Beyond our business
With COP27 approaching fast and with recent developments from the United Nations stating commitments being ‘nowhere near’ hitting climate targets [1], the ongoing lack of progress in limiting our average global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees is on many people’s minds, and quite rightly so. After personally seeing some of the damage extending to the most remote places on the planet, Antarctica, I understand how one can oftentimes feel at a loss as to what they can do to tangibly help. I believe understanding the problem is always a good place to start.
The largest contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is from the use of energy: electricity and heat production, industry, transportation, and other energy accounts for around 70% of all global anthropogenic GHG emissions [2]. Decarbonising these vast sectors is a great challenge, but also a huge opportunity.
Some parts of these heavy hitting sectors can be directly electrified i.e. personal vehicles, which, despite the ambiguity and lack of a standardisation of total lifetime emissions (standardised cradle-to-grave lifecycle assessment [3]) reporting, can be argued is a step towards the right direction in decarbonisation compared to transitional fossil based alternatives. However, there are many industries in so called ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors such as steel and ammonia production, and long-haul transportation in marine, which cannot be directly addressed through electrification.
One of the promising solutions to decarbonise these less commonly discussed and heavily polluting sectors is Ceres’ solid oxide technology, which is applicable to both low to zero carbon power generation; useful for data centres, long haul marine transport and commercial buildings, and in the production of green hydrogen; useful in decarbonising heavy industry such as steel and ammonia.
Whilst on this journey to accelerate the world towards clean energy, Ceres understands that its operations have material environmental sustainability risks, impacts on stakeholders and on wider society. After understanding its’ sustainability considerations, Ceres undertook a materiality assessment to find out which of its impacts are most important to its stakeholders, both internal and external.
This is the basis of Ceres’ ongoing environmental, social and governance (ESG) programme, initiatives, and standards. We are laying out the beginnings of our sustainability strategy and will look to use this analysis of our current operations as a base for future metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to which we will hold ourselves accountable
Despite this work we have been doing internally, we are looking to make this information more easily accessible for those external to the business. This is what our inaugural report aims to impart: Ceres’ ongoing commitment to the sustainable development of our business and to do the right thing for our people, our communities, and the planet.
Read Ceres’ Sustainability Report.
[1] Current emissions pledges will lead to catastrophic climate breakdown, says UN | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian
[2] Global Emissions – Center for Climate and Energy SolutionsCenter for Climate and Energy Solutions (c2es.org)
[3] Academic: ‘Mandatory EU labelling is the only way to fight proliferation of ecolabels’ – EURACTIV.com