Setting climate targets, measuring, managing, and reaching these is one of the greatest boardroom challenges of our time. This becomes increasingly complex with supply chains. ICIS, a global source of independent commodity intelligence services, and Carbon Minds, an innovative environmental impact specialist working in the chemicals sector, have partnered to provide companies in the chemicals supply chain with data to support decision making on the net-zero transition.
The new partnership will widen access to independent, supplier specific, carbon emissions data, enabling companies to instantly identify emissions hotspots, identifying opportunities for reduction, comparing suppliers and measurement of their Scope 3 chemicals carbon footprint.
"As a planet we have to reduce our carbon emissions and, although companies are setting climate targets for their products, they need greater visibility into the supply chain to truly achieve this. Partnering with ICIS, together we make supplier-specific emissions data more accessible and help businesses fully understand the emissions that are being added to their products through the supply chain."
Arne Kätelhön, Managing Director & Co-Founder at Carbon Minds
According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development the upstream and downstream supply chain of chemical companies contributes on average 81% of a company's emissions, with the single largest contributor typically being raw material supplies.
Kätelhön continued, "The variance of supplier-specific carbon footprints is significant and offers manufacturers a real opportunity to immediately make a difference to their overall carbon footprint. Manufacturers wanting to reduce their carbon footprint need clear, consistent, and comparative carbon emission supply chain data on which to base purchasing decisions. The data enables informed decisions, improve environmental performance, and strengthens brands as a result."
Louise Boddy, Head of Commercial Strategy – Sustainability at ICIS, said, "Our focus on sustainability ensures we support our customers and markets in their plans to lower emissions. This is becoming increasingly critical for access to capital, and we recognize how crucial and challenging it is to measure and lower the negative impact of supply chains. We are excited about this partnership and the unique data it delivers to our customers. This will be a gamechanger in supply chain visibility into carbon emissions and we are delighted to be a first mover in providing this data to our customers."
The data for supplier-specific carbon footprints accounts for each supplier and plant's precise production process and supply chain to shine a light on the true climate impact. The data covers 77 bulk chemicals which are consumed to produce a wide variety of materials used in around 96% of manufactured goods.
Boddy concluded, "We exist to connect markets, customers and data to enable the efficient, effective and sustainable trade and use of global resources. This partnership is another important step towards enabling this outcome for our customers around the world. This data will be readily accessible to ICIS users in our solutions platform, where it will become readily accessible to ICIS subscribers in 2022. The world is changing, we want to make sure that change is for the better."
About ICIS
ICIS is a trusted source of global commodity intelligence for the energy, chemical and fertilizer industry. We are a division of RELX, a FTSE 15 company with a market cap of £43.4 billion and an employee base of over 30,000 experts across 40 countries.
About RELX
RELX is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. Total market capitalisation is approximately £43.4bn | €51.9bn | $59.2bn.
About Carbon Minds
Carbon Minds is a data analytics company and life-cycle data provider focused on environmental sustainability in the chemical industry. From its roots at RWTH Aachen University, the company has grown to provide some of the world's largest corporations with solutions for lowering their environmental impacts from the production and use of chemicals.