Lots of things in the ESG/sustainability space changed in 2024 and more changes are in store for 2025. Among them, as Trellis reported, updates to a few of the major sustainability-related standards.
- Certified B Corporation/B Lab Global. “There are more than 10,000 Certified B Corps, and the standard has been criticized for being too flexible in how businesses can earn recognition… Delivery of the final standards has slipped into early 2025… B Lab expects the first cohort of companies to be certified on the revision in 2026, based on their recertification timelines.”
- Corporate Net-Zero Standard/Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). “1,200 companies have validated net-zero targets, according to an update in early November. Close to 250 high-profile companies had their commitments ‘removed’ from that list in 2024, including Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Walmart. The organization became the center of controversy in mid-April when a plan to allow companies to use offsets against net-zero goals infuriated the organization’s staff and climate NGOs… A draft for consultation was delayed from late 2024 into early 2025. The feedback report is due in the second quarter, with a final draft anticipated by the end of 2025, according to the timeline published in May.”
- Greenhouse Gas Protocol/World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). “… the GHG Protocol overhauled its governance in 2024 with a new steering committee and independent standards board… 97 percent of the S&P 500 companies reporting their greenhouse gas emissions inventories to CDP in 2023 used GHG Protocol accounting to do so. The guidance is out of date: the corporate standard, for example, hasn’t been revised since 2015. Drafts for public consultation are due during 2025.”
- ISO Net-Zero Standard/International Organization for Standardization (ISO). “… guidelines [were] first published during COP27 in November 2022… More than 1,200 experts were consulted on the original guidelines… ISO already manages more than 600 standards for energy, circularity and environmental management. The working group for the new standard is one of ISO’s largest committees with 150 experts from the private sector, academia and NGO, include representatives from the GHG Protocol and SBTi. A ‘seed’ draft for consultation is due in 2025.. The organization has not publicly committed to a final publication date.”
Something to which we can all look forward.
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