ENGIE Impact has set a goal to be carbon negative by 2021. While ENGIE Impact offset all of its emissions already in 2019, our carbon goal calls for increased methodological rigor, science-based reduction of our carbon footprint, and an innovative strategy to compensate for our residual emissions. In 2020, we aim to reach carbon neutrality, and by 2021, we aim to be carbon negative by avoiding or removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit annually. Leading this strategy are some of the world's foremost sustainability consultants on carbon markets and greenhouse gas accounting across voluntary and regulated markets.

Steps to reach our carbon negative goal:

1. Exhaust all internal carbon reduction opportunities. By evolving our policies and programs to implement more efficient ways of working, we will make every effort to first reduce our emissions.
2. Adopt leading sustainability standards. We follow the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to measure our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions footprints, as well as leverage our advanced digital tools, greenhouse gas accounting expertise and financial incentives to set and meet data-driven targets rooted in science.
3. Become carbon negative in 2021. We will invest in high-quality greenhouse gas reduction projects and clean energy certificate products to compensate for our remaining emissions. We are still exploring which opportunities exist, such as direct investment in carbon capture and utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies and projects, purchasing more Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) than we emit, or other approaches to supporting global reductions in emissions.
4. Build and serve markets of tomorrow. ENGIE Impact works in partnership with our clients and other leading institutions to shape emerging carbon markets. We are working actively to inform new guidance and approaches to support our clients, our communities and ourselves to advance science-based, credible and robust pathways to decarbonization, leveraging both market- and non-market-based approaches.

Our main carbon driver is the way we work, which has been predominantly remote this year. That’s why we’re empowering our employees to become sustainability champions in the office, at home, and in their communities. With that in mind, we’ve been using The Community, our dedicated employee engagement platform, to create awareness and promote more sustainable behaviors. The platform allows us all to connect across the ENGIE Impact at large to participate in sustainability projects throughout the year.

This quarter, we also celebrated a major milestone, Carbon Neutrality. After a thorough assessment of high-quality offset projects to neutralize our 2020 footprint, we engaged our employees to help us make the final decision on Earth Day. 30% of our workforce participated in the initiative (a participation record!). As a result, ENGIE Impact invested in two projects: a carbon sequestration project in Kenya and a deforestation project in Peru.

Our Next Steps to Accelerate Progress to Carbon Negative:

1. Develop standard policies and procedures to measure and reduce emissions in our operations and work with dedicated taskforces to build comprehensive strategies and implementation plans to mitigate emissions. Our focus for the rest of 2021 is business travel, and facilities.
2. Keep identifying high-quality offset projects. To further our climate action on an annual basis, we are investing in projects that avoid and remove carbon from the atmosphere. As our mitigation efforts progress, our reliance on carbon offset and other Environmental Attribute Certificates (EACs) will reduce. In order to meet our 2021 carbon goals, we will be working with our experts to better define how we’re delivering on our carbon negative objective.
3. Implement a best-in-class renewable energy procurement strategy across a highly distributed geographic footprint. We will leverage expertise from global business lines and partners across the ENGIE group to ensure continued use of an orchestrated global strategy with local considerations
4. Leverage our expertise to simplify carbon markets. Our experts are mobilizing rapidly evolving carbon markets by working with a wide range of companies, governments, non-profits and industry leaders. Our work continues with the World Business Council of Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance, and leading institutions including EDF and High Tide to publish a report on Mobilizing Voluntary Carbon Markets to Drive Climate Action.

Steps to reach our water balance goal:

1. Assess global water risks and key local issues. We will analyze our water footprint and local risks facing our global offices, aligning our investment to areas facing the greatest threats.
2. Identify high-impact water stewardship programs to balance our water footprint. Conduct deep analyses of local projects that restore natural ecosystems and watersheds. Ensure that every project we pursue directly addresses the most relevant local issues.
3. Catalyze collective action. Partner with global water stewardship partners to bring clean and healthy water to our highest-risk communities and ecosystems. Work closely with these partners to establish high-quality programs that can be leveraged by our network of international clients.

