Global real estate company Lendlease has called out industry peers at Climate Week NYC to expand their decarbonisation efforts by addressing the largest source of the sector’s carbon emissions – value chain or Scope 3 emissions.
Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions that occur in an organisation’s value chain and often make up the majority of an organisation’s carbon footprint.
The company is also trying to address limited guidance on Scope 3 reporting boundaries.
“The Protocol is a seminal piece of work on our pathway towards our target of Absolute Zero – with no offsets – by 2040. To know where to focus our decarbonisation, we need to first know how we are accounting for our Scope 3 emissions – what is material and therefore, what is in and out of scope. We want the Protocol to spark conversation and engagement across our sector, to help drive to a consensus on how to account for and report on Scope 3 emissions. If we can achieve this, then we can collaborate as an industry to solve the two big systemic challenges: the decarbonisation of harder to abate materials, and the digitisation and sharing of Scope 3 emissions data. The Protocol is intended as an important first step towards that outcome.”
Cate Harris, Group Head of Sustainability & Lendlease Foundation, Lendlease
The data has been reported to be difficult to track and measure, with the sector’s heavy reliance on carbon intensive materials such as steel, cement, aluminium and glass.
The built environment contributes approximately 40% of global carbon emissions.
At Lendlease, approximately 90% of total carbon emissions are Scope 3 emissions from upstream activities, such as the manufacturing of building materials, and downstream activities and emissions from the use of electricity and natural gas by residents.
“We want to support and drive emission reductions up and down our value chain to work towards our Absolute Zero by 2040 target. We do not underestimate the challenges in decarbonising harder to abate materials and we continue to work with our supply chain partners who have aligned aspirations on emission reduction targets, supporting their investment and innovation in decarbonisation.”
Davina Rooney, Chief Executive Officer, Green Building Council of Australia
To help accelerate the pace and scale of decarbonisation and contribute to the conversation on establishing consistent and comparable Scope 3 reporting boundaries across the real estate sector, Lendlease has launched the Lendlease Scope 3 Emissions Protocol v.1 during discussions at Climate Week NYC.
The Protocol outlines Lendlease’s current view on Scope 3 emissions reporting boundaries, and is designed to be a useful model for others in real estate investments, development and construction.
With the launch of the Protocol, Lendlease is calling for others in the industry – including developers, builders and construction material manufacturers – to turn their focus to addressing Scope 3 emissions.
“We applaud Lendlease’s decision to share the Scope 3 Emissions Protocol V.1 and its call for consistent and comparable reporting boundaries across our sector. We know that industry transformation is possible when we are aligned and working towards the same goal and the decarbonisation of the property value chain is an urgent priority.”
Jeremy Hutchinson, Group Head of Supply Chain, Lendlease
The company is also calling for an industry-wide data-sharing platform to enable the secure exchange of digitised and verified Scope 3 emissions data.
Disclosure of material Scope 3 emissions is being proposed by regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US, and by sustainability reporting standards such as the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), making better Scope 3 measurement and reporting an imperative.
