As part of a major infrastructure upgrade to cater for Brisbane’s growing population, a new tunnel will be dug beneath one of its busiest motorways.

This $45m Urban Utilities project involves building a kilometre-long wastewater pipe four storeys below ground, running from Bowen Hills to Windsor.

According to Urban Utilities Spokesperson Michelle Cull, the pipe will be one of the largest in Urban Utilities’ 9000 km wastewater network. This catchment area is expected to grow by around 37,000 people over the next 30 years.

The pipe will be built using trenchless and remotely operated technology, with most of the construction work taking place beneath the city’s streets.

“A tunnel borer weighing 29 tonnes, the equivalent of around 16 cars, will tunnel up to 14 metres below ground to install the new 2-metre diameter pipe,” Cull said.

This will allow the upgrade to be made with minimal impact on traffic, customers and the community, far from the traditional tunnelling methods used by miners to build the city’s largest and oldest sewer pipe in 1915.

A competition was held with Fortitude Valley Secondary College students to design artwork for the tunnel.

“The budding artists presented their work which resulted in the borer being decorated with a river-inspired design by Year 9 student Simone Baquiran,” Cull said.

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/wastewater/case-study/major-sewer-upgrade-beneath-brisbane-underway-202174292

The City of Melbourne will develop a tool to map heat hazards and strengthen responses to extreme heat events.

Partnering with ClimaSens, a Melbourne-based climate startup, the council will aim to boost the city’s climate resilience. The technology will use live weather and climate data to identify real-time heat risk insights and map heat hotspots around the city. This will identify heat-vulnerable populations and priority areas for cooling strategies and initiatives.

“This new tool will identify our city’s most vulnerable areas, and we look forward to working with ClimaSens and their team of innovators to bring the heat risk platform to life over the coming year,” said Lord Mayor Sally Capp.

Melbourne is experiencing hotter days, longer and more intense bushfires, and less rainfall. By 2050, the city will experience an average of 16 heat events each year.

“Extreme heat exacerbates existing inequalities and disproportionately affects the most vulnerable in society,” said ClimaSens Co-Founder and CEO Joseph Glesta. “We think it is critical to identify this risk to both populations and the places they live to better understand how to plan, prepare and respond to future heatwaves.”

Melbourne has joined the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre’s Champions for Heat Action initiative, becoming the sixth city in the world — and the first in Australasia — to do so. Krista Milne and Tiffany Crawford were appointed as Co-Chief Heat Officers last year.

“We hope this platform provides a solution to heat monitoring and management, helping us protect those who are most vulnerable during a heat wave, while improving our wider climate resilience planning and investment decisions,” Crawford said.

Image credit: iStock.com/ChrisGordon

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/sustainability/case-study/melbourne-developing-tool-to-combat-rising-temperatures-1473154004

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued its final warning for the 2020s to act swiftly on climate change.

The IPCC Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report, compiled by almost 300 scientists across 67 countries, draws together all the contributions from IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle, showing how action on climate change must be accelerated throughout the decade.

Australia risks the irreversible loss of coral reefs, loss of alpine species, collapse of forests in southern Australia, loss of kelp forests, sea-level rise, an increase in severe fire weather days and a dramatic increase in fatal heatwaves. Climate impacts such as worsening extreme weather are already affecting Australians, but further harms can be limited by moving beyond fossil fuels and getting greenhouse gas emissions to plummet.

Lesley Hughes, Climate Councillor, former IPCC author and Distinguished Professor of Biology at Macquarie University, labelled Australia as one of the most vulnerable developed countries to the impacts of climate change. As a nation, she said Australia has much to lose and everything to gain by acting decisively to get emissions plummeting.

“While this is a summary report of work we’d already seen in development, there is no doubt the findings of this report will be dire. Since the previous IPCC report was released, we’ve had even more unnatural disasters. We must focus on the fact that predictions are now becoming observations,” Hughes said.

Since the previous IPCC report came out, there was a period of time where global emissions started rising again.

“We have a closing window to drive global momentum towards getting us back on track for a safer climate. Governments must heed the warnings in this report and step up action. Every fraction of a degree of warming matters. Every action matters,” Hughes said.

Simon Bradshaw, the Climate Council’s Director of Research, said this report is “a final warning”.

The central message from climate messages has been delivered repeatedly and consistently many times before. Though there has been progress in renewable energy uptake, it is not moving fast enough.

