For CIOs committed to reducing their organization's carbon footprint, developing a comprehensive, structured decarbonization roadmap is a critical first step - this will form part of your IT strategy. Here is a step-by-step guide:
Steps to Create a Decarbonization Roadmap
1. Assess Current State: Begin by evaluating your current IT infrastructure and operations to understand which systems and processes you have in place and highlight any gaps.
A decarbonization roadmap starts by establishing a baseline of energy consumption and carbon emissions across all sites and facilities. Every organization’s carbon emissions can be divided into scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
To find out more about reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions in manufacturing, watch our masterclass. As mentioned, tools like CoolPlanetOS can significantly help gather, analyze, and compare this data across different facilities and visualise your path to NetZero.
2. Set Clear Objectives: Define specific, measurable goals for reducing carbon emissions within your company. Goals should closely align with the company’s wider carbon reduction goals.
If company-wide decarbonization goals do not currently exist, find out how to set decarbonization goals for your organization through the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi).
3. Identify Decarbonization Opportunities: With goals in place, utilize IT-specific frameworks and standards, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol or the Science Based Targets initiative, to identify areas for improvement.
While these frameworks will provide guidance about industry standards, they won’t give you an accurate forecast of the impact and real outcome of each opportunity based on your data for each plant. For that, software like CoolPlanetOS is invaluable.
The Net Zero Glidepath feature within CoolPlanetOS makes it easy for all stakeholders to visualize their organization's path to net zero emissions by providing a multi-year view of what it will take for the organization to reach its decarbonization goals.
The Glidepath identifies decarbonization opportunities and prioritizes them in terms of carbon emissions and energy savings - whichever is most important to you.
4. Develop an Implementation Plan: For each identified opportunity, develop a detailed implementation plan that should include steps, responsibilities, timelines, and required resources. This planning should also consider potential challenges and include contingency plans to address them.
5. Plan for Continuous Improvement: Decarbonization is an ongoing process. The most successful decarbonization strategies from one facility can be established and shared internally as the benchmark for all your other sites globally.
This encourages a level of healthy competition between sites to cut emissions rapidly and fosters a culture of continuous improvement in your organization.
Your roadmap should include regular review points to assess progress, incorporate new technologies, and adjust strategies as necessary to stay on track towards your sustainability targets.
By following these steps, you can create a decarbonization roadmap that fits within your overall IT strategy.
