By Ira Srivastava
1. UK companies are making sustainability restatements. According to research conducted by Deloitte, 46% of FTSE 100 organizations changed their sustainability and climate reporting this year. These changes were made to comply with the European Union’s new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which will have broad-ranging impacts outside of the EU as well. 89% of these restatements are related to metrics used to measure carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, while topics such as water usage, DEI, and waste management made up the remainder. Almost one third of the restatements involved Scope 3 emissions, which shows a promising trend in companies beginning to address their indirect emissions.
2. Meta’s 2024 sustainability report. While other organizations such as Microsoft and Google are seeing rising emissions due to AI-related energy demands, Meta continues to set a strong example.
- For the third year in a row, Meta achieved carbon neutrality. Its next target is to become carbon neutral through its entire supply chain by the end of this decade.
- As water scarcity worsens, Meta has successfully restored 1.5 billion gallons of water in drought-prone regions.
- Meta buys nearly 12 gigawatts of renewable energy around the world each year.
- The organization’s emissions have dropped by 94% from 2017 levels.
- The majority of Meta’s water and energy resources are used up in data centres. To address this, all data centres are LEED Gold certified and more than 90% of construction waste from the centres is recycled.
3. Data-Powered Enterprises: The Path to Data Mastery. A new report published by CapGemini dives into how organizations use data in sustainability and larger company operations.
- 60% of companies have begun piloting generative AI programs, but 75% are facing issues in larger-scale rollouts. While there has been a race for companies to integrate AI into their operations, successful rollouts will take time.
- The environmental impact of AI has been discussed extensively. Fortunately, 78% of executives surveyed agreed that sustainability is key to successful generative AI usage.
- Only 40% of data professionals feel that their companies have the appropriate cultural and ethical guidelines in place to support AI programs. The non-technical aspects of AI are just as important, if not more so, and companies will want to develop stringent governance strategies for both.
Read the full report here.
4. Wells Fargo’s commitment to sustainability. Wells Fargo has announced that it will commit US$500 billion to sustainable finance by the end of this decade. This will be done via partnerships and collaborations with governments, customers, other financial institutions, and more. This ties into the bank’s goal of net-zero emissions by mid-century, and Wells Fargo has made significant internal changes as well such as building net-positive facilities. Their financing has also allowed clients around the world to decarbonize their own operations. Banks worldwide are heavily invested in the fossil fuel industry, but in taking these actions Wells Fargo is emerging as an industry trailblazer.
5. SAP opens a Taiwanese research centre. SAP Taiwan has officially opened the doors of its new ESG and AI Research and Innovation Center located in the city of Kaohsiung, home to the largest port in Taiwan. Thegoal with the new center is “to integrate SAP’s advanced technologies to meet local needs for sustainable supply chain management and carbon reduction” according to Chen Zhiwei, SAP’s Global Vice President. Taiwan is a key player in the global supply chain as it is the largest microchip-producing region in the world. The research conducted at this centre will ensure that Taiwanese companies remain at the cutting edge of sustainability opportunities.
Ira Srivastava is Competent Boards’ Program Coordinator. Follow Competent Boards on LinkedIn.