Future Ready

6Define, Measure, and Set Targets

Before your organization can even think about designing and implementing a plan, you need to understand your current baseline and establish appropriate—and, preferably, science-based—targets. New countries, corporations, cities, and states around the world are now making net zero pledges and other sustainability commitments on a daily basis. Of course, it's always great to see commitment from organizations that recognize the scientific, financial, and human imperative to address climate change. But committing to be “net zero” before you're even sure what that term means isn't helping anyone.

The first question is: net zero of what? There have been several other “net zero” initiatives that aren't necessarily climate or GHG-oriented, like net zero waste or net zero water. In most cases, though, net zero refers to balancing out organizational GHG emissions by removing an equal amount of GHG from the atmosphere. More specifically, as the United Nations puts it, net zero means “cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere into oceans and forests, for instance.”¹

The second question is: net zero by when? The science-based timeline for achieving net zero sets 2050 as the deadline that is consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels. In the private sector, companies as varied as WSP, General Motors, Microsoft, American ...