Mauro Cozzi: Scope 3 Emissions Key to Net Zero Procurement

As industries face a surge in environmental legislation, the pressure to achieve sustainability goals alongside future-proofing operations is at an all time high.

Mauro Cozzi, the CEO of Emitwise has outlined his plans to unify the approach to sustainability and tackle Scope 3 emissions to work towards a net-zero procurement programme.

Mauro discussed how Emitwise looks to transform low-carbon procurement goals using AI and the challenges they face to meet sustainability needs. 

How did you found Emitwise?

“Emitwise was born out of a kitchen table discussion with two friends about what was preventing global emission reductions. The conclusion was that companies could not make effective decarbonisation decisions because of a lack of data.

Five years later, companies with the most complex supply chains, like CBRE and Dolby, are using Emitwise to tackle Scope 3 emissions and make their net zero achievable.”

What do you see as the challenges of Scope 3 emissions in procurement?

“With Scope 3 responsible for up to 90% of a company's emissions and procurement owning the supply chain, it makes sense that procurement also owns its decarbonisation alongside the targets that drive the efforts.

However, programmes that deliver results are driven by data, and while procurement deals with a wide variety of supplier data sets, emissions inventories are often not one of them. 

This calls for engaging with suppliers directly to collect this data while understanding their alignment with your targets.

But this doesn't come without its challenges:

• How do you engage suppliers efficiently to gather emissions data at scale?
• How do you deal with suppliers of different sustainability maturity levels and overcome the fact that some suppliers have never calculated emissions before?
• How do you overcome supplier fatigue? With so many requests for suppliers, what's the likelihood of them engaging?
• How do you turn this emissions data into usable information for the procurement team and strategic decision-making regarding supplier collaboration?
• How do you identify the carbon hotspots in your supply chain and areas of climate risk to focus your engagement efforts and supplier collaboration?” 

What should procurement teams look to do to meet sustainability needs in 2024?

“With so many demands on procurement teams' attention, it's essential to recognise that carbon is a cost to your company and that launching a low-carbon procurement programme can lower those costs and mitigate climate risk in your supply chain.

From here, it's about building a programme based on data and how you get that data. So, you start engaging your supply chain.

• Engage suppliers of all sustainability maturities and gain their actual or primary data—Utilise technology to do that effectively. This means helping suppliers who haven't yet measured emissions (roughly 70%) to do so for the first time.
• Decide what you will do with this data. Will it enable you to work with suppliers to decarbonise hotspots, negotiate stronger vendor terms, cut costs on specific product lines or find new revenue opportunities for low-carbon products?
• Create an engagement programme that's mutually valuable for suppliers and your company.
• Empower your procurement team and suppliers to make low-carbon decisions with reduction initiatives, carbon pricing, and shareable emission factors that decarbonise your and your vertical's supply chain.
• Increase the accuracy of your carbon accounts with your suppliers' emissions data in the form of supplier emissions factors or, where possible, product-level emission factors. This will enable you to track the impact of Scope 3 reductions and the ROI of your low-carbon procurement program.” 

What are your goals for the next 12 months?

“In the next 12 months, Emitwise aims to significantly scale its impact by tripling the amount of carbon under its management.

We are committed to continuing our work with some of the world’s largest companies to drive substantial progress in their sustainability efforts. Leveraging the latest breakthroughs in AI, we will support decarbonisation initiatives more effectively than ever before. 

We are launching new functionalities powered by AI that provide expert, tailored recommendations.

These recommendations are specific to each business’s needs and framed around their ROI, helping companies create profitable decarbonisation roadmaps that not only support business growth but also contribute meaningfully to combatting climate change.” 

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