FEW Organizes event Corporate Net-Zero: Decarbonizing value chains

Corporate Net-Zero: Decarbonizing value chains became the second event organized by Future Energy Week and brought together Sustainability Leads from the world leading companies and 200+ registered attendees.

Among the event’s speakers were representatives of such companies as Novo Nordisk, Signify, Continental AG and AB InBev. Enjoy insights and key quotes here:

“The panel we have brought today is going to put to shame the progress that the energy industry is making, as the panelists have been the world leaders in moving forward with sustainability transformation, which comes from their core values and beliefs. The normal understanding of leadership has long been about hitting financial targets, but it has drastically changed over the last couple of years”, says Stuart Broadley, CEO of the Energy Industries Council.

“We have over 60 thousand suppliers, that’s obviously a lot. When we started our journey with Scope 3 emissions, the first thing we needed was to get our data right, as we needed to know where and how to prioritize our work and also get some learning. So we started to talk to our suppliers by simply asking them to use renewable power whenever they’re supplying to Novo Nordisk and share their data with us. We have set our targets for 2030, so there is still some way to go, but the uptake has been extremely positive. So it’s about being ambitious and bold but it’s also about being a partner to all our suppliers”, says Dorothe Nielsen, Global Head of Sustainability at Novo Nordisk.

“We are going for 100% carbon neutrality along the entire value chain — from the mine to the scrapping of tyres including the use phase; also we need to go for 100% emission free mobility industry, i.e. no harmful emissions, so beyond CO2 the rest of emissions there can’t be any harmful emissions anymore; we have to go for 100 % circularity in our business models and we have to go for 100% responsible value chain — latest by 2050, that’s what we said last year, and we can already see it accelerating… For the huge transformations that are happening we do not only need leadership inside the company, but we also need leadership from investors willing to go that journey, from politicians and governments supporting the transformation, from customers paying for the transformation, because, we have to be honest, some of these transformations cost hell of money”, says Steffen Schwartz-Höfler, Head of Group Sustainability at Continental AG.

“Our purpose ‘Brighter Lights — Better World’ is really our starting point. It also helps when you have leadership driving sustainability, and that’s exactly what our CEO has been doing for years already. Inside the company we have had Zero Waste Challenge, Carbon Neutral Challenge, No Plastic for a Week Challenge, and a lot of other internal engagements. As for the customers, they are really looking for the companies driving sustainability. And new talent also wants to work in a sustainable company. So our purpose has really been helping us in every facet of our business”, says Mairuce Loosschilder, Head of Sustainability at Signify.

“When we set our strategy we quickly realized that we need to mobilize our value chain in order to reach our goals. 87% of our emissions are divided between packaging of all materials, product cooling, our distribution or agricultural practices all of this add up to that 87 % that lies outside of our value chain. Since 2017 we have achieved good results, reducing our emissions by 10,4 percent and in Scope 1 and Scope 2 we have dropped 24,1%. Our key drivers to achieve our goals are collaboration, transparency and progress”, says Virginia Covo, Global Director, Climate Action at AB InBev.

We look forward to continuing this important discussion at our next events.

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