Reduce

Prioritizing Scopes 1-3

While every company’s emissions can be broken down into Scopes 1-3, there is a substantial variation in the emissions profile across these Scopes between different industries. Understanding your Scopes 1-3 breakdown can help focus your company’s decarbonization priorities accordingly. Companies typically have substantial control over their Scopes 1 and 2 emissions, but much lower influence over Scope 3 emissions, as it entails working with external partners.

Figure 4: Scopes 1-3 emissions breakdowns by industry. Sources: 2023 CDP Questionnaire; BCG analysis.

See Chapter 2: Measure & Verify.

Understanding decarbonization levers at the company level

In this step, you will learn about options and approaches to reduce your company’s carbon footprint.

1. Decarbonize your own operations

You will explore how companies can abate their Scope 1 and 2 emissions through the nine abatement approaches from Step 1.

2. Address emissions across your supply chain

This section will highlight the significance of Scope 3 emissions and provide an overview of the various stakeholders that influence the various GHG Scope 3 categories.

3. Decarbonize your upstream value chain

Building on an understanding of Scope 3 emissions categories, you will explore how to decrease these emissions by influencing upstream suppliers and businesses, complemented by coordinated internal efforts.

4. Decarbonize your downstream value chain

This section will address how companies can abate their Scope 3 downstream emissions through coordinated internal efforts, and influencing downstream businesses, consumers, and investees and partners.