United to (not) leave a footprint

The upcoming generations are leading the way in exerting pressure and forcing world leaders to make changes that can truly halt climate change. Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, with Fridays For Future; America’s Alexandria Villaseñor, founder of Earth Uprising; Kehkashan Basu with his Green Hope initiative set up in Bangladesh and Liberia; Felix Finkbeiner, founder of Plant for the Planet, are just a few names of young people from around the world who have become climate activists. And these digital natives, all born after the year 2000, are more aware than anyone of the impact that an activity can generate on its surroundings.

Global warming, increasing fires, more violent storms and worsening air quality are all direct consequences of an activity carried out without considering the planet or the resources that are used to perform such activity. Only in the 1990s did people realise the need to measure the ecological footprint represented by the use of natural resources. Today, this concept is known as Earth Overshoot Day, the day when all the resources that the planet can produce in a year are exhausted and we then begin to live off future resources. And this date is getting earlier each year: in 1993 Earth Overshoot Day was October 27; while in 2023 (only 30 years later) the date moved back to August 2, nearly three months earlier!

As part of this ecological footprint, 2003 also saw the rise in popularity of carbon footprint calculation, which means measuring all the greenhouse gases emitted by an individual, organisation, event or product, whether direct (scope 1) or indirect (scope 2, if they are emissions associated with imported energy; or scope 3, which are other indirect emissions). Around 2010, companies were measuring these, and this soon became a requirement that was also being imposed by regulators and investors.

The calculation of the footprint can be very basic: multiplying each of the activities by an emission factor for that activity; or very complex, through a data collection and analysis system. The international non-profit organisation CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project) was established in 2001 to provide a platform for corporate environmental disclosure. At present, nearly 20,000 organisations worldwide disclose data through CDP, including more than 18,700 companies that make up half of global market capitalisation, and more than 1,100 cities, states and regions. CDP is fully aligned with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial disclosures (TCFD) and boasts the world’s largest environmental database. The scores obtained are widely used to drive investment and hiring decisions towards a zero-carbon, sustainable and resilient economy.

Together with the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), CDP is a founder of the Science Based Targets initiative, which aims to increase companies’ commitment to sustainable management as well as the search for more ambitious solutions to climate change. This initiative helps companies to set emission reduction targets in accordance with science, to ensure emission reductions.

Companies like Cellnex have been part of SBTi since 2019. In fact, in 2021 the initiative approved the emissions reduction targets that Cellnex had set for itself. “Cellnex has set itself the goal of becoming a leading group in combating climate change, achieving carbon neutrality, improving the resilience of infrastructures and promoting a circular economy in line with our activity”, in the words of Josep Lluís Guiu, from Cellnex’s Sustainability team.

One of these objectives is to bring about a 21% reduction in the scope 3 emissions generated by the purchase of products, services and capital goods by 2025. In other words, to reduce the indirect emissions caused by the company’s activity. To achieve this ambitious objective, the company has directly involved its suppliers. Firstly, to be able to calculate their carbon footprint in a more reliable and efficient way; and secondly, to involve them in reducing this footprint through tireless outreach efforts. This effort was acknowledged by CDP itself, which named Cellnex as “Supplier Engagement Leader” for the second consecutive year.

“The help and tools that Cellnex provides for us is second to none”

To calculate the carbon footprint, Cellnex invites a significant number of its suppliers to respond to the CDP questionnaire, representing 72% of the company’s purchases. The response rate of the suppliers who responded in 2023 was 78%, well above the average of 63% obtained by other CDP members. Of the 359 suppliers invited to respond to the survey in 2023, 54% had personalised support, which allowed 46 of them to calculate their carbon footprint.

“The help and tools that Cellnex gives us during the CDP evaluation process is second to none,” said José Ramón Hernández, Director of Operations at Cibernos, a Cellnex supplier. “From the tutorials, videos, webinars and documentation that it provides us to complete the questionnaires to the help tools for calculating our carbon footprint. The entire Cellnex Sustainability department is always willing to answer our questions and provide us with help during the evaluation process. Without this help and dedication it would be very difficult for us to make progress in the global commitment to fight climate change.”

Cellnex also performed an innovative initiative together with Banco Santander, in which the suppliers that obtain the best CDP score are rewarded with a bonus on the confirming price offered by the bank. Another initiative involves a condition in the tender process that suppliers must report their carbon footprint to CDP and submit a plan to reduce their emissions for the duration of the contracts awarded. “This project is the result of teamwork between several Cellnex departments, to achieve good practices in environmental matters and climate change in the value chain together,” concludes Ruth Collado, Procurement Analyst at Cellnex.