The push for industrial decarbonization is more urgent than ever. With increasing regulatory pressures, investor expectations, and consumer demand for sustainability, businesses must take decisive action to reduce their carbon footprints. However, while many organizations have set ambitious net-zero targets, they often struggle to move from strategy to execution.
The challenge isn't a lack of commitment—it's knowing where to start and how to make meaningful progress. Companies may have data, goals, and even sustainability initiatives in place, yet they often find it difficult to bring everything together into a clear, actionable plan.
Here are five steps that organizations should take to begin their journey towards decarbonization—covering everything from baseline assessments to stakeholder engagement, near-term action planning, and the role of technology in driving progress.
1. Understanding Your Starting Point: The Importance of a Baseline
Validate Your Carbon Footprint
A fundamental first step in decarbonization is understanding your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile. Before setting reduction targets or investing in solutions, organizations must ensure their GHG footprint is both complete and accurate, across scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, in operations and across the value chain.
An important first step with clients is validating their greenhouse gas emissions footprint—so where they are starting, making sure it's complete and accurate.
Josh Nothwang
Global Director of Sustainability Advisory at Arcadis
Most organizations, particularly those in technology and mobility, begin by measuring scope 1 and 2 emissions, which include direct emissions from operations and indirect emissions from purchased energy. This provides a clear operational footprint and helps identify immediate opportunities for reductions, such as energy and fuel efficiency, alternative energy infrastructure, or transitioning to on- or off-site renewable electricity.
Expanding to Scope 3: Looking Beyond Direct Operations
Once operational emissions are accounted for, the next step is tackling scope 3 emissions, which extend beyond direct operations into an organization's value chain. While scope 3 is itemized into 15 separate categories of emissions, the largest emissions sources are typically:
- Purchased goods and services (direct and indirect materials and services)
- Customer use of products (lifecycle emissions from sold goods and services)
Scope 3 emissions typically represent the largest share of a company's carbon footprint, yet they are also the most challenging to measure and manage. By integrating these emissions into their strategy, organizations can develop more holistic decarbonization plans that address the full impact of their operations.
2. Making Sense of Your Data: Turning Information into Action
Many organizations already have strong building-level data on energy use and sustainability initiatives. However, the challenge is consolidating this information into a clear, organization-wide strategy.
We're seeing that many organizations have great building data; they've made a lot of progress but haven't brought that together in a consolidated way—so they can truly take stock of what they have and where they are going.
Josh Nothwang
Global Director of Sustainability Advisory at Arcadis
Steps to organize and leverage emissions data effectively:
- Ensure all data sources (energy consumption, fleet emissions, travel logs) are centralized
- Identify gaps in data collection and address those gaps, while standardizing reporting across sites and operations.
- Use visualization tools to interpret the data and pinpoint both areas of high impact and potential reduction opportunities.
By taking stock of existing efforts and bringing everything into a cohesive framework, organizations can move beyond fragmented sustainability efforts and start making data-driven decisions.
3. Engaging the Right Stakeholders: Building a Cross-Functional Strategy
Decarbonization cannot be tackled by the sustainability team alone—it requires buy-in across the entire organization. "It's not just operations, it's not just corporate sustainability. In many cases, all function of the organization should be involved in the decarbonization journey," says Josh. Many organizations fail to make progress because they limit sustainability efforts to a single department, rather than integrating them into core organizational functions.
Key stakeholders who should be involved:
- Operations & Facilities Management
Implementing energy efficiency and other decarbonization measures. - Finance & Procurement
Identifying and quantifying cost-effective investments, as well as methods of financing them. - HR & Employee Engagement
Encouraging sustainable workplace behaviors and leveraging the employee base to both identify improvements and help implement them. - Executive Leadership
Showing support and buy-in while championing sustainability throughout the organization, embedding it into long-term business strategy.
By ensuring all departments play a role in decarbonization, organizations can drive organization-wide commitment and accelerate progress.
4. Developing a Tangible Near-Term Roadmap
Josh mentions that many organizations have already set long-term net-zero goals, but struggle to identify the steps needed to make progress in the near term. Creating an actionable roadmap is key to maintaining momentum.
Prioritizing Low-Cost & No-Cost Measures
Some of the most effective decarbonization actions require little to no upfront investment:
- Lighting retrofits
Upgrading to LED lighting for immediate energy savings. - Optimizing Building Management Systems (BMS)
Improving HVAC efficiency and smart controls. - Employee behavior change
Encouraging responsible commuting and travel habits.
These "quick wins" provide immediate benefits while laying the groundwork for larger, long-term initiatives.
5. Leveraging Technology and Innovation
Digital tools and data visualization solutions can streamline decarbonization technology and planning and help organizations make informed decisions.
How technology supports decarbonization:
- Scenario modeling
Helping businesses assess different pathways to net zero. - Supply chain analysis
Identifying opportunities to manage risk in the supply chain and source low-carbon materials and services. - Automated reporting
Simplifying emissions tracking and compliance.
For example, a pharmaceutical client used digital modeling to ensure their new manufacturing site aligned with their own net zero objectives, while an automotive client leveraged data analytics to identify the lowest-carbon material alternatives for their vehicle components.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
