The Worldwide Group for Standardization (ISO) and Greenhouse Gasoline (GHG) Protocol plan to “harmonize” their frameworks for emissions accounting and reporting, a transfer greeted with enthusiasm by professionals answerable for voluntary company disclosure.
The strategic partnership disclosed Sept. 9 by the 2 well-known worldwide requirements organizations seeks to unify the approaches utilized in ISO’s 1406X collection of requirements for managing greenhouse fuel emissions inventories and product carbon footprints with GHG Protocol’s guidelines for a way firms put together statements for annual ESG and environmental studies.
GHG Protocol’s tips are utilized by 97 p.c of all firms that report. ISO, which represents 170 worldwide requirements our bodies, has greater than 25,000 requirements, together with round 600 processes associated to vitality, supplies reuse and areas core to company local weather motion.
The online impact of the brand new relationship will probably be to standardize how sure classes are outlined throughout the frameworks for simpler comparability. The partnership doesn’t apply to current requirements. New tips will finally exchange them.
“Traders want constant, dependable knowledge to deploy capital successfully within the transition to a low-carbon financial system,” stated Clara Barby, senior associate at funding agency Simply Local weather. “Collectively, ISO and GHG Protocol can present coherent protocols as the idea for disclosure areas globally, providing the credibility and ease the market wants.”
Deeper relationship
The 2 organizations have already been collaborating. ISO’s forthcoming net-zero customary, anticipated in late 2025, makes use of GHG Protocol’s definitions for its reference supplies about the way to take into account emissions for Scope 1 (operational), Scope 2 (energy-related) and Scope 3 (upstream and downstream impacts). ISO and GHG Protocol are additionally aligning how they take into account claims about carbon neutrality.
Present technical work at every group will proceed — each ISO and GHG Protocol are getting ready massive requirements overhauls in 2025 — however governance groups are being requested to think about the harmonization course of throughout that work, based on an ISO spokesperson.
No timeline was given for the work, however sustainability marketing consultant Andrew Griffiths, who’s concerned with the ISO net-zero customary working group as co-founder of the Carbon Accounting Alliance, prompt it could take at the least 18-24 months for the organizations to publish mixed requirements.
There will probably be loads of troublesome negotiations forward, stated Griffiths in a LinkedIn replace in regards to the partnership that was reposted greater than 120 instances by sustainability professionals, most of whom have been enthusiastic.
The ISO-GHG Protocol partnership will probably be “transformative, bringing better price financial savings, efficiencies and interoperability to a market crying out for simply this,” he stated. “It’s essentially a good suggestion, and it’d be a dereliction of obligation if we didn’t severely attempt to make this occur in the absolute best manner.”
The 2 organizations will stay absolutely unbiased of their governance and decision-making processes, the ISO spokesperson stated.
The settlement doesn’t explicitly embrace the Science Based mostly Targets initiative, which has been consulting with each ISO and GHG Protocol on the overhaul of its company net-zero customary.
