Emerson – Emerson Releases 2023 Sustainability Report

EMR Analysis

More information on Emerson: See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

More information on Lal Karsanbhai (President and Chief Executive Officer, Emerson): See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

More information on Michael Train (Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Emerson): See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

More information on the Emerson Sustainability Strategy and Sustainability Report 2023: See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

 

More information on Net Zero by 2050 by the United Nations: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/net-zero-coalition + Put simply, net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests for instance.

Currently, the Earth is already about 1.1°C warmer than it was in the late 1800s, and emissions continue to rise. To keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C  – as called for in the Paris Agreement – emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

More than 140 countries, including the biggest polluters – China, the United States, India and the European Union – have set a net-zero target, covering about 88% of global emissions. More than 9,000 companies, over 1000 cities, more than 1000 educational institutions, and over 600 financial institutions have joined the Race to Zero, pledging to take rigorous, immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030.

 

More information on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): https://www.epa.gov/ + The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. 

The agency was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia with ten additional regional headquarters offices (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle) as well as more than a dozen laboratories, and other regional and programmatic offices.

The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment.

EPA works to ensure that:

• Americans have clean air, land and water;
• National efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information;
• Federal laws protecting human health and the environment are administered and enforced fairly, effectively and as Congress intended;
• Environmental stewardship is integral to U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy;
• All parts of society–communities, individuals, businesses, and state, local and tribal governments–have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks;
• Contaminated lands and toxic sites are cleaned up by potentially responsible parties and revitalized; and
• Chemicals in the marketplace are reviewed for safety.

More information on Michael S. Regan (Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency): https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-administrator + https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelreg/ 

More information on ENERGY STAR® by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): https://www.energystar.gov/ + ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency. The blue ENERGY STAR label provides simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions.

A Public-Private Partnership: ENERGY STAR is administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Thousands of organizations—including nearly 40% of the Fortune 500®—partner with ENERGY STAR. Together with EPA, they deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions that protect the climate, improve air quality, and protect public health.

Real-World Impacts:Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners have helped American families and businesses:

• Save 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity.
• Avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs.
• Achieve 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions.

 

More information on the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): https://www.cdp.net/en + CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. The world’s economy looks to CDP as the gold standard of environmental reporting with the richest and most comprehensive dataset on corporate and city action.

In 2021 we launched our new five-year strategy: Accelerating the Rate of Change.

CDP runs the global environmental disclosure system. Each year CDP supports thousands of companies, cities, states and regions to measure and manage their risks and opportunities on climate change, water security and deforestation. We do so at the request of their investors, purchasers and city stakeholders.

• 746 investors with over US$136 trillion in assets requested companies disclose through CDP on climate change, water security and forests
• Over 330+ major buyers, with a combined purchasing power of US$6.4 trillion asked their suppliers to disclose through CDP
• Over 23,000 companies representing two thirds of global market capitalization reported through CDP on climate change, water security and forests
• Over 1,100 cities, states and regions disclosed environmental information through CDP

More information on Sherry Madera (Chief Executive Officer, CDP): https://www.cdp.net/en/info/staff + https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherrymadera/ 

 

More information on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/ + Forbes Media is a global media, branding and technology company, with a focus on news and information about business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership and affluent lifestyles. The company publishes Forbes, Forbes Asia, and Forbes Europe magazines as well as Forbes.com. The Forbes brand today reaches more than 94 million people worldwide with its business message each month through its magazines and 37 licensed local editions around the globe, Forbes.com, TV, conferences, research, social and mobile platforms. Forbes Media’s brand extensions include conferences, real estate, education, financial services, and technology license agreements.

More information on Michael Federle (Chief Executive Officer, Forbes): https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikefederle/ + https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfederle/ 

 

 

 

 

EMR Additional Notes: 

• ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance):
  • Refers to the three key factors when measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a business or company. Most socially responsible investors check companies out using ESG criteria to screen investments.
  • ESG metrics are not commonly part of mandatory financial reporting, though companies are increasingly making disclosures in their annual report or in a standalone sustainability report.
  • There is not a standardized approach to the calculation or presentation of different ESG metrics.
    • Environmental: Conservation of the natural world
      • Climate change and carbon emissions
      • Air and water pollution
      • Biodiversity
      • Deforestation
      • Energy efficiency
      • Waste management
      • Water scarcity
      • …
    • Social: Consideration of people & relationships
      • Customer satisfaction
      • Data protection and privacy
      • Gender and diversity
      • Employee engagement
      • Community relations
      • Human rights
      • Labor standards
      • …
    • Governance: Standards for running a company
      • Board composition
      • Audit committee structure
      • Bribery and corruption
      • Executive compensation
      • Lobbying
      • Political contributions
      • Whistleblower schemes
      • …
         
