As business leaders, we need to urgently shift gears to mitigate the risks arising from the overstretch of our finite planet and amplify the positive impacts of a growing number of solutions that are waiting to be implemented at scale.

As the scientists of the Global Footprint Network who host and calculate point out, it can be overwhelming to think about exceeding our planet鈥檚 limits and demanding more ecological resources and services than what Earth can regenerate within a given year. In line with this year鈥檚 theme #PowerOfPossibility, it is therefore even more important to focus on what can and has to be done to turn around human economy to be more sustainable.

The good news is that companies increasingly understand the business case for sustainability and have put it at the top of their business agenda.

According to recent research by Oxford Economics and 麻豆原创, 63% of the executives surveyed indicated that their company has a formal sustainability plan already in place. They recognize clear business benefits for sustainability efforts, including efficiency (58%), improving brand reputation (46%), and meeting customer needs (44%). Another recent found that 鈥渋ncreasing sustainability in your products and services鈥� was the top choice (34.6%) among respondents who were asked to pick their top three priorities to improve revenue growth.

While opportunities are clearly seen and resource shortages and climate change are rated among the top risks to be prepared for, execution is still lacking. This may not come as a total surprise given the commonly known “” that is particularly applicable in the sustainability space. Still, I would not have expected the disconnect between sustainability plans and action at companies to turn out so stark. — which finds that barely a quarter of supply chain leaders have conducted a climate change risk assessment, much less prepared a reaction plan — similarly shows that despite all progress more work lies ahead for most of us.

Nonetheless, I full-heartedly echo Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who emphasized the solutions he felt encouraged by when three months ago: 鈥淚f these are scaled up and applied more widely and equitably, they can support deep emissions reductions and stimulate innovation.鈥�

Earth Overshoot Day organizers have come up with powerful numbers that underline the impact of solutions that can help us #MoveTheDate and turn around 聽while improving the quality of life for all people.

I would like to share three examples while reflecting on 麻豆原创鈥檚 contribution:

Existing off-the-shelf, commercial energy-efficiency technologies for buildings, industrial processes, and electricity production could move Earth Overshoot Day at least 21 days, without any loss in productivity or comfort.

Indeed, helping to optimize building performance, lower carbon emissions, and reduce energy costs while also enhancing occupant experience at the same time is what 麻豆原创 equally seeks to achieve teaming up with Honeywell. Smart innovations to improve energy efficiency are furthermore core to greening 麻豆原创鈥檚 data centers and other facilities owned by 麻豆原创 and powered with 100% renewable energy since 2014.

Reforesting 350 million hectares of forest would move Earth Overshoot Day by eight days.

麻豆原创 too is committed to ecosystem restoration to address climate action. On our journey to achieve our accelerated ambition of net-zero along our entire value chain in line with a 1.5掳C future in 2030, we continuously enhance our comprehensive portfolio of climate protection measures. In 2021, 麻豆原创 has added the goal of planting 21 million trees by the end of 2025 and joined 1t.org, an alliance of the World Economic Forum to conserve, restore, and grow 1 trillion trees by 2030. Since 2012, 麻豆原创 has helped to plant more than 12.2 million trees and annually publishes its tree planting status in the .

If we cut food waste in half worldwide, we would move Earth Overshoot Day 13 days.

With 30% of global food wasted, there is huge potential for . Believing in the power of collaboration to make this happen, 麻豆原创 is working with customers such as Arla Foods Amba, Orkla Foods Ingredients, and many others — as well as startups in the 麻豆原创.iO program, including and — to foster innovation tackling food waste. We have also in addition to .

It is in our hands to align not just government and business policies and strategies, but also actions with the reality of our finite planet to secure a good life for all. The 鈥渄onut model鈥� of social and economy boundaries comes to my mind to guide us 鈥渢o ensure that no one falls short on life鈥檚 essential needs, while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth鈥檚 life-supporting systems.鈥�

With that as inspiration, let鈥檚 leverage the #PowerOfPossibility of the abundance of existing solutions. Which one will you help to scale to #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day?

