Salesforce Net Zero Cloud: How it Works and How to Get Started
Carbon emissions reduction is not a CSR activity anymore but a necessity for business sustainability. Fast-track your Net Zero goals with the leading solution — Salesforce Net Zero Cloud.
With the adoption of climate change treaties like the Paris Accord, more than 196 countries have agreed to commit to a legally binding system for reducing their emission footprints.
All major emitters like China, the US, Europe, and India have committed to bringing the temperatures down to 1.5 degrees below the preindustrial level. More and more countries are bringing legislation and adopting policies to encourage their organizations to track, report, and reduce their carbon footprints.
Environmental consciousness among citizens has also increased. 87% of consumers want their companies to produce products ethically, with minimal environmental impact. Consumers are also willing to switch to environmentally conscious brands, resulting in a 20% jump in their revenues.
If you understand that carbon emissions reduction is no longer a CSR activity, but a necessary initiative for business sustainability, this blog will help you learn about a leading greener technology called Salesforce Net Zero Cloud and how it defines the sustainability roadmap for you to proceed.
Table of Content
- What Does it Mean to Become a Net Zero Company?
- How does Salesforce Net Zero Cloud Work?
- How Salesforce Net Zero Helps Track and Reduce Emissions?
- Net Zero Implementation Roadmap by Jade
What Does it Mean to Become a Net Zero Company?
Every business generates greenhouse gases (GHG) through its activities, such as manufacturing, travel, transportation, and farming. These activities contribute to global warming, primarily through six gases, including carbon dioxide, perfluorocarbons, methane, and hydrofluorocarbons.
When a business’ greenhouse gas emissions are more than it removes from the atmosphere, it can be called an Emitter. Now, the crucial need of the hour is to move ahead from being an Emitter to Net Zero and then to Climate Positive.
Becoming a Net Zero Company means that a business has adopted Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring that the amount it adds to the atmosphere is no more than what is taken away.
Understanding Emission Sources: Scope 1/2/3
To adopt ESG principles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, businesses must first understand their emission sources. The categories that help businesses categorize their emissions are Scope 1/2/3.
- Scope 1 tracks direct emissions caused by assets or things the business owns and controls.
- Scope 2 tracks indirect emissions created due to the production of energy or fuel the business purchases to run its operations.
- Scope 3 tracks indirect emissions that come from the usage of the business’s products by customers or suppliers who make or supply goods.
As organizations strive to reduce their carbon footprint and meet their sustainability goals, they face the challenge of managing their emissions. This is where Salesforce Net Zero comes in handy, providing a cloud-based solution that simplifies the carbon accounting process and enables businesses to reduce their emissions.
Let’s understand how Salesforce Net Zero helps you become a Net Zero Company.
How Does Salesforce Net Zero Cloud Work?
Salesforce Net Zero Cloud is an innovative and comprehensive sustainability management solution that enables businesses to manage their emissions footprint by tracking greenhouse gas emissions.
The solution is designed to be a single source of truth for emissions data reporting and auditing. It allows reporting for CXOs under any Cap-and-Trade auditing program.
Salesforce Cloud Supports Your Net Zero Journey in Five Stages.
Identification of Assets and Emission Sources
Salesforce Net Zero cloud helps a business identify its assets and emission sources. This involves capturing data related to electricity emissions, fuel usage for generators and vehicles, and other sources contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Once the data is in place, the organization can understand the number of emissions they are responsible for in a particular period.
Forecast
Next, the tool helps you with the forecast, where a target is defined. The recommended target is to adhere to the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set by the Paris Accord, which aims to prevent global warming from rising over 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Net Zero Cloud tool produces a forecast based on the organization’s existing emissions and then the set target. For example, an organization can set a short-term target to reduce carbon emissions by 2035. The tool then computes the total emissions and forecasts how much emissions need to be reduced per year to achieve the target on time.
Target Commitment
The third step is to make the target commitment; the commitment can be kept internally or announced publicly. The organization can commit to reducing emissions and highlight the progress on its website or publicly announce it. To validate the commitment, the organization can apply to the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) and get it approved.
Reduce Emissions and Achieve Net Zero Status
The fourth step is to strategize the emission reduction initiatives to achieve the ultimate goal of Net Zero status. The best practice is to start with abatement by developing a clear roadmap of actions to prevent, reduce, or eliminate GHG emissions associated with business operations. Salesforce Net Zero Cloud simplifies the carbon accounting process and enables businesses to reduce their emissions.
How Salesforce Net Zero Helps Track and Reduce Emissions
Automatic Scope Categorization for Emissions
One of the challenges in managing emissions is categorizing them correctly. Salesforce Net Zero addresses this issue by automatically categorizing emissions into defined scopes aligned with GHG protocols. It allows internal stakeholders to override certain emission scopes as per their decisions. This simplifies the process of emission accounting and ensures accuracy in reporting.
Tracks Assets and Their Energy Usage
Salesforce Net Zero enables businesses to track all diverse assets, even those in multiple locations, and maintain them as a single source of truth. It eliminates the need for specially designed spreadsheets for tracking emissions, which can be time-consuming and difficult to maintain.
The solution also comes loaded with data sets from different environmental agencies, making collating data and calculating the total emissions output easier.
Reference Data Sets for Comparisons
To calculate a business’s energy consumption and activity data, Salesforce Net Zero uses reference data sets to compare emissions with the global or regional average. For example, the solution has data sets from eGRID electricity maps that enable businesses to compare their electricity consumption data with others in their region or country.
Automatic Emission Calculations for Different Fuels
Salesforce Net Zero simplifies the process of emission calculations by automatically referencing loaded data sets. It automatically calculates emissions based on the specific fuel used: diesel, CNG, or electricity consumption. This eliminates the need for manual calculations, ensuring accuracy and efficiency in the carbon accounting process.
Built-in Dashboards for Insights
It comes with built-in dashboards that provide insights into carbon-emitting assets, enabling businesses to create a climate action plan to reduce emissions. For example, the Climate Action dashboard provides insights into where and how emissions are generated, helping businesses identify the areas that need attention.
Likewise, there is the supplier dashboard that gives an overview of the emissions the suppliers make. Then, the business travel dashboard tracks how much emission has been emitted by which departments, for example finance, marketing, etc.
Net Zero Marketplace
Salesforce Net Zero recently launched the Net Zero Marketplace, where businesses can trade carbon credits as a permit for avoided CO2 emissions.
Carbon credits permit businesses to emit one metric ton of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas. Carbon credits are traded in the Cap-and-Trade program, allowing businesses to offset their emissions by purchasing credits from other companies.
This enables organizations to compensate for emissions and meet sustainability goals, while supporting global carbon reduction projects.
Net Zero Cloud Implementation Roadmap by Jade
The following image provides a quick overview of Jade’s Implementation Roadmap for Salesforce Net Zero Cloud:
If you are looking to implement Salesforce Net Zero Cloud for your organization, Jade can partner with you in your great initiative towards climate change.
Jade can fast-track your sustainability journey with our state-of-the-art Ready demo, which helps configure the Salesforce Net Zero Cloud in just 6 to 8 weeks. Our Quick Starter MVP model provides end-to-end implementation, followed by integrations, enhancements, and managed services.
To check out Jade’s Net Zero Cloud configured in our demo org, please connect with Jade.