  • Criteria are of increasing interest to companies, their investors and other stakeholders. With growing concern about he ethical status of quoted companies, these standards are the central factors that measure the ethical impact and sustainability of investment in a company.
  • Consequently, ESG analysis considers how companies serve society and how this impacts their current and future performance.
• CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility):
  • Framework or business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public.
  • The purpose of CSR is to give back to the community, take part in philanthropic causes, and provide positive social value. Businesses are increasingly turning to CSR to make a difference and build a positive brand around their company.
  • CSR tends to target opinion formers – politicians, pressure groups, media. Sustainability targets here the whole value chain – from suppliers to operations to partners to end-consumers.
• CSR vs. ESG:
  • CSR is a company’s framework of sustainability plans and responsible cultural influence, whereas ESG is the assessable outcome concerning a company’s overall sustainability performance.
  • The major difference between them is that CSR is a business model used by individual companies, while ESG is a criteria that investors use to assess a company and determine if they are worth investing in.

 

• Global Warming: 
  • Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere.
• Global Warming Potential (GWP): 
  • The heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide (CO2). GWP is 1 for CO2. For other gases it depends on the gas and the time frame.
  • Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e or CO2eq or CO2-e) is calculated from GWP. For any gas, it is the mass of CO2 which would warm the earth as much as the mass of that gas. Thus it provides a common scale for measuring the climate effects of different gases. It is calculated as GWP times mass of the other gas. For example, if a gas has GWP of 100, two tonnes of the gas have CO2e of 200 tonnes.
  • GWP was developed to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases.
• Greenhouse Gas (GHG):
  • A greenhouse gas is any gaseous compound in the atmosphere that is capable of absorbing infrared radiation, thereby trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere. By increasing the heat in the atmosphere, greenhouse gases are responsible for the greenhouse effect, which ultimately leads to global warming.
  • The main gases responsible for the greenhouse effect include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor (which all occur naturally), and fluorinated gases (which are synthetic).

• GHG Protocol Corporate Standard Scope 1, 2 and 3: https://ghgprotocol.org/ + The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard provides requirements and guidance for companies and other organizations preparing a corporate-level GHG emissions inventory. Scope 1 and 2 are mandatory to report, whereas scope 3 is voluntary and the hardest to monitor.
  • Scope 1: Direct emissions:
    • Direct emissions from company-owned and controlled resources. In other words, emissions are released into the atmosphere as a direct result of a set of activities, at a firm level. It is divided into four categories:
      • Stationary combustion (e.g fuels, heating sources). All fuels that produce GHG emissions must be included in scope 1.
      • Mobile combustion is all vehicles owned or controlled by a firm, burning fuel (e.g. cars, vans, trucks). The increasing use of “electric” vehicles (EVs), means that some of the organisation fleets could fall into Scope 2 emissions.
      • Fugitive emissions are leaks from greenhouse gases (e.g. refrigeration, air conditioning units). It is important to note that refrigerant gases are a thousand times more dangerous than CO2 emissions. Companies are encouraged to report these emissions.
      • Process emissions are released during industrial processes, and on-site manufacturing (e.g. production of CO2 during cement manufacturing, factory fumes, chemicals).
  • Scope 2: Indirect emissions – owned:
    • Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, from a utility provider. In other words, all GHG emissions released in the atmosphere, from the consumption of purchased electricity, steam, heat and cooling. For most organisations, electricity will be the unique source of scope 2 emissions. Simply stated, the energy consumed falls into two scopes: Scope 2 covers the electricity consumed by the end-user. Scope 3 covers the energy used by the utilities during transmission and distribution (T&D losses).
  • Scope 3: Indirect emissions – not owned:
    • Indirect emissions – not included in scope 2 – that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions. In other words, emissions are linked to the company’s operations. According to GHG protocol, scope 3 emissions are separated into 15 categories.