How a Fortune 500 Auto Parts Retailer Built a Carbon Management Program from the Ground Up

Use Case

For a Fortune 500 auto parts retailer with over 5,000 stores in North America, investor pressure was the main driver to start their sustainability transformation. But with a limited number of resources and a lack of experience in this space the auto parts retailer was looking for a partner that could help them start the carbon management and reporting process. They turned to Arcadia as their partner of choice.

Challenge

Measuring and Reporting Carbon Emissions

As a result of this partnership, the auto parts retailer considered Arcadia’s carbon experts members of their internal team and leaned on their expertise throughout the entire process. They were looking for end to end guidance on carbon accounting, analysis and disclosure. Working closely with their teams, Arcadia  provided the auto parts retailer the following:

• Inventory Management Plan
  A guide to developing a Greenhouse Gas Inventory that defines the organizational boundaries and operational control boundaries, and documents emission sources and data collection so the process is repeatable, accurate and verifiable.
• Greenhouse Gas Inventory
  An interactive analysis that gives a company visibility into their calendar year emissions and usage for Scope 1, 2 & 3 by providing insights into changes in their emissions from baseline, a year over year comparison, a breakdown of emissions by location, building type and emission category and makes sure the calculations and figures can be easily accessed for CDP reporting.
• Scope 2 Market Based Figure
  An analysis that provides a holistic view of how energy attribute certificates, energy contracts, supplier/utility emission rates, residual mix and grid average emissions impact a company’s overall Scope 2 emissions. This analysis can be leveraged to create procurement strategies that include renewable energy credits, power purchase agreements and virtual power purchase agreements.
• Verification
  Arcadia works with the verifier directly to answer any questions around the accuracy of the data, the methodology used to calculate the emissions and make adjustments to the final numbers if needed. This helps the company have more bandwidth to focus on carbon reduction strategies.
• CDP Response Development