“We have a choice here to act swiftly this decade. If we start giving it our all right now, we can avert the worst of it. So many solutions are readily available, like solar and wind power, storage, electric appliances and clean transport options. We need to get our skates on,” Bradshaw said.

To make the change, coal, oil and gas need to be phased out quickly and replaced by clean industries.

John Curtin Distinguished Professor Peter Newman, from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute and a member of the IPCC, said: “The report is disappointing as the emphasis continues to be on what we are doing wrong globally (not enough action) instead of what we are doing right (action is underway). This emphasis means that we don’t see the opportunities in front of us. The IPCC says accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many-fold increase in finance and that insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress. But the reality is that in recent years finance has created $88 trillion and this is changing everything. For example, two sources of finance for the WA Government withdrew their interest in funding unless a greater commitment to net zero was made. This happened and now huge opportunities for net zero urban development, regional development and industrial/mining have appeared and are driving the next WA economy. The safeguard mechanism debate must be passed to help in this transition for industry and at the same time the federal government needs to find other mechanisms such as the new Federal EPA process to prevent new fossil-fuel projects. Otherwise, they will be faced with having to help stranded assets as the market for fossil fuels dies over the next 10 years.”

The AR5 Synthesis Report contains over seven years’ worth of new peer-reviewed science. For more details, visit: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/.

Image credit: iStock.com/FilippoBacci

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/sustainability/news/final-warning-for-action-on-climate-change-issued-934103873

Emerson will provide advanced automated solutions to assist with the safety and reliability of New Zealand’s first large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power project. It will help solar energy company Lodestone Energy complete its two 23-megawatt sites at Kaitaia and Edgecumbe, an important step in supporting New Zealand’s goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Solar PV has become one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources. To generate and deliver it efficiently, precise orchestration and control technology are required to provide operators with intuitive functionality and comprehensive visibility. Emerson’s automation architecture will combine control software and technologies with enterprise data solutions to create an integrated, scalable control solution that maximises output and profitability while simultaneously contributing to grid stability.

Peter Apperley, General Manager of Engineering at Lodestone Energy, said reaching New Zealand’s goal of carbon neutrality will require many renewable power sources to be brought online. Emerson will help make this possible with its expertise in automation software.

Lodestone will use Emerson’s Ovation distributed control system and the OCR3000 controller to provide control to minimise the impact of variability and intermittency in solar PV power generation. These technologies will also make it easier for operators to respond to grid frequency events.

Ovation enterprise data solutions will provide monitoring of solar PV operations from the control room or mobile devices, measuring, monitoring and reporting key performance indicators to increase visibility of plant operations.

“Meeting New Zealand’s renewable energy goals will require power generation companies to rethink the way they operate, democratising data and increasing visibility for everyone across the enterprise,” said Bob Yeager, President of Emerson’s power and water business.

According to Yeager, Lodestone’s strategy aligns with Emerson’s vision of technology that provides access to critical data across the plant and industrial edge and throughout the enterprise.

Lodestone’s solar PV project requires multiple interfaces to third-party systems, including inverters, high-voltage switchboards, weather stations, site security systems and grid authority remote terminal units. Ovation will connect these devices to provide intuitive visibility for operators. It is also suited to support compliance with New Zealand’s energy participation code.

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/energy/case-study/emerson-to-assist-nz-transition-to-carbon-neutrality-1052050746

Stage 1 of ACEN Australia’s New England Solar project has been opened by the Hon Chris Bowen MP, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, marking a milestone in the project’s six-year journey to generate clean renewable energy into the National Electricity Market (NEM).

Approved by the NSW Government in 2020, the 720 MW (AC) project is being developed in two stages. The first 400 MW (AC) stage has been in construction since March 2021, requiring the installation of close to a million solar panels. It is one of Australia’s largest projects to be participating in the NEM.

The Australian Energy Market Organisation (AEMO) granted New England Solar formal registration to send power into the NEM in December 2022. Stage 1 of the project is expected to be generating at full name plate capacity of 400 MW (AC) in the coming months.

Up to 400 workers were onsite during peak construction activity, upgrading and maintaining roads, installing and building supporting infrastructure, and constructing and connecting tracking systems and installing solar PV modules. About 80% of this peak workforce has been filled by personnel from the New England region.

ACEN Australia CEO Anton Rohner said this is an important milestone for the energy transformation underway across NSW and Australia.

