Work

To what extent are circular economy strategies accounted in science-based targets for carbon emission reduction?

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Following the Paris Agreement, renewed carbon mitigation efforts have been advanced by engaging the global corporate sector towards active leadership to stabilize global atmospheric temperatures. The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) organizational partnership is now recognized as a central vector to promote absolute or Science-Based (SB) Paris-aligned emission targets for the corporate sector. By establishing specific SB targets that each individual company or sector can achieve, SBTi allows them to voluntarily engage and recognize carbon reduction efforts. Following the SBTi procedure, companies shall account for their carbon emissions according to a base year and set up ambitious SB targets to reduce their emission over time. Until now, SBTi has attracted nearly 7500 companies in more than 50 sectors accounting for a volume of 53 million tons of CO2e reduction commitments and is further attracting many more companies. However, there is now an urgent research need to understand how and in which modalities companies can realistically and credibly achieve their SBTi targets. Implementing circular economy (CE) strategies, such as recirculation of products/parts (e.g., reuse, repair, remanufacture) via long-life products or new business models, or recycling measures are highly promising to achieve the SBTi targets. Nevertheless, current approaches for calculating CE carbon reduction potentials and accounting for their performance along companies’ SBTi journey are not comprehensively represented. This paper provides a critical evaluation of the approaches for calculating carbon reduction performances for CE strategies to investigate the existence of a viable method for manufacturing companies (in particular non-energy intensive) to account for their CE strategies' performance to achieve SBTi targets. Our results show that while the GHG Protocol provides several methodologies, a few CE strategies remain uncovered. We provide several robust argumentations for the present need to better incorporate CE into the methodological layout for manufacturing companies engaged in SBTi.

Source: Computers & Industrial Engineering

DOI: 10.1016/j.cie.2024.110594

Authors: Michele Marini, Daniela C.A. Pigosso, Marina Pieroni, Tim C. McAloone

Institution: Technical University of Denmark

Language: English

Topic: Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,440