Horizon Zero

Horizon Zero enables companies to better understand and reduce their supply chain greenhouse gas emissions

Horizon Zero’s current work focuses on product-level greenhouse gas accounting and a technical architecture to digitally track emissions.

Product-Level GHG Accounting: By utilizing a harmonized GHG accounting framework — one that can be compared across supply chains and products — companies will be able to calculate the emissions impact of the products they purchase or sell. This is essential in creating climate differentiated markets where actors can make informed decisions about their purchases and investments.

Technical Architecture: To facilitate the adoption of product-level GHG information, we’ve chosen to develop an open-source technical architecture. This architecture will increase the visibility of product-level emissions intensities across all sectors and stages of a product’s lifecycle from raw materials to final products.

Why Now?

We have entered the decisive decade that will determine our ability to decarbonize the economy and ensure the planet can maintain a livable climate. To hit ambitious decarbonization targets, we need to quickly develop systems to make greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions visible and traceable across supply chains—starting with the highest-emitting industrial sectors. Getting GHG disclosures right will accelerate the transition to zero-carbon production, and early adopters will reap the benefits from an increasingly climate-conscious customer base. Companies urgently need better disclosures to satisfy customers and investors without getting bogged down by spreadsheets and painstaking calculations. Consumers are demanding to know the carbon footprint of the products they buy so they can support brands taking bold steps to protect the planet. And policymakers need trustworthy metrics to underpin carbon pricing measures.

Why We Need a New Approach

To confront the challenges of climate change, we must address the environmental impact of the goods and services we use daily. Global negotiators are developing a global carbon market that must be built on quality information and objective data to create real change in supply chain operations and market dynamics. Our vision is to make carbon emissions visible and trackable via a digital representation of emissions and clearly defined carbon market rules. Achieving this requires a new approach to tracking GHG emissions that is robust enough to incentivize the entire economy to do the right thing.

Read the complete "Why" briefing

Simplifying and Improving Carbon Accounting

In the wake of a growing number of net-zero commitments, it is important to focus on impact. Making progress toward ambitious goals requires a system for clearly measuring emissions reductions. Anyone who has run the gauntlet of current carbon accounting frameworks knows it is notoriously difficult to quantify primary GHG emissions and demonstrate meaningful change. Here's how we can change that.

Read the complete carbon accounting briefing

Greenhouse Gas Accounting by Sector

Horizon Zero is developing sector-specific guidance to decarbonize global supply chains.

Steel

Steel production accounts for roughly 7% of global energy emissions and is on track to consume 25 percent of the total remaining 1.5°C carbon budget by 2050.

Horizon Zero's Steel Accounting Guidance outlines clear decarbonization pathways for this critical sector.

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Aluminum

Decarbonizing the aluminum sector relies heavily on low-carbon primary production technology, electricity decarbonization, and end-of-life scrap collection and sorting.

Horizon Zero will enable reliable tracking of aluminum life-cycle data, from raw material to final product, to accelerate decarbonization.

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Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Aviation accounts for ~2% of global CO₂ emissions annually.

Horizon Zero is developing aviation fuel accounting guidance in collaboration with the World Economic Forum's Clean Skies for Tomorrow Sustainable Aviation Fuel Certificate (SAFc) framework to decarbonize the way we travel.

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Natural Gas

In partnership with MiQ, Horizon Zero is working to drive market differentiation of lower-emissions natural gas by tracking emissions throughout the value chain. With a global warming potential over 80x more powerful than CO2 over a 20-year timeframe, methane must be addressed now.

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Crypto

Surging demand for cryptocurrencies and accelerating adoption of blockchain-based solutions have highlighted the technology’s impact on our climate. That’s why we co-created the Crypto Climate Accord to accelerate the development of climate solutions for this growing sector.

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Plastics

The transformation of crude oil and natural gas into intermediate chemical products is a highly emissions-intensive segment of the oil and gas value chain.

By targeting Plastics production, Horizon Zero aims to reduce total oil and gas supply chain emissions.

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Renewable Energy

Not all energy attribute certificates (renewable energy certificates and Guarantees of Origin) are created equally.

The Renewable Energy Emissions Score quantifies their material emissions impact relative to operational emissions.

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visualization of data surrounding the globe

The Right Technology Gets Us to Net Zero Faster

Our research and due diligence have found that the most efficient solution for digital tracking and exchange of emissions units is a standard, open-source technical architecture that allows decarbonization tactics to share a cornerstone and become more comparable. We are leading this effort by offering a visionary architecture based on rapidly evolving emissions tracing and reporting technology. Digitizing emissions with leading-edge technology — the same way the business world has digitized supply chain transactions — could in turn lay the groundwork to build any tracking system, exchange, or repository of information involving GHG disclosures.

Read the complete digital infrastructure brief

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