“We decided to build New England Solar on a fully merchant basis to ensure it is online in time to help replace closing coal-fired power stations in NSW. We wanted to get things built, to decarbonise Australia,” Rohner said.

The project is being built with the support of the host landholders, First Nations people and the Uralla community.

“They are at the heart of what we do, and I want to personally thank them for putting their trust in us. Through their support we are together pushing the boundaries of traditional industry thinking and pioneering modern projects for modern energy needs,” Rohner said.

Together with ACEN’s contracting partner, GLC, the project has overcome challenges arising from the pandemic and an extended La Niña weather system.

ACEN Australia is investing more than $5m in community funding into Uralla over the next 25+ years as part of New England Solar.

“We understand the importance of sharing in the benefits that our projects can provide. I’m particularly proud of the work already invested through the Uralla Grants Program, under the stewardship of the project’s Community Reference Group, an independent body consisting of Uralla-based members that brings together a mix of skills and deep understanding of the local region, its history and the people who live here,” Rohner said.

Uralla Grants supports the community to promote resilience, prosperity, sustainability and recreation. At completion of Stage 1 construction, $200,000 in grants will have already been delivered. New England Solar marks the start of ACEN Australia’s journey to provide opportunities for Aboriginal people to participate in renewable energy projects.

“Just as the Anaiwan and Gumbaynggirr people have been doing for thousands of years, today we seek to harness the sun’s resources using new technologies. Our Registered Aboriginal Parties have been a part of New England Solar since the beginning, and I’m so pleased they could join us today for this exciting milestone and welcome us to Country,” Rohner said.

ACEN Australia has more than 1 GW capacity in construction and more than 8 GW capacity in the development pipeline.

According to ACEN CEO Eric Francia, this represents a significant portion of ACEN’s international portfolio, establishing Australia as a stronghold for ACEN’s renewables expansion into the region, working towards the company’s goal of 20 GW of renewables capacity by 2030.

New England Solar is located near Uralla in the NSW Government’s New England Renewable Energy Zone.

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/energy/news/nsw-s-largest-solar-farm-officially-opened-1076387379

Used incontinence products from residential aged care make up half of the landfill waste in the sector. In the search for more environmentally sustainable disposal solutions, operators hit a stumbling block with no suitable options available. Essity, which manufactures and supplies global incontinence brand TENA, launched a large-scale trial to find a better way.

Rochelle Lake leads Essity’s Project Divert, an industry collaboration that is assessing the suitability of pyrolysis technology to dispose of incontinence products during a six-week trial funded by the Commonwealth Government National Product Stewardship Investment Fund.

Lake said when customers started asking for a better solution than landfill, she and her team explored what the waste industry could offer. It turned out no one in the sector had a viable alternative.

Estimates suggest that the amount of absorbent hygiene product waste produced by adults could be up to 10 times that produced by infants by 2030.

“We have an aging population in this country and incontinence product use is rising, so finding a way to deal with this waste is critical,” Lake said.

The Project Divert trial, which launched in early February, is based at the Med-X Healthcare Solutions facility in regional Victoria. It uses pyrolysis technology developed in Victoria by Earth Systems, which heats waste materials in the absence of oxygen, meaning lower emissions than traditional incineration. The waste is then converted to a biochar that may have several commercial applications.

The trial involves 10 waste collection sites across Victoria and will process approximately 16 tonnes of waste over six weeks.

One of the participants in the trial is Arcare Knox Aged Care in Wantirna South, a 115-resident facility that uses more than 1200 incontinence products each week.

CEO Colin Singh said the facility is “keen” to find a more environmentally responsible and cost-effective way to deal with incontinence product waste.

When the trial concludes, TENA and Essity will assess the feasibility of a more permanent solution.

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/waste/case-study/trial-solution-for-aged-care-waste-problem-923034233

Major cities house 72% of the Australian population, with the number of people living in capital cities across Australia growing by 17.1% over the last 20 years. Urban planners play a crucial role in designing areas years in advance of housing construction, to ensure the early provision of housing, schools, neighbourhood centres, infrastructure and amenities.

So, what will our cities look like over the next decade? Award-winning urban planner Mike Day*, from Hatch RobertsDay, has provided insights into the future, his forecast for cities in the coming years and enhancements he believes cities need.

