Navigating Scope 3 Emissions with Optera’s Tim Weiss

This is Techstrong tv. Welcome to techron tv. I'm Bonnie Schneider, and today we're joined by Tim Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Appera, a company that helps corporations measure, manage, and reduce their carbon emissions.

Tim has been a driving force in corporate climate action working closely with Fortune 500 companies and the World Economic Forum. Tim, it's great to have you here on Techstrong tv. It's a pleasure to be here.

Thank you. Well, Tim, first can you share a little bit more about your background and what led you to focus your career in this climate tech space? Yeah, I'd say it, it started pretty far back, um, back when I was an undergraduate at Colorado College.

Um, I realized early on that, um, I was a bit of a data nerd with a big heart. This is kind of the way I describe it. Um, and I found that fundamentally, issues that related to environmental issues and climate change are really well suited to me as a human and what I care about.

Um, I care about the future of our planet and I care, uh, and I, and I'm really gratified and, and find a lot of fulfillment in applying the tools of economics and, and, and business to solve those problems at scale. Um, I began kind of early in my career in focusing in renewable energy in, in Sub-Saharan Africa and figuring out how to scale kinda access to renewable technology and in, in ultimately areas where people had no access to electricity or, or, or the grid. Um, and have since it, later in my career after business school, realized that there is a massive opportunity at, at a global scale to really influence how we're transitioning to the low carbon economy.

Um, and I felt that really targeting and focusing on kind of the corporate sector, um, is where I can use my skills and, and abilities, uh, to the greatest effect to influence kind of, uh, how we may have a livable planet in the future for future generations. That's great. Um, I'd like to ex explain to our audience what Scope three emissions are.

People have heard of them, but they may not understand, uh, what it is and, and, and, you know, if their company is, is exhibiting Scope three emissions, which many are, can you kind of demystify the term for everyone? Yeah. The simplest, the simplest way to describe it is, uh, and I'll, I'll kind of talk about, there are three emissions scopes overall.

Um, scope one emissions are the most obvious and, and, and easy to understand where, um, it's essentially the emissions coming from any asset, anything that you own that combusts fuel, and it has emissions from the source. So anything that actually emits, uh, anything that would, would have a gro global warming or greenhouse gas effect. Um, so any car, plane, train, automobile, um, you know, natural gas furnace, things of that nature.

Scope two emissions are the emissions from the energy that you purchase, so from the electricity. So you're not emitting those emissions directly. You're consuming the energy that results in emissions.

All of those. Scope one and two really stems from the things that you directly own, the things that you directly operate. Um, we are in a place where we are a very interconnected globe, um, and organizations and companies do not, are not vertically integrated, right?

And so they don't actually produce from the raw materials outta the ground to a finished product. They don't actually do all of that work. They outsource it, they outsource it to their supply chain.

Um, and then there are emissions downstream of them, right? The emissions that come from the use of those products, um, around the world. Scope three emissions is ultimately the emissions that stem from those third parties.

It's the emissions that stem from the suppliers that you rely on. If you are Dell one, one of the companies we work with, um, Dell cannot really operate their business without their supply chain. They also can't deliver value to clients without energy being consumed in those laptops and those PCs and those things that, that, that they're selling ultimately.

And so for them to decarbonize as an full organization, they have to cooperate, collaborate, and, and drive meaningful progress across these third parties, across their supply chain, across their customers. Um, and that's really what Scope three emissions are. It's those third party emissions that are essential to running your business.

So how should organizations identify and then address Scope three emissions? Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. It's, it's really hard to to know where to start for most organizations.

'cause this is a massive, uh, a massive problem across, you know, spanning across the globe, given the globalization of our, of our economy. Um, the way to start is to figure out where your most material risks song, um, and ultimately for you to tie that to direct and actionable information. Um, and so if you have a supply chain consisting of 10,000 suppliers, you don't need data from 10,000 suppliers to get started.

What you need is to understand what are the most pivotal commodities to, um, kind of de developing your product or running your business, and who is providing those who are your most material suppliers. And you need as much granular and actionable information on those entities as you can. Um, because that's where the levers are for change.

That's where the levers are for you to ultimately de-risk your business and adapt to the low carbon economy. You're not gonna engage with every 10,000, you know, all 10,000 of your suppliers, uh, to solve this problem. You're gonna engage with your top 50, um, and you're gonna do a lot of impactful, meaningful work and help de-risk their operations and that ripple effects will be felt across the economy.

So the, the really, the place to get started is fundamentally, um, understanding at a, at a very core level, like where are your largest risks coming from, and then which entities, which consumers, which third parties are most imp, impactful and important for you to address. Within those, Well, carbon accounting and supply chain emissions are becoming increasingly data driven. How does aptera leverage data and technology in its work?

Yeah, we, we thankfully are in the position where we're helping develop really essential pivotable primary data, um, across the global economy. And so we have some partnerships that span from the Responsible Business Alliance, which is the largest trade association in the world, spanning responsible procurement practices. Um, aptera's platform is the data collection and surveying engine behind that trade association.

Um, and so ultimately we're enabling many of the largest electronics companies and automakers in the world capture direct data across their supply chain. And then that's a, a resource that then can be shared. We're helping build capacity among key suppliers in the electronics industry and also building capacity among the largest brands.

