Companies everywhere are taking a new approach to managing their carbon footprint-focused on deep reductions in emissions rather than cheap offsets. This is difficult: companies must consider all emissions, and reduce them deeply.

The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse‑gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres

When a company sets an SBT, it starts by picking a temperature target, and then works backwards to the emissions reductions consistent with that goal. SBTs must count down from your most recent emissions inventory-meaning no credit for prior reductions.SBTi only gives credit for true reductions in your carbon footprint, not carbon offsets or avoided emissions.

SBTs must incorporate 95% of Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and all Scope 3 emissions if they equal 40% or more of the whole.

Scope 1 and 2. These are the emissions that a company controls. 

Companies must set targets for Scopes 1 and 2 that result in a steep reduction in absolute emissions.

Companies have three choices for reductions here:

Scope 3. This is where it gets tricky. Companies have three choices for reductions here:

• Absolute reductions: cutting total Scope 3 emissions each year
• Intensity targets: a reduction in emission per unit of business activity, which can be measured relative to specific units like items manufactured or total dollars earned.
• Supplier engagement: a target for how many of a company’s vendors set their own SBTs. This is the magic of the SBT framework, enabling ambitious targets to cascade down supply chains.

These options are popular for fast-growing companies who expect their emissions to grow in absolute terms, but who want to get greener as they scale.

These options can be mixed-and-matched, as long as they collectively cover two-thirds of Scope 3 emissions.

Net zero

Traditionally, science-based targets focused on emissions reductions; net zero targets go a step further to remove whatever carbon remains.

The four key requirements:

• Set a short-term science-based target for reducing emissions in the next 5-10 years
• Set a long-term science-based target for reducing emissions in the long term
• Permanently remove whatever carbon remains in your target year
• Fund projects in the meantime that accelerate decarbonization

How to create an SBT

Step #1: Commit

Submit your official commitment to SBTi.

Your letter of intent must reflect one of two commitments: either reducing your emissions consistent with a 2°C global target, or the more ambitious 1.5°C. Though SBTi is phasing out the 2ºC option, since it’s increasingly clear that we need to stay below 1.5°C to avoid the worst of climate change.

Step #2: Develop

Once your letter of intent is acknowledged by SBTi, a 24-month countdown begins for you to put together a detailed plan on how much you’ll reduce emissions, by when.

Validation typically takes 30 days, and may involve a “Revise and resubmit” request before a final answer is reached-most commonly because the submitter failed to account for all their Scope 3 emissions in their initial inventory.

Step #3: Submit

Once you submit your target, the SBTi team will validate them to ensure they meet the SBTi criteria.

Step #4: Communicate

Once your target(s) have been officially validated, let your stakeholders know that it’s game on.

Step #5: Disclose

With your official SBT and ongoing measurements in hand, the final step is to share it all publicly—both to promote transparency and to meet increasing disclosure requirements.