The big Scope 3 challenge – next steps to tackle indirect emissions upstream and downstream in the supply chain

Australian telco Telstra said that the bulk of its scope 3 emissions relate to the carrier’s supply chain

Companies operating in the telecommunications field are currently facing challenges when measuring Scope 3 emissions, said Alessandro Gropelli, deputy director general at European Telecoms Association (ETNO) and board member of the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI). Scope 3 emissions are considered to be indirect emissions that are generated as part of a company’s supply chain.

“The first difficulty of Scope 3 emissions is that you don’t have control over the data and the monitoring of those emissions directly inside your company. So the first big thing that comes up is how you collaborate upstream and downstream in your supply chain in order to get the right data. And that’s why data gathering and transparency is one of the key issues when it comes to scope 3 emissions,” Gropelli said during a session at the recent RCR Wireless News’ Telco Sustainability Forum (available on demand here).

“Now, our general line when it comes to this challenge is the concept of ‘better together’. We notice that many different actors in the industry have been trying to understand what is the best way to measure [scope 3 emissions].The suggestion that we give them is to find an harmonized way of looking at that. This is why at GeSi, we decided to work together with the members, but also with the ITU and the GSMA, to try to come up with some joint practical guidance,” he added.

According to Gropelli, a suggestion to telecom operators aiming to measure and reduce Scope 3 emissions is to prioritize those areas where most of the emissions are likely to be. “And there are four areas that we have identified in this guidance. One is of course purchased goods, capital goods, fuel and energy and the use of solar products.”

Gropelli also highlighted that it’s important that for all those operators that are approaching this task of measuring and reducing Scope 3 emissions is to be ready to accept that the first attempt will not be the final one, adding that companies can improve accuracy over time.

Simon Antony, program manager of sustainability and responsible procurement at Australian opeartor Telstra, said that the telco’s target to reduce absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by at least 50% by 2030. “The bulk of our Scope 3 emissions relate to our supply chain. And that’s one of the reasons why our Scope 3 program sits within our procurement function. And so my job on a daily basis is to work with our procurement team to help influence the way that our 30,000 employees interact with our 5,000 suppliers, including some of the world’s largest organizations,” Antony said.

The Telstra executive said that telco measures its emissions per individual supplier. “The best approach to measure supplier emissions really depends on the individual supplier. Measuring supply chain emissions can be at three different levels. So it can be at the industry level, it can be then at the supplier level or at the product level. And by far, the most detailed and specific approach is at that product level. But we know this is incredibly rich and helpful data. But at the same time, this approach is not very efficient, it is difficult to scale. It is very resource intensive and requires specialist skills,” he said.

Commenting on the actions implemented by Telstra to reduce sScope 3 emissions, Antony said that the telco is currently working with its suppliers to tackle this task.

“This require us to really understand where our suppliers are in their own decarbonization journey. We have suppliers that were very mature and we are working with them to understand how can reduce these emissions.  We also have suppliers that were significantly less mature, and the conversation was around about how can we help and educate them in their business to measure and reduce emissions,” he said.