Um, we're doing something similar in the, with the, uh, retail Industry Leaders Association or Alliance. Um, so rela we're helping all big box retailers essentially develop a database of better product emissions data. So the things that they sell from lawnmowers to refrigerators to, you know, kind of all energy consuming appliances.

We're working in cooperation and collaboration with all these big brands to really develop a, a data set that's common and used across all of these major retailers. And so really our focus is really providing and creating an ecosystem where there is more direct and actionable data across supply chains, across products, um, that are really gonna help large corporations make better decisions and act quicker in, in, in decarbonizing. Well, there's often a disconnect, um, in, in the corporate world when it comes to sustainability goals and practical implementation.

Can you share some strategies that align climate ambitions with day-to-Day business operations and in a clear way that people can understand? Yeah, I think that the, a lot of the challenges rooted in the fact that a, historically, the data that has been used, particularly in scope three, has been using assumptions, right? It's been using industry average data.

And if you're going to really be selective in a procurement, if your procurement team is gonna be trying to select low carbon alternatives, um, to improve the performance of your products and, and low and lower the emissions of kind of your scope three overall, you're not reaping the benefits of all that activity and you're not reflecting the benefits of all that activity by using average data. You need real direct data. Um, you need to understand who you're buying from and what are you buying and what are the emissions implications of that.

And so really the crux move here for this industry to take the next big step, and for many large companies to take the next big step is to use more direct and actionable data. And then you can actually get strategic, right? Your procurement team can really influence the behavior of your supply chain, and actually your company can reap the benefits of that engagement.

Um, you know, ultimately from the product development perspective, like if you're using average data to assess the product carbon footprint of the things that you sell, you are only able to do so much. But if you're using real data, um, data from your customers, data from your manufacturing base and your supply chain, you're able to do so much more. Um, and so what we see examples of this are large tech companies that we work with actually helping procure renewable energy for their suppliers to decarbonize their manufacturing facilities.

We're having, we have kind of working groups across different segments of their supply chain to eliminate certain fugitive emissions from the manufacturing. So the emissions that come from making semiconductors or the, the emissions that stem from, uh, the creation of aluminum. Um, and really it's, it's when you have visibility to the more direct data in which entities are responsible that enable you to do that really impactful, meaningful work.

Well, a lot of new regulations are coming out and they are emphasizing the importance of Scope three emissions. Can you share just a couple of compliance strategies and practices that companies may be able to keep in mind when they're looking at, uh, ways to implement these regulations in their work? Yeah, it's, uh, I'd say the biggest challenge is the kind of alphabet soup, um, of, of the regulatory landscape and kind of the, the, there's, it, it feels like there's new things every day.

Um, the, the important thing is that what everyone's asking for is fundamentally the same, right? It's, it's fundamentally the same things where everyone wants to understand and, and investors and regulators, they all want data on what are your scope one, scope two and scope three emissions. Um, whether or not every category and all the kind of nuance underneath all of that, um, is, is kind of something that I steer folks away from.

You should be, look, you should be thinking about having a comprehensive approach to scope one, two, scope two and scope three emissions accounting in a way that is gonna help you communicate that you're managing climate risk effectively. You're managing the transition to a low carbon economy effectively, and you're ahead of it. If you're doing that, you are going to be adhering to all of the regulations that are currently at stake.

We then have some other new ones that are coming down the pike from carbon taxes in, in Europe. So carbon border adjustment mechanism is one that we are working quite a bit with, with major suppliers in, or major manufacturers in Europe. And there are nuances there where it's going deeper into supply chain emissions to figuring out exactly what you're buying and going deeper into product emissions.

You still need this foundation, right? You need to understand where your scope one, scope two, scope three emissions, and what is your, your decarbonization strategy. Um, that makes Sense From that point.

Can you go deeper? Um, our audience are very tech savvy. They would be interested in any new technology that you're working on, um, that Aptera is using to employ in, um, its current work or research to address this issue more effectively?

Yeah, for us, we, we specialize in Scope three emissions. Um, we, we obviously promote, um, we have a product that's comprehensive that enables organizations to really quantify and manage Scope one, scope two, and kind of everything, but we find with largest enterprise, and that's really who we're best catered to is, is multinational organizations. Um, and really our solution is really helping organizations solve this exact problem where we have more direct data that's behind your Scope three, and you can build sound business strategy and tie in the work of marketing, tie in the work of compliance, tie in the work of procurement, um, to be far more coordinated in how your company's gonna transition below carbon economy.

Um, our technology is rooted on really the ability to use corporate climate emissions data globally, product emissions data, um, in a far more intelligent way, um, to help companies make better decisions. That's great. And as you look to the future, what role do you see emerging technologies playing in the broader landscape of corporate sustainability?

Yeah, I think that ultimately where we're going is organizations. The, the corporate sustainability function is becoming more and more of an essential function across every business. Um, but really the growth of this function is the really, the tendrils of this work are now gonna be across every aspect of the business where marketing owns a piece of decarbonization and climate, uh, procurement owns piece of this, product development owns a piece of this finance and compliance own a piece of this.

And we see that ultimately every corner of every large enterprise, um, is now really tasked with helping coordinate and and transition to the low carbon economy. Um, I'm excited about that, and that's certainly where we are working with all of our clients to help really build robust enduring programs that are delivering value to all of these businesses. That sounds great.

Well, thank you so much. Tim Weiss, CEO of Aptera for joining us on Techstrong tv. Thank you.

Great. Alright, well stay with us. We have a lot more terrific interviews coming up.