Private transport will become more unaffordable

The RACV and RACQ have found that the costs of owning and running a private vehicle range from $12,000 to $20,000 per year, about 15% of an average household’s income. Day says private vehicle transport costs in disconnected suburban growth areas may become more expensive than housing in the future, with the notion of ‘attainable living’ contending that of ‘attainable housing’.

The future success of growth areas will be dependent on a more ‘urban’ form of walkable neighbourhoods and varied modes of transport. The introduction of transit, schools and separated walking and cycling paths will be a feature of urban patterns. These neighbourhoods will be enhanced through the promotion of mixed-use developments such as courtyard housing, townhouses and residential apartments built above shops. This will lead to the formation of ‘15- and 20-minute neighbourhoods’ that allow residents to leave their homes for daily essentials without relying on a car.

Mixed-use developments will become more popular

Day predicts that mixed-use developments will emerge to create self-contained communities framed around pedestrians, cyclists and diverse forms of micro-mobility, such as e-bikes, mid-tier transit and small-scale electric buses.

Children should be able to walk to school safely

According to Day, walking should be the ‘privileged mode’ of travel. Children should be able to walk and cycle to school from day one in new residential neighbourhoods. He says novel methods of providing ‘interim schools’ should be mandatory in all new housing estates. Successful interim schools in houses, offices and shops have been trialled in South Australia and Western Australia and have wider application in the Eastern States.

Globally, many pilot programs have introduced car-free school zones. Toronto first implemented the program in 2019 to encourage students to walk and cycle to school, as well as reduce exhaust emissions. Adopting the 15- and 20-minute neighbourhood principles across new developments will allow children to walk or cycle to school from day one no matter where they live.

Satellite workspaces should proliferate

Along with the early provision of schools, Day believes there is a need for a more distributed workforce and hybrid workplaces in the growth areas of capital cities.

He says businesses have had three years of remote and hybrid work, with many choosing to keep the workspace model to maintain a better lifestyle, save costs and retain employees.

“Commuting is debilitating for employees and reduces time spent with family members. The business sector should be gearing up to produce ‘satellite’ workspaces in emerging urban growth areas,” Day said.

Many businesses are terminating long-term leases in favour of flexible office spaces with shorter lease terms. Businesses have also adopted co-working spaces for cost-effectiveness and flexibility.

The Australian co-working office spaces market is anticipated to register a compound annual growth rate of more than 4% between 2023 and 2028.

New cities need to emerge

The time to be thinking about potential sites for new cities and to provide attainable housing and jobs in new self-contained cities serviced by high-speed rail in rural areas is now. As Australia’s fastest growing city, Melbourne increased by 806,800 people between 2011 and 2021, and is experiencing severe congestion, commuting and affordability issues. By 2041, the number of people living in the City of Melbourne is expected to double.

According to Day, there is potential for eight cities to be built along a Sydney–Melbourne high-speed rail line which could provide distributed workplaces and more attainable housing for residents.

“When developing these new cities, we must learn from history and consider major environmental factors, such as flooding. Building in resilience to environmental disasters requires transformative action years ahead of construction. Unprecedented floods in NSW and Queensland have resulted in devastating outcomes. While relocating existing flood-prone settlements to higher ground and creating new towns might be challenging and expensive, disastrous events years in the future can be avoided,” Day said.

The eastern states will benefit from high-speed rail between cities

Day encourages the development of high-speed rail between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, citing countries such as France and China as examples. China has developed trains which reach speeds of 600 km per hour, which could see travel between Sydney and Melbourne take 1.5 hours.

Exploring value-capture creation of land surrounding high-speed transport hubs servicing future cities

The creation of a high-speed rail link between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne presents an opportunity to explore value-creation-capture of rural landholdings near stations, including the provision of attainable housing and enterprises. Sale of land within close proximity of the stations will defray the cost of building these connections.

Urban developers could integrate attainable self-contained studios in their home builds

Day says there will be an increase in the demand for dwellings in the coming years — and studios above garages or granny flats are a novel and cost-effective solution for accommodating key workers and people of modest means.

“Low-cost investment options, such as granny flats, can help meet the increased demand and population growth. Ancillary dwelling or granny flats can be built in rear yards or above rear garages, and are significantly cheaper to build than houses. At around $100,000 to build, they can be rented out for around $100–200 per week. They help keep families together through intergenerational living and are a more attainable option for many young people.”

