Unilever and Oatly test drive a new framework for capturing corporate climate action

Unilever and other companies are trialling a new framework designed to capture corporate action on climate that goes beyond traditional emissions-based accounting.

The “Spheres of Influence” framework focuses on initiatives that companies take in product development, climate finance and policy engagement. It’s designed to sit alongside — rather than replace — action to reduce value-chain emissions.

“It’s a big fix when it comes to sustainability strategy,” said Matthew Sexton, chief transformation officer at Futerra, the consultancy that developed the framework in collaboration with Oxford Net Zero, a University of Oxford research initiative. Companies can now talk about this kind of work in a way that’s “risk free, rigorous and credible,” he added.

Products, portfolios and policy

The concept, which is also being tested by Oatly, Chanel and the Japanese chemicals and cosmetics company Kao, is built around three spheres in which companies can exert influence:

• Bringing to market and scaling new low-emissions products and services
• Channeling finance to a portfolio of climate solutions, including through the purchase of high-integrity carbon credits
• Public and policy engagement to “foster a more supportive context for climate action”

Caroline Reid, senior sustainability director at plant-based milk company Oatly, heard about the framework at last year’s Climate Week NYC. Oatly was already measuring the extent to which its customers switch from dairy milk to the company’s lower-carbon alternatives, quantifying the emissions avoided in the process. It has a target of avoiding the emissions of at least 0.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per liter of oat milk sold by 2030.

“They were talking about how we already do things,” recalled Reid, “but they want to codify it.” Reid and colleagues later provided input into the development of the first formal iteration of the framework, released this week as a white paper.

“If you codify it and create a standard, then it’s something that’s way more credible and understood,” added Reid.

Future standards

The paper breaks down each sphere into sub-spheres and provides real-world actions that fit in each. Examples within the finance sphere, for instance, include Apple’s Power for Impact project, which funds renewables projects in under-resourced communities, and SteelZero, an initiative under which companies commit to ratcheting up purchases of low-carbon steel.

What the framework doesn’t yet do is quantify the impact of this work or explain how such estimates could be integrated into existing emissions accounting systems, but that’s something that the backers hope a standard-setter will do. “I would love to see this being picked up by the conveyor belt of standards,” said Alice Roche-Naude, sustainability strategy director at Futerra.

Some newer standards and guidelines are already popping up in this space. Companies can earn a “Climate Solutions” qualification from the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, for example, by demonstrating that a product has a footprint that’s at least 50 percent below the market average. Oatly and green-steel manufacturer Stegra are the first two businesses to earn that label.