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Ricardo supports global home improvement retail sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
12 Jun 2024
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Corporate sustainability and decarbonisation expertise by Ricardo has enabled the global trade bodies for home improvement retailers - EDRA/GHIN - to announce that they are setting Scope 3 carbon emissions targets for the global home improvement retail sector. The ground-breaking Scope 3 emissions reduction strategy and roadmap has been unveiled at the Global DIY summit in Rome, Italy on 12 June 2024.
EDRA/GHIN is the voice for the home improvement industry globally, representing the entire spectrum of the home improvement industry: from local corner shops to digital players to big box retailers. EDRA/GHIN represents 229 home improvement companies operating over 34,000 stores in 78 countries. Member companies including Kingfisher, Screwfix and Bunnings employ over 1.4 million people and generate revenues in excess of 360 billion euros.
Scope 3 emissions are the predominant carbon emissions for retailers in general. For the home improvement retail sector, they account for more than 90 per cent, and usually fall outside of retailers’ direct operational control. The range of different approaches and methodologies to measure and report on Scope 3 carbon emissions has long created both inconsistency and inefficiency for home improvement retailers trying to lower emissions across their full value chain, resulting in additional burden on the home-improvement product manufacturers who are the principal suppliers to the retailers.
In June 2023, EDRA/GHIN President, Thierry Garnier, and General Secretary, John W Herbert, launched the EDRA/GHIN Scope 3 Taskforce on stage at the ninth Global DIY-Summit in Berlin to help the sector reduce its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions: those that come from retailers’ supply chains and from consumer use of their products. Later that year EDRA/GHIN announced that it would be partnering with Ricardo to help the industry on its journey to identify and reduce scope 3 emissions.
Now, 12 months after its initial launch, members of the EDRA/GHIN Scope 3 Taskforce have met in Rome at the 10th Global DIY-Summit, reaffirming their commitment to working together on this most important topic.
The Taskforce has worked hard to develop a set of recommendations to address this challenge by agreeing more consistent methodologies in how carbon data is treated through the supply chain and sharing best practices in both the reporting and, most importantly, accelerating the home improvement sector’s progress in reducing Scope 3 emissions.
At the summit in Rome, it was announced that OBI, one of founding members of the EDRA/GHIN Scope 3 Taskforce, has shared their commitment to both the Scope 3 Taskforce Targets and Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). These targets involve the setting of decarbonisation targets within the next two years, which OBI will achieve through SBTi, as well as collaborating with suppliers to set targets themselves within five years.
Two of the founding members of the EDRA/GHIN Scope 3 Taskforce: Kesko and Kingfisher, have previously set near-term targets to carbon reduction and had these approved by the SBTi. Three other founding members, Intergamma, Lowe’s and Maxeda DIY Group have officially committed to setting science-based targets.
Through these announcements, the members of the Scope 3 Taskforce demonstrate their level of ambition in regard to decarbonisation, with SBTi viewed as the gold standard in terms of decarbonisation. The alignment to these targets also supports the core value that a climate-secure world goes hand-in-hand with successful business operations.
Scope 3 is vital importance to all industries, and the Global DIY-Summit has reflected this through dedicating a session of its programme to “Sustainable Home Improvement: Unveiling Scope 3 Solutions” as well as hosting a Scope 3 booth, staffed by experts from all areas of Scope 3 and decarbonisation, in the exhibition area.
At the Global DIY-Summit in Rome, EDRA/GHIN and Ricardo also published their Scope 3 Accounting Guide and Strategy Document, with the aim of helping retailers on their Scope 3 reporting journey.
This comprehensive Guide introduces readers to carbon accounting, understanding carbon emissions and specifically Scope 3 accounting, as well as the different categories of Scope 3 emissions, with a focus on category 1 and category 11, typically the largest or second largest category of the Scope 3 sources for home improvement retailers.
Further to this, EDRA/GHIN and Ricardo have also launched the Home Improvement Suppliers Scope 3 Taskforce. This supplier Taskforce will mirror the EDRA/GHIN Scope 3 Taskforce – initially with 11 suppliers coming together.
Retailers in the home improvement industry collaborating with suppliers, on a pre-competitive and voluntary basis, to see how innovation can be encouraged and working towards a more circular and carbon efficient economy, which is essential to ensure the largest effect on decarbonisation as possible.
In order to ensure this can be the case, at the summit in Rome, EDRA/GHIN and Ricardo were pleased to announce that the Scope 3 Taskforces will both be expanded, with all interested parties in the industry invited to join the groups.
John W Herbert, General Secretary of EDRA/GHIN, commented: “Only through working together can we begin to tackle the accelerated climate change we are seeing across our planet. This is a call to action to the entire industry to come together now and engage, challenge and inspire one another.”
Thierry Garnier, President of EDRA/GHIN and Kingfisher CEO said: “Now is the time for action and I would encourage everyone in our industry to commit and get involved. By coming together to take on the critical Scope 3 challenge, we can forge a path towards a future that is low-emissions, positive for our businesses and our planet.”
Jamie Pitcairn, Technical Director, Corporate Sustainability at Ricardo who led the Scope 3 Taskforce said: "We were honoured to lead this initiative and support the global home improvement retail sector to unite to reduce Scope 3 emissions. Ricardo has considerable expertise in bringing organisations of all sizes and levels of preparedness together to collaborate and decarbonise their operations and supply chains. The members of EDRA/GHIN understood that by working together the global home improvement retail sector can accelerate decarbonisation across the value chain and achieve significant emission reductions at scale. We are proud to have played our part in enabling this seminal moment for the global sector on its road to net zero.”
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