A new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows that while businesses recognize the need to bring down their greenhouse gas emissions, measuring those emissions remains a challenge, especially when it comes to Scope 3 emissions. The findings were released last week as part of the 2022 CO2 AI by BCG Carbon Emissions Survey.
The report showed only 10% of the companies measured their emissions comprehensively (scope 1,2,3) in 2022. This is a slightly better result than last year’s 9%. The survey respondents also said they estimate an average error rate of 25-30% in their emissions measurements. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project, 92% of all emissions are scope 3, yet only 12% of those surveyed by BCG said they consider scope 3 to be their top priority.
“These measurements are crucial to helping companies work towards their net-zero goals,” said Charlotte Degot, founder and global leader of CO2 AI by BCG. “And they need to be supported by digital tools that help them achieve accuracy and comprehensiveness, which helps decision making for reduction.”
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This year’s results indicate that the better a company is at measuring its emissions, the better it would be at reducing them. 64% of the businesses that measure the full scope of their emissions and 45% of those who partially measure them saw a great reduction in their emissions between 2021 and 2022.
What is more, over 70% of the respondents said they expect at least $1 million in annual benefits from their emissions reductions, and 37% calculated benefits of $100 million or more. The companies also saw other benefits such as improved reputation and being able to attract top talent.
BCG surveyed over 1,600 organizations with 1,000+ employees and revenues in the range between $100 million and over $10 billion—across 14 industries and 18 countries. These organizations together are responsible for over 40% of global emissions.
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