Yesterday at Climate Week NYC, Oxford Net Zero and the sustainability agency Futerra launched a white paper on the Spheres of Influence – a new framework for incentivising corporate climate action.
The framework provides a way to understand how a company can drive climate action beyond its immediate emissions footprint. It is backed by major corporations, including Kao, Oatly, and Unilever.
Traditional climate accounting, such as the GHG Protocol’s Scopes 1, 2 and 3, focuses on a company’s own emissions. The Spheres of Influence framework goes further, recognising a company’s broader role in transforming society and helping others to decarbonise. The authors stress that the framework is a complement to, not a replacement for, reductions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
Kaya Axelsson, co-author and Net Zero Policy Engagement Fellow at Oxford Net Zero, comments: “Right now, people might assume companies are backing off from climate action. But that’s not what the numbers show – far from it. Corporates are realising the damage that climate change and nature degradation can do to their businesses, and increasingly the need to invest in system transformation to swerve those risks and create new opportunities. Our white paper shows how we can recognise and reward corporate influence and impact alongside inventory reductions.”
“Net zero is a team sport; we win or lose together,” affirms Solitaire Townsend, co-founder and Chief Solutionist of Futerra. “Companies have a far greater role in that team than the current scope-based approach to decarbonization. Businesses are innovators, marketers, investors and policy influencers. Many sectors have vastly greater potential spheres of influence than their scopes of impact (for example, advertising). I hope this white paper sparks a wider debate on entrepreneurial and competitive climate action.”
The paper was written by Solitaire Townsend, Kaya Axelsson, Alice Roche-Naude, Angela Ortlieb, Rosalind Chaston and Matilda Becker. Download it here. This is a consultation draft, and the authors welcome feedback to help develop the framework further. If you have comments, questions or ideas, please submit them by 1 December using this form.
The Spheres of Influence framework is based on a concept originated by Kaya Axelsson and Dr Matilda Becker of Oxford Net Zero, and Claire Wigg of the Exponential Roadmap Initiative. Read about it here.
Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash.
