September 5, 2023
Tatianna Yam-Yee Yung, Senior Project & Program Manager, Sustainability
For many around the world, climate change is not in the distant future—it’s a challenge to be faced today. This summer, we saw first-hand the implications of climate change as headlines focused on food shortages, extreme heat waves, and flooding.
Decarbonization is the only way to effectively address these growing challenges. As the world’s carbon emissions continue to bring us closer to the 1.5°C temperature increase, industries are working to reduce, and one day eliminate, our carbon emissions in hopes of mitigating the impact of climate change.
Regulating Decarbonization Reporting
Companies are shifting focus to reduce or eliminate their carbon footprint, a move that has been spurred by growing interest from investors in decarbonization and regulators in how these activities are being reported. Notably, there are forthcoming regulations from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in Europe and anticipated updates to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that will directly address how companies report on carbon emissions.
These regulations will help us begin to reduce our impact on the environment by standardizing carbon-related disclosures and risks, which will help increase transparency and deliver more reliable data. This will be critical to where we see stakeholders investing, as these new regulations will enable more consistent comparisons between companies and reduce greenwashing.
Building a Decarbonization Strategy
With the growing focus on decarbonization, our industry must be ready to invest in sustainability strategies.
At Trinseo, our Climate Change goals are the backbone of our decarbonization strategy as we look to deliver carbon excellence, renewable power and clean electrification in the years ahead. We are investing in short- and long-term initiatives that will help us achieve these three pillars to address our greenhouse gas (GHG) Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
As we look ahead, cooperation and collaboration are key to success in any sustainability project, including decarbonization. Emission data is intertwined with those in the value chain, so it is essential to work together toward a better tomorrow. At Trinseo, this includes engaging our value chain in discussions around GHG Scope 3 management, as well as providing training sessions.
Collaboration and partnership can be seen in our 2022 CDP submission, which received a “B” in Climate Change Disclosure and an “A-” in Supplier Engagement Rating. CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. Its Supplier Engagement Rating assesses performance on governance, targets, scope 3 emissions, and value chain engagement in the CDP climate change questionnaire. One step we are taking to support our value chain is by implementing product carbon footprint data calculations for our sustainable portfolio to be transparent about our GHG Scope 1 and 2 data.
Growing together is essential, and by working hand-in-hand with our value chain partners we are working toward a more circular economy that has less impact on our environment. After all, the impacts of climate change are here—and we need to address how industries are tackling decarbonization.
With upcoming regulations, reporting standards will become more formalized, which will help us improve carbon emissions worldwide. As the industry begins to implement carbon reduction initiatives, we must work across the value chain to ensure agility and adaptability to meet changing regulations. It is an exciting time to work in the industry, and I am excited to see Trinseo’s success in the years ahead as we continue to prioritize decarbonization as part of our sustainability goals.