*Day is a Partner at urban planning and design practice Hatch RobertsDay, the urban solutions division of Hatch. He has over 30 years of experience in planning and design and has led the Hatch RobertsDay teams on a range of urban renewal and townships projects across Australia, the UAE and Asia. He is a fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia, a former board member of the East Perth Redevelopment Authority and Deputy Chair of the Subiaco Redevelopment Authority. He is currently a member of the Committee for Melbourne’s Liveablity + Urban Optimisation Standing Committee, a member of the Victorian Division of the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s Sustainability & Innovation Committee and was formerly the Chair of the Housing Industry Association WA Planning and Development Committee. In 2018, Day was the recipient of the Place Leaders Asia Pacific Award for Leadership in Promoting Walkable Urbanism and received the Russell Taylor Award for Design Excellence for Ellenbrook New Town — Australia’s most awarded urban development project, which was the recipient of the FIABCI 2015 World Prix d’Excellence for the world’s best masterplanned community.

Image credit: iStock.com/DLMcK

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/sustainability/article/urban-planner-forecasts-the-future-of-aussie-cities-458192902

Wildfire smoke promotes chemical reactions that contribute to the destruction of stratospheric ozone, a paper in Nature has suggested. These findings increase concerns that more frequent and intense wildfires could delay ozone recovery as the climate warms.

The Australian wildfires of 2019–2020 sent plumes of smoke high into the atmosphere, where it was transported around the world. The smoke was associated with changes in the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere, including a decline in stratospheric levels of ozone. However, the mechanism of how wildfire smoke might contribute to ozone depletion has remained uncertain.

Susan Solomon and colleagues proposed that the mixture of chemicals in wildfire smoke enhances the activation of chlorine radicals — molecules that can destroy ozone. The authors tested their hypothesis by comparing atmospheric observations to model simulations, which reproduce the observed ozone depletion during the Australian wildfires. Their findings indicated that wildfire aerosol chemistry has the potential to contribute to ozone depletion.

Experts have reacted to this research, giving their thoughts on the study by Solomon. The authors note that other reactions beyond those studied here may also be important and recommend further investigation of the effects of different aerosols in the stratosphere.

Roger Dargaville from the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University has conducted research on stratospheric ozone depletion. He said high-energy ultraviolet radiation would render the surface of the Earth uninhabitable without a healthy stratospheric ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, has contributed to lower levels of dangerous chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) entering the environment; however, smoke from extreme bushfires entering the stratosphere has increased the potency of chlorine in the atmosphere, risking the progress made through the Montreal Protocol.

Olaf Morgenstern, Principal Scientist – Atmosphere and Climate at NIWA, said large bushfires are set to become more common as a consequence of global warming. This can inject large quantities of smoke aerosol into the stratosphere, contributing to the Antarctic ozone hole by activating chlorine at a high temperature.

Laura Revell, Associate Professor in the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences at the University of Canterbury, said that there are still substantial amounts of chlorine in the stratosphere following the widespread use of CFCs in the 1970s and 1980s. These cause the Antarctic ozone hole to form each spring, though early signs of its recovery have been visible since the mid-2010s. Without any major changes, chlorine concentrations will gradually decrease this century and the ozone hole will get smaller year by year.

The Australian bushfires were a rare event that can enhanced ozone loss, with Solomon and colleagues finding that wildfire aerosol chemistry led to a 3–5% depletion of southern mid-latitude stratospheric ozone during 2020 and a larger-than-expected Antarctic ozone hole the same year. According to Revell, this is not a huge loss, but it is significant considering the ozone layer should only be increasing by 1% per decade due to CFC bans. With wildfires likely to become more frequent, this is a concern for the future of ozone recovery.

Professor Ian Rae from the University of Melbourne’s School of Chemistry said, “Ozone is continuously formed and destroyed in the stratosphere. As a result of these competing processes, there is a steady, albeit small, concentration of ozone up there and because it absorbs ultraviolet light, we gain a measure of protection from this skin-damaging radiation.”

He spoke further of the Montreal Protocol and CFCs, supporting the views of the other scientists in the matter.

“The nature of the chemical reactions is not completely nailed down but the overall picture is probably correct. Unlike the way nations dealt with the CFCs, I don’t think there will be another ‘Montreal Protocol’ for bushfires, which the authors warn are likely to become more frequent under climate change that we can already see happening,” Rae said.

