ASR Group is working diligently to reduce our carbon footprint, and we are proud that our near-term and net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
The SBTi, a third-party corporate climate action organization, helps companies worldwide seeking to combat the climate crisis. The SBTi develops standards, tools and guidance that allow companies to set GHG emissions reductions targets, which according to the SBTi, are in line with what is needed to keep global heating below science-based target levels and reach net-zero by 2050 at the latest.
Our net-zero target approval from the SBTi is a Company-first, displaying our innovation and commitment to having a clear plan to reduce carbon emissions and do our part to protect our planet.
After a rigorous 30-month process to validate our targets for 2030 and 2050, the SBTi recently published its approval of both goals in December, with the addition of our Forest Land and Agriculture (FLAG) objectives validated independently.
“The journey to receive this SBTi approval was a team effort,” said Daryl Sabourin, Senior Director, Sustainability. “Since our program’s inception in 2012, our sustainability framework has grown significantly. We now have dedicated sustainability engineers at each location. This commitment to the world forum via SBTi was made possible by a robust management system, which ensures these goals are accomplished. Our progress highlights our company’s transparency, the high expectations of senior leadership, and the increasing recognition of sustainability’s importance.”
In receiving the net-zero target approval from the SBTi, we joined an exclusive group of the top 7,000 companies worldwide for Scopes 1, 2 and 3 approvals. Scopes 1 and 2 relate to our operations’ direct and indirect emissions and Scope 3 relates to the emissions associated with our value chain.
Additionally, we are among a handful of land/agriculture-based companies to also receive the SBTi’s approval for a FLAG target to achieve decarbonization in land/agriculture management.
Our commitment is to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across the value chain by FY2050. To break it down, the SBTi divided our commitment into near-term and long-term targets.
With SBTi, for the near-term targets, we committed to reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 42% by FY2030 from a FY2022 base year. Further, we committed to reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions 63% by FY2034 from a FY2022 base year. As for the long-term targets, we’ve committed to reducing absolute Scopes 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions 90% by FY2050 from a FY2022 base year.
Slight variations exist between the way we report our SBTi commitments compared to those in our Sustainability Report due to differences in calculation methods and disclosure requirements used by SBTi. Nevertheless, the commitments approved by SBTi remain aligned with our goals to achieve a 50% net reduction in Scopes 1 and 2 emissions from our 2012 baseline; to reach neutrality by 2040; and to attain Net Zero by 2050. Moving forward, we will report our progress against the 2012 baseline in our Sustainability Report and disclose against the new 2022 baseline through carbon accounting platforms.