/A massive eighty-five percent of organisations are concerned about reducing their greenhouse gas emissions – but measurement is still a significant roadblock, with only 9% of companies able to quantify their total emissions comprehensively.
These are among the findings of a new survey from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and BCG GAMMA titled “Use AI to Measure Emissions – Exhaustively, Accurately, and Frequently.”
To assess companies’ ability to measure and reduce their emissions, BCG collected and analysed responses from executives at 1 290 organisations across nine major industries worldwide who have full or partial decision-making responsibility in this regard.
The survey found that companies are failing to measure their emissions:
* Exhaustively – 81% of respondents omit some of their internal emissions (those related to the company’s own activities) in their reporting, and 66% of respondents do not report any of their external emissions (those related to the company’s value chain).
* Accurately – respondents estimate an average error rate of 30% to 40% in their emissions measurements.
* Frequently – 53% of respondents say they have difficulty in making and tracking decisions due to infrequent measurements.
* Automatically – 86% of respondents still record and report their emissions manually using spreadsheets, and only 22% of respondents have automated processes.
“When companies aren’t able to understand their baseline emissions levels, how can they expect to track their emissions and set the right targets?” asks Sylvain Duranton, the global leader of BCG GAMMA and a co-author of the survey. “For instance, if they are not collecting and analysing granular data and emissions factors, they can’t expect their measurements to be accurate.
“We worked with a spirits company that was not breaking down and measuring emissions related to their glass bottles by input, such as supplier, colour, materials, or country of origin; when they did, they found emissions were 45% higher than initially measured.”
Eighty-seven percent of the survey respondents want to increase the scope of their reporting, while 66% hope to update their emissions reporting yearly – or even more often. To do so effectively, however, they will require new AI-based tools. Organisations can use these tools in a range of ways, including to automatically ingest and report data, calculate a carbon footprint, run simulations, set targets, manage a global portfolio of abatement initiatives, and more.
“New AI-supported tools can play a crucial role in taking companies to the next level of measurement and reporting and, ultimately, to significant reductions. In fact, our experience shows us that AI can directly enable the reduction of companies’ emissions by as much as 40% through identifying the best initiatives, tracking results, and optimising company operations,” says Charlotte Degot, an MD and partner at BCG and a co-author of the survey.