Our strategy began in 2020 with a review of our water footprint and a scan of our water risks across our North American and global locations. The next step was to collect granular cost and consumption data to create a water baseline for office locations (4.5 million gallons in 2020 in the U.S.). Post-COVID, we evaluated our back-to-office strategy to consider how it will impact water metrics on an ongoing basis. Based on that evaluation, we will finalize the volume of Water Restoration Certificates (WRC) purchases to balance our 2021 U.S. water consumption.

In Europe, we collected and reviewed historical data on water consumption at ENGIE Impact’s main office locations, starting with ENGIE head-offices in Paris and Brussels. In Q3, we will assess the consumption for our first U.K. office in Oxford.

Our Next Steps to Accelerate Progress to Water Balance

1. Select water-restoration projects and purchase credits at the beginning of 2022 in order to balance our U.S. 2021 consumption.
2. Continue to collaborate with industry leaders and ENGIE Group to explore water restoration project opportunities at our global locations. We will identify primary watersheds and their stressors, opportunities for positive watershed impact, and, subsequently, ideal partners for projects at each location to determine optimal resource allocation.
3. Develop international water restoration projects. We will set ambition proportional to the magnitude of the water challenge through the lens of risk, availability, quality, and reputation.

Steps to reach our zero waste goal:

1. Set ambitious, data-driven targets to reach zero waste. Using findings from waste audits at our 13 largest offices and waste invoice data to build an agile, evidence-based roadmap to drive down waste generation and increase diversion.
2. Leverage technology and high-quality data to gain granular diversion insights. Pilot sensor technologies and mobile applications to remotely audit waste and diversion rates. Launch a comprehensive regulatory and bill management tracking program to understand additional variables in each location.
3. Build a best-in-class employee engagement program to minimize downstream waste. Through employee training, instructional office signage and regular data-driven communication, our employees will be essential drivers of our zero waste efforts.
4. Minimize upstream waste. Develop cross-functional teams to identify upstream opportunities to minimize waste generation by evolving our purchasing practices and engaging our supply chain.

Despite the challenges of remote work due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are continuing our pursuit of waste data that will inform our next steps. We adapted our data collection strategy, moving away from on-site waste audits to leverage historical waste data to create temporary baselines. We also piloted a remote waste audit app in Q1 with a small sample of U.S.-based participants for a three-week evaluation period. As we collect more concrete data, we will look to launch the app company-wide. We are continuing to compile e-waste stream data to create U.S. purchasing and end-of-life processes that can then be modeled at all international locations.

Now that some offices have reopened, our waste team is starting to deploy audits to help with our baseline waste consumption. As offices in Europe started reopening during Q2, our European waste team was able to carry out a first Waste Characterization Audit at T1, ENGIE’s global head office in Paris. The team analyzed 195 kg of waste generated by 715 ENGIE employees who worked from the office on that day, in order to establish a first baseline and diversion rate (around 50% excluding canteen). Recommendations were issued to the local Facility Maintenance team with regard to signposting and waste handling. As more employees return to office, and depending on the evolution of COVID-19, we will conduct two to three waste audits in ENGIE Impact's European facilities before the end of the year and one in Spokane, our biggest office in the U.S.

Our Next Steps to Accelerate Progress to Zero Waste:

1. Expand remote waste audit app:  As COVID conditions evolve, we will have more visibility into when we can come back to the office and schedule audits. As we gain valuable insights from our pilot group, we will expand the pilot internationally.
2. Launch employee engagement campaigns:  We will be launching three campaigns on our internal employee engagement platform to educate employees on the concept of ‘zero waste’ and their role in achieving our goal. The three campaigns will focus on identifying each employee’s individual waste journeys, giving more employees the opportunity to participate in remote waste audits. A robust communication plan and change management plan are currently being developed.
3. Gather e-waste data: As part of our work to reduce our digital footprint, we will work with ICT hardware providers to understand the lifecycle assessment of the products we purchase, and establish purchasing and end-of-life processes as we work toward our goal of standardizing green purchasing by the end of 2022.