JBA is committed to taking meaningful action to minimise its climate impacts, with a Group-wide objective to be a Net Zero business by 2030. Sustainability Manager, David Revill explains.
To support our objective, we’ve recently committed to setting science-based emissions reduction targets through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). By joining the SBTi, we ensure that our approach to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is aligned with climate science.
The SBTi is a collaboration between the Carbon Disclosure Project, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Its principal purpose is to identify and promote innovative approaches to setting ambitious and meaningful corporate emissions reduction targets. Targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are considered “science-based” if they are in line with the level of decarbonisation required to keep the increase in global temperatures below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels.
However, we have committed to cutting our emissions further than this. We will align our emissions reduction targets with the most ambitious aim of the Paris Agreement and what climate science suggests is needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
Our targets will cover our company-wide Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and all relevant Scope 3 emissions as required in the GHG Protocol.
We’re currently measuring our full carbon footprint and will publish the outcomes of this work later this year. We’ll use this assessment to develop our ‘Route Map to Net Zero’, which will set out the steps we’ll take to reduce our emissions in line with the 1.5°C emissions scenario. We’ll submit our science-based emissions reduction targets to the SBTi, who will independently assess our targets against its comprehensive science-based criteria.
We recognise that we’re in a climate and ecological emergency and are committed to taking meaningful action to minimise our climate impacts. JBA is responding to the urgent call-to-action for organisations to set ambitious emissions reduction targets in line with a 1.5°C future. This forms a key step towards our ambition to reach net zero emissions by 2030. Aligning our approach with the SBTi criteria ensures we reduce our emissions at a rate and scale that climate science tells us is needed. We’re delighted to join the SBTi and the Race to Zero campaign and look forward to embracing the zero-carbon transformation this will support.
By making this commitment through the SBTi, we have also become part of the Race to Zero, the UN-backed campaign to galvanise cities, regions, companies and other organisations to take immediate action to reduce their emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. The Race to Zero forms part of the forthcoming COP26 conference and is intended to send a clear message to governments that the transition to a decarbonized economy needs urgent actions and has widespread support.
For more information on our commitment to sustainability and achieving Net Zero status, visit JBA's sustainability webpage or email David Revill, JBA Group Sustainability Manager.