Advice

Advice

What is the Corporate Carbon Footprint?

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Supply chains are changing! Corporate activities are now more environmentally friendly than ever before. In this sense, the Corporate Carbon Footprint concept has come to the fore in recent years. But what exactly is Corporate Carbon Footprint? Take the first step towards tackling climate change! Calculating the Corporate Carbon Footprint is often considered as the first step in companies before taking steps against global warming. Because it is possible to set an efficient and realistic target only if the carbon footprint is calculated. Corporate Carbon Footprint provides a comprehensive evaluation of all direct and indirect carbon emissions in your company. Corporate Carbon Footprint offers many benefits to your company. It allows to identify and mitigate climate change risks. Potential energy saving ways can be identified. It is also an important factor for corporate image. Moreover, besides all these, it can provide new business areas and collaborations. Today, Corporate Carbon Footprint has become a necessity for many agreements and projects. It is an important criterion taken into account by stakeholders, investors, and customers. How to calculate your company’s carbon footprint There are several standards for calculation. The carbon footprint of a company is completed by following these standards. The most widely used of these standards is the GHG Protocol. Basically, the data is evaluated in three main scopes: As can be seen from the scope categories, all activities in the supply chain are taken into account. The data is collected with the specific determination of the scope categories. Emission factors are determined with computer programs in accordance with the relevant standard. The study should be done specifically according to the limits of the supply chain and the organizational structure. After the Corporate Carbon Footprint is calculated, targets are set on a company basis. Obtained data enable the establishment of institutional strategies to combat the negative effects of climate change. Take action today! Measuring your company’s carbon footprint now will also make it easier to comply with legal obligations that may be encountered in the coming years. Preparing your supply chain towards zero emissions will bring many benefits to your company. *Cover Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash  

Advice

Sustainable Business Models and Bike-sharing Systems

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  Bicycles: the symbol of sustainable cities Cities around the world have been undergoing a change in recent years. Cities are turning into more sustainable living spaces. One of the main drivers of this situation is the effects of climate change. Cities and climate change are interrelated in many ways. According to an OECD report published in 2020, urban areas are responsible for 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and one third of greenhouse gas emissions in major cities is generated by transportation. This makes it essential to offer more sustainable transportation options in urban areas. Among sustainable transportation systems, bike sharing is an alternative that has gained importance especially in recent years at a global scale. The most important reason for this is the potential that bike sharing systems offer for cities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Shared bicycle systems offer many benefits, from creating new job opportunities to creating healthy lifestyles. Thus, they contribute to many Sustainable Development Goals at the same time. Is it always sustainable? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The lack of sustainable business plans leads to many problems. An example of this situation has been seen in China. For many years, bike sharing companies in China have increased the number of bicycles on the streets in order to have a greater share in the market. However, some of these companies had to go bankrupt due to competitive market conditions. As a result of this, the bikes of the bankrupt company become unusable and generate waste. The video below highlights the enormity of the waste bike problem. No Place To Place – The Wonders of Shared Bicycle Graveyards in China by Guoyong Wu The solution: Sustainable Business Models Shared bike companies without the right business plan harm every aspect of sustainable development. In addition to the damage caused by the enormous amount of waste bicycles to nature, there are also economic and social damages. What needs to be done to overcome these problems is that the sharing bike companies establish their business models in a sustainable way. Shared bike companies established with sustainable business models will contribute to revealing the potential of sustainable transportation. The shared bike system is a business line within the sharing economy. While creating business models, the value network should be prepared in this context. Local socio-economic conditions should also be taken into account. A business model that will be created by evaluating all natural, social, and economic conditions will provide optimum profit to the stakeholders. Today, many shared bike companies are starting to develop ideas for the end-of-life stage of bicycles. Many companies are already publishing sustainability reports and presenting their contribution to sustainability in their operations. The spread of this situation around the world will make a significant contribution to achieving the goal of sustainable cities. *Cover photo by Stéphane Mingot on Unsplash

Advice

Changing the Linear Economy to Circular

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The scarcity of resources, global warming and the increasing production of waste force us to look differently at the established economic growth model. The circular economy aims to correct this distortion of the economic model, where it is prioritized for materials to remain in the economy for as long as possible, avoiding the extraction of resources again from nature, making them available for future generations.   There are several strategies to convert the linear economy into a circular economy. Today we present the standards already published to promote the circular economy: BS 8001:2017 and XP X30-901:2018.   BS 8001: 2017 – Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations – Guide This standard was published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) in 2017 and aims to be a guide for organizations that want to implement best practices in resource management, resulting in economic, environmental and social benefits. The six basic principles of the circular economy defined by the standard are: The BS 8001:2017 standard aims to promote the circular economy in organizations through an eight-stage process, which includes the development of the business model, with its prototype and implementation. However, the standard does not intend to grant any certification that the business model is a circular economy model, and does not include review by an external entity, which may limit the creation of circular business models.   XP X30-901:2018 – Circular economy project management system – Requirements and guidelines This standard was published by the Association Française de Normalization (AFNOR) in 2018 and also aims to be a guide for the creation of circular business models, with a small difference: it takes into account the three pillars of sustainable development: economy, environment and society. The circular economy approach included in this standard is divided into seven areas of action: sustainable sourcing, ecological design, industrial symbiosis, functional economy, responsible consumption, useful life extension and effective management of end-of-life materials and products.  Unlike the BS 8001:2017 standard, the XP X30-901 standard aims to certify organizations that want to develop circular business models. ISO standard – coming soon ISO has created the ISO/TC 323 – Circular Economy working group dedicated to developing standards on the circular economy in organizations. To date, the following are under development: This is another topic covered by Plan4Sustain. If you want to learn more about this topic, contact us.  *Cover photo by Raphael Schaller on Unsplash