Glamox commits to the Science-Based Targets initiative

At Glamox, we are continuously working towards reducing the environmental footprint of our products and operation. We know that lighting contributes to 15 – 20 % of the world’s electricity consumption and accounts for 5 % of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, so changes we make can have a big impact. Because of this we have committed to setting near-term company-wide emission reductions in line with climate science with the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

The SBTi is a partnership between Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). In short, it mobilizes the private sector to take the lead on urgent climate action. The latest climate science warns that we must dramatically curb temperature rise to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. Science-based targets show companies and financial institutions how much and how quickly they need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Technical Director Birger Holo is in charge of implementing sustainability measures throughout the entire value chain at Glamox. He explains that we have committed to work within the Science-Based Targets initiative because it is the gold standard in science-based climate efforts.

 

- We want to ensure that our sustainability work is genuine and transparent. In order for our work to truly matter we have to make sure that we implement the changes that actually make a difference. When you commit to the SBTi you have a maximum of two years to develop your company’s emission reduction targets and get them approved by the Science Based Target initiative. Our work has started slightly already but is expected to accelerate when we join the “Climate ambition accelerator program”, hosted by UN Global Compact, in the fall of 2022. Two years might seem like a lot, but by joining the initiative we get access to advise from experts, guidance documents, webinars, and other resources such as science-based target setting tools. By doing it this way we can be confident in knowing that the goals we set are the ones with the largest impact.

Birger Holo, Technical Director Glamox

He goes on to explain that we first need to measure our existing emissions for every step of our value chain. How the end-user uses our products, and how long they use them, is the main contributor to its total lifetime energy consumption. This means that we can’t just look at production, transport, and distribution – we have to consider the product’s lifetime from its inception until the end of its life cycle. We then have to pinpoint what changes will have the most climate impact and follow through with implementing them.

Only about 37 businesses in Norway have committed to the Science-Based Targets initiative so far. Our ambition is to be a sustainability leader in our industry, and working within the SBTi makes sure we have the best possible chance to succeed.

Through the 2015 Paris Agreement, world governments committed to limiting global temperature rise to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that global warming must not exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. To achieve this, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must halve by 2030 – and drop to net zero by 2050. Source: https://sciencebasedtargets.org/about-us#what-we-do

 

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