. Some of the largest hurdles included:
- Little to no emissions reporting guides and regulations designed for small businesses
- Contractors that are individuals or micro-businesses and don’t have the resources to report their own emissions to BSR
- Employing people around the world, who work in a variety of office settings (work from home, coworking spaces, owned offices, and more)
Despite the challenges, the BSR team worked to perform spend-based calculations to understand the scope 3, category 1 emissions coming from its contractors and collected, modeled, and investigated utility data from all of its owned offices, rented spaces, and home offices worldwide.
All of this work enabled BSR to develop a solid foundation for its scope 1, 2, and 3 inventories. Armed with an accurate inventory, the company established a target of reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% and cutting its top emitting scope 3 category by 42% by 2030.
Read more about how BSR established an accurate emissions inventory.
These are just three examples of the progress our partners have made to address their climate impact this year. Check out Optera’s other case studies to see more impactful initiatives. We’re enthusiastic about continuing to work with companies worldwide to build a sustainable future for everyone.
