‘Science Based Targets’ Business Breakfast co-hosted by The Future Economy Network, and The Exchange.
Tuesday 20th August 2019 saw an exciting trip to Old Market for a business breakfast discussing the increasingly popular Science Based Targets. The breakfast was hosted by The Exchange and took place at the wonderful community owned live music venue. It was attended by public, private and third sector representatives and came about as a recognition for addressing businesses commitment to reaching the 1.5 degree warming target.
Attendees were welcomed by the Recruitment Director of The Future Economy Group, Richard Murphy. Richard spoke briefly about The Future Economy Network, the Network’s Festival of Sustainable Business, and the benefits of subscribing.
A presentation was then delivered by Emma Watson, Senior Consultant at Carbon Credentials. She introduced the group to what Science Based Targets are, why Carbon Credentials created them, and how companies can commit to them in the future.
This was followed by a presentation by Vicky Murray, Sustainability Manager at Pukka Herbs. Vicky briefly ran through who Pukka are, before explaining how Pukka signed up to Science Based Targets. She explained how Pukka found their data and made their targets, and what they are doing/have done to reach those targets.
This was followed by a presentation by Matt Wood, Energy and Carbon Manager at Bioregional. Matt briefly explained who Bioregional are, then used Kingfisher as a case study for how large companies set science based targets and what they do to reach their targets. He also spoke about the fundamental differences between setting targets for small, medium and large companies.
Finally, Simon Forsyth, Development Manager at Carbon Lens and Consultant at The Future Economy Group, delivered his presentation. Simon brought up the extremely important topic “what about Scope 3?”. Scope 3 is often not measured by organisations (often it is too hard to measure) and is missed off targets. It is also most often the biggest impact. Simon discussed this issue, how challenging data can be, and his role in making this data more palatable for organisations to commit to science based targets.
After the presentations, there was time for Q+A, where valuable and in-depth questions were asked by the audience. There was also an exciting 60 second pitch session, which included Bristol Energy Cooperative seeking business sponsorship to support their development of a hydroelectric scheme on the river Avon at Netham Weir. More information can be found here.
Richard concluded the seminar by talking about The Future Economy Network’s upcoming Festival of Sustainable Business, and other upcoming events.
The seminar was concluded with some lively networking over a wonderful sustainable breakfast. The Future Economy Network would like to offer sincere thanks to all of our speakers and to TheExchangefor their support. Also, a huge thank you to all attendees – we hope you found it an interesting and exciting event.