This piece was originally published by the Smith of School of Enterprise and the Environment. Republished with permission.
As our world races against time to halve global emissions by 2030, a critical and overlooked catalyst is hoving into view: serviced emissions.
These are the emissions that arise indirectly from the services provided by professional service providers (PSPs), such as consultants, lawyers, and advertisers, to their clients. While these providers don’t emit large quantities of greenhouse gases themselves, and are often on top of their Scope 1, Scope 2, and increasingly, their Scope 3 emissions, their advice can significantly influence their clients’ actions – amplifying or reducing emissions across the real economy.
Catalysing change
We’ve seen recent examples of lawsuits where global PSPs such as McKinsey and Blackrock are being scrutinised over potentially misleading communications, and the impact of this on emissions. But what if this influence could be brought out of the shadows and harnessed for good?
Lending clarity to this concept, and underpinning it with a starting set of inclusive guidelines, has been the focus of the working group we co-chair for the UN’s Race to Zero Campaign and in close collaboration with Oxford Net Zero. We hope to shine a light on and catalyse the untapped potential for PSPs to have an outsize impact on the transition to a net zero world.
Professional services: A powerful lever for change
Professional service providers occupy a unique position of influence. Whether through strategic advice, legal counsel, or advertising campaigns, these firms shape the decisions and directions of businesses globally, from board rooms to factories, covering anything from strategy, M&A, and executive compensation to supply chain optimisation and marketing campaigns. Yet, until now, many have only focused on reducing their own operational emissions, such as office energy use or business travel.
Our Race to Zero Working Group report provides a roadmap for PSPs to expand their focus beyond their own operations, acknowledge their influence through advice to clients, and tackle their serviced emissions. It outlines six key action areas, including client and project selection, climate due diligence, and embedding climate risks and opportunities into services. The objective of the guidelines is to help PSPs embark on the journey to become scale enablers of the low-carbon transition.
Advertised emissions: A case study in serviced emissions leadership
One standout subcategory of serviced emissions is advertised emissions.
As highlighted in the recent Purpose Disruptors report, the advertising industry is responsible for influencing consumer demand and, by extension, the carbon footprint of entire sectors. Through their “Advertised Emissions” framework, agencies like M&C Saatchi and OLIVER are leading the way in calculating and mitigating the emissions driven by their campaigns. Their examples showcase how PSPs can go beyond operational changes to address the broader impacts of their work.
Call to action
This work on serviced emissions is closely aligned with Oxford Net Zero’s wider engagement and research initiatives. Our interdisciplinary team tracks corporate net-zero pledges, provides guidance on carbon offsetting, and explores carbon removal technologies.
The Race To Zero Working Group’s recent report on serviced emissions merely represents the entry point to a work in progress. We urgently need to refine methodologies for measuring serviced emissions and expanding these principles across other sectors, building on the example of the Advertising Sector.
We invite all professional service providers to engage with these guidelines and play their part in securing a livable planet for future generations.
Ranjita Rajan and Alexis McGivern are Co-Chairs of the Race to Zero Working Group on Serviced Emissions and launched the Race To Zero Working Group’s Report on Serviced Emissions at New York Climate Week 2024. Ranjita is an ONZ Senior Associate and Alexis is an ONZ Fellow and ONZ’s Net Zero Integrity Manager.