Martin Jucker from the University of New South Wales and Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes said Australia is of particular interest because its bushfires may lead to an extension of the ozone hole equatorward, which would see the ozone layer move closer to where Australians live. If more bushfires are expected in the future, it may lead to a slower ozone layer recovery.

“In addition, the study confirms once again that when it comes to climate, all things are connected, and events of which we think we know the effects can in fact have many more far-reaching consequences. The authors also rightly point out that there are still many basic mechanisms we don’t understand, even in a subject like the ozone hole which we thought was a solved problem,” Jucker said.

Image credit: iStock.com/No-Mad

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/sustainability/news/the-effects-of-the-black-summer-bushfires-on-the-ozone-layer-584045845

Research from CSIRO and the University of Southern Queensland has found that global coffee production is facing major threats due to increasing and concurrent hazards fuelled by climate change.

The researchers found that climate hazards across the top 12 coffee-producing regions globally, such as extremes in temperature and rainfall, had increased in every region between 1980 and 2020, and are occurring in multiple locations at the same time.

This research, published in PLOS Climate, provides a look into the changing nature of hazards to coffee production on a global scale.

Doug Richardson, a scientist who led the research while at CSIRO, said coffee is a sensitive crop vulnerable to climate change, which can fail if the annual average temperature and rainfall is not within an optimal range.

“The frequency of climate events has been increasing over the last 40 years and we see clear evidence of global warming playing a role, as the predominant types of climate hazards have shifted from cold and wet to warm and dry. Since 1980, global coffee production has become increasingly at risk of synchronised crop failures, which can be driven by climate hazards that affect multiple coffee-producing areas simultaneously,” he said.

James Risbey, CSIRO scientist, said recurring climate patterns are important predictors of hazards in coffee-growing regions. For example, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) can help predict hazards in regions such as tropical South America, Indonesia and Vietnam. In some good news for Southern Brazil, the largest producer of Arabica coffee, ENSO appears to have less of an impact.

“Southern Brazil could therefore help to dampen coffee production shocks felt elsewhere during significant ENSO events like prolonged cool weather (La Niña) or warm weather (El Niño),” Risbey said.

Previous international research found that land suitable for growing coffee globally could be reduced by up to 50% by 2050.

Image credit: iStock.com/iLumeniiStudio

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/sustainability/news/climate-change-threatening-global-coffee-supply-csiro-finds-98034075

Schneider Electric has partnered with Avarni, a carbon management platform helping companies understand emissions exposure, to leverage AI-enabled technology to accelerate decarbonisation across the value chain.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has estimated Scope 3 emissions to be 11 times greater than a company’s direct emissions. As a result, corporations are increasingly pursuing Scope 3 emission reduction targets in response to rising legislative and investor pressures to act on climate change. However, due to complexities in extracting data and insights from the value chain, the quantification and reduction of emissions beyond Scope 1 and 2 is difficult for companies.

Under the partnership, the two companies will pair their technologies to help clients understand, report and forecast the Scope 3 footprint of value chains, accelerating the availability of data to increase impact. Avarni’s digital AI capabilities and emissions insights will be delivered via Schneider’s EcoStruxure Resource Advisor software. These technologies and Schneider’s global value chain decarbonisation consulting services will improve the quality and accessibility of Scope 3 and value chain data, helping companies understand their complete climate exposure to set actionable targets for emissions reductions.

Tony Yammine, Avarni CEO and Co-Founder, said addressing Scope 3 emissions has increased in priority for Australian and global organisations. Companies are seeking to understand the impact of these emissions on their ability to reach net zero.

“A tangible solution is required, which is why we couldn’t think of a better partner than Schneider Electric to fundamentally change how organisations process their Scope 3 footprint to address value chain decarbonisation,” Yammine said.

The approach will give companies access to tangible insights to encourage faster and more comprehensive decarbonisation program development and engagement strategies. This will help corporations build greater supplier capacity for environmental impact while improving business outcomes.

“Decarbonising a global value chain is a significant undertaking that impacts enterprise companies and their partners, creating new challenges and expectations for both parties,” said Steve Wilhite, President for Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Business.

According to Wilhite, the collaboration will accelerate the Scope 3 decarbonisation pathway from data aggregation, to commitment, to action.

Image credit: iStock.com/Drbouz

source http://sustainabilitymatters.net.au/content/sustainability/news/accelerating-scope-3-decarbonisation-25684432