The report is another practical tool issued by the United Nations Global Compact to guide companies in implementing the Paris climate Agreement, following the “Corporate Carbon Neutrality Roadmap” released in July 2021. Last year, Lenovo Group’s low-carbon practice was selected as an advanced enterprise practice case. Compared to last year, this year’s report puts more emphasis on “net zero emissions” rather than the narrow definition of “carbon neutrality” in setting corporate climate goals. The report encourages companies to set scientific carbon targets to achieve net zero emissions and work together to ensure that emissions are cut by at least 90% by 2050 compared to 2020 levels.

Different from the much-discussed carbon neutrality goal in the early days, the net zero goal is considered to be the gold standard for deep decarbonization of industries and enterprises. The goal is not just to achieve “neutral” emissions and absorption, but to require companies to commit to reducing all greenhouse gas emissions that can be reduced, and then through other ways to achieve and maintain net zero status in the long term, to reduce absolute emissions in support of global climate goals. Compared with carbon neutrality, the net zero goal has higher requirements for enterprises to reduce emissions, and the low-carbon transition is more thorough.

The report notes that while greenhouse gas emissions come from all sectors, the agri-food, manufacturing and TMT sectors are of particular concern. On the one hand, because these three industries are the backbone of promoting the sustainable development of human society, such as the TMT industry to promote digital transformation and technological innovation. On the other hand, the value chain of these three industries spans many upstream and downstream industries, and their related industries together account for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, the TMT sector alone accounts for only 2 to 4 percent of global emissions, but because it involves so many other sectors, it has a significant role to play in driving greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

As for how to achieve net zero emissions, the report pointed out that TMT enterprises should carry out deep emission reduction through internal operations, strengthen the low carbon management of the supply chain, strengthen the low carbon cooperation of ecological partners, and product innovation and recycling. Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group, said: “Climate change is a major challenge facing mankind in the 21st century. To achieve net zero emissions as soon as possible has become the bounden responsibility of all parties. Lenovo’s net Zero emissions goal is guided by the latest climate science and through standardized verification mechanisms to continuously verify our emission reduction targets and progress, in support of the long-term goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C.”

Scientific carbon targets lead

Lenovo Group to achieve net zero emissions across the value chain by 2050

As one of the earliest enterprises in China to participate in ESG practice, Lenovo Group joined the United Nations Global Compact as early as 2009, and was the first high-tech manufacturing enterprise in China to pass the net zero target verification of the Scientific Carbon Target Initiative (SBTi), and pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions of the entire value chain by the 2049/50 fiscal year.

In the roadmap, Lenovo’s long-term goal is to reduce the absolute greenhouse gas emissions of Scope 1, 2 and 3 by 90% from the baseline level of fiscal year 2018/19 by fiscal year 2049/50. “Scope 1” refers to direct emissions from sources directly controlled or owned by the company, “Scope 2” includes indirect emissions from energy purchases, and “Scope 3” covers all other emissions that occur along the entire value chain, such as Lenovo Global Logistics, customer use of products, and so on.