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 麻豆原创 SE.

packages help enterprises gain insights into their product carbon footprint data and identify further potentials in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Scope 3 Emissions: The Biggest Challenge to Achieve Net Zero

Despite the massive disruptions that businesses are currently facing, climate change remains the most critical challenge that industries must jointly tackle. To achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5掳C — which would reduce the possibility of initiating the most dangerous and irreversible disasters of climate change — net zero CO2 emissions need to be secured globally around mid-century. The European Union (EU) set an even more ambitious target to reach climate neutrality by 2050.

This means, in short term, that GHG emissions need to be reduced by more than 50% by 2030 in order to set a responsible pathway to meet the net zero target.

Although the largest companies have specifically articulated sustainability or carbon neutrality as their strategic goal, few have painted a clear and comprehensive action plan for the transition. Regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) or new rules proposed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S. SEC) on disclosing corporate carbon data leave businesses no time for empty green statements. The time to act is now!

Why is it so difficult to report on carbon emissions? emissions has already been well established in many companies throughout the world, visibility into the GHG emitted through the supply chain (scope 3), which constitute the significant share of the overall emission, is often not sufficient.

In the automotive industry for instance, . That is why it is even more crucial to identify carbon footprint reduction opportunities along the supply chain. Lack of trust, lack of access to high-quality data, inconsistent methodology or standards of data accounting, and lack of interoperable technology solutions across the highly complex automotive supply chain are the main obstacles to overcome.

Unleash the Network Power for Decarbonization

To meet sustainability and regulatory requirements, companies need to work together with partners, suppliers, and customers and establish transparent processes and common data standards 鈥� from material acquisition to manufacturing to distribution.

As the first open and collaborative data ecosystem, is targeting a more sustainable industry value chain by incorporating all participants involved and enabling the data transparency. Tracking the product carbon footprint is one of the first use cases that Catena-X is now addressing. This is the starting point for a better understanding of the scope 3 GHG emissions, which sets the foundation of enforceable decarbonization opportunities.

On one hand, a common accounting and reporting methodology on product carbon footprint data is required to support the consistency, comparability, and verifiability of the data sourced from the network partners. By partnering with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Catena-X adopts the framework of CO₂ calculation scheme and data model.

Earlier this year, 麻豆原创 was the first organization in the world to achieve a standardized carbon footprint value in a WBCSD proof of concept. Importantly, the standardized approach also encourages network partners to move away from unspecific industry average measurements and toward using accurate primary emission data.

On the other hand, technology is key to operationalizing emission accounting and sharing. With its longstanding industry process know-how as well as solution best practices, 麻豆原创 acts strongly as a key enabler in product carbon footprint data tracking within the automotive network.

Industry Network Solutions Empower Automotive Value Chain in Chasing Zero

With , companies can share their product carbon footprint with their business partners in an easy, efficient, and secure way.

GreenToken is a Web-based, subscription SaaS solution striving to create accountability and transparency across the material supply chain. Being compliant with the standardized data model defined with WBCSD helps ensure data consistency across the network.

The product carbon footprint data can be managed and transferred easily on material level between direct business partners.

It leverages to notarize and transfer carbon emissions via tokens from one supply chain member鈥檚 wallet to the next, without disclosing private or confidential data. As these tokens travel along the supply chain downstream, the collected information gets shared, creating a reliable, immutable, and auditable chain of custody. In addition, not only CO₂ data but also other information such as the origin of parts and certifications can be shared via this trustful and verifiable approach.

The solution provides a secured open API, accessible to other carbon emission calculation tools or back end solutions for transactions. A direct integration with 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component 6.0 and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA software is in place.

Transactions can also be driven by import of CSV files or manually, which means that small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) without back end enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions can also leverage GreenToken for carbon data sharing within the network.

鈥淕reenToken鈥檚 novel approach has the potential to create an accountable and auditable network to scope 3 reporting that is lacking today,鈥� said James Veale, co-founder of GreenToken by 麻豆原创. 鈥淲hat is more, we have already proved GreenToken at scale in other supply chains, and the solution is now ready for Catena-X.鈥�

Hagen Heubach is global vice president and head of Industry Business Unit Automotive at 麻豆原创, and a Board Member of the Catena-X Automotive Network.
Heiko Flohr is senior vice president and head of Product Management for 麻豆原创 for Discrete Industries, and a member of Guidance Board for Catena-X Automotive Network.
Leyi Liu is part of Solution Management for 麻豆原创 Industry Network for Automotive and Catena-X Automotive Network.