ME ASU RI N G SUSTAI NAB I L I TY Counting the carbon With sustainability obligations for moving companies set to get more extensive in the months ahead, businesses are looking to simplify the complex task of measuring their progress. FIDIs carbon calculator is being launched early in 2024 to help them do just this, says FIDIs Sustainability & Strategic Communications Manager, Magali Horbert Magali Horbert, Sustainability and Strategic Communications Manager, FIDI FIDI has decided to provide a carbon calculation tool for our members and their partners, to make one part of their sustainability reporting challenges more simple B efore long, every company will be required to report on its carbon footprint whether it wants to or not. Legislators around the world are introducing rules and laws to make businesses prove their sustainability credentials, with carbon accounting as the central obligation. But, as with financial accounting, this can become a complicated process that gets messy very quickly. If you want to know how your business is doing from a sustainability point of view, you need a benchmark for your evolution. We cant make educated decisions if we dont have some sort of reliable baseline against which to measure our targets and efforts. In terms of corporate sustainability, what we are currently seeing is very far from perfect, unfortunately. Many companies are making commitments to net zero and carbon-neutral futures, without having a clear plan or science-based targets. There is no common agreement on, or standardised approach to, what should be measured and how, and no real accountability for the reliability of the reported data. We are also seeing small suppliers struggling to keep up with the many different (and sometimes conflicting) requests to report their sustainability efforts, using a variety of platforms and reporting frameworks. This Wild West of sustainability reporting is not helping us progress, and most definitely not to a more sustainable way of doing business. Stepping up on carbon footprint One of the main tasks of an association such as FIDI is to help its members tackle the most pressing What is carbon accounting? Carbon accounting or greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting is a framework to measure and report on a companys carbon footprint. All activities that result in GHG emissions must be taken into account, including direct and indirect emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3). Regulations across the world are increasingly forcing companies to publish yearly sustainability reports, in the same way as they need to publish activity reports. Carbon accounting is a key element of these reporting requirements. industry-wide challenges, so they can focus on doing business; and from what we have been hearing from FIDI Affiliates and other industry players, sustainability reporting is a huge pain point that companies across the supply chain are currently having to face. In the global mobility world, the international household goods moving sector is also often singled out as the footprint heavy part of the industry. With all of this in mind, FIDI has decided to provide a carbon calculation tool for our members and their partners, to make this part of their sustainability reporting more straightforward. The main purpose of this, of course, is to make it easy (and free of charge) for any FIDI Affiliate to calculate and report on their carbon footprint. The calculations we provide should follow certain basic requirements: they have to be backed by strong scientific frameworks; they should be flexible, to allow for future developments; and they should be specific enough to account for the complexities of our industry, without getting lost in overly granular details. For this project to be a success, FIDI needed to find a partner with strong credentials and a proven track record in carbon measurement and sustainability reporting. Someone who understands the needs and challenges of small to medium-sized businesses and complex supply chains. A company big enough to have a truly global reach, but small enough to have the flexibility to adapt to our specific requirements. A long-term strategic partner who can support us in our efforts to define industry standards and drive a heightened awareness of what sustainability really means in our specific industry. After many conversations with different solution providers across the world, we have decided to partner with Sweden-based Worldfavor. Worldfavors calculation tool ticks all the boxes that a good carbon calculator should, but what really set the company apart from the competition is its proactive approach to really understanding the complexity of our industry and developing the best short- and long-term solution for our needs. The companys platform is also comprehensive enough to cater for the specific reporting needs 48 FF312 Dec_Feb 23 pp48-49 o2 calculator.indd 48 11/12/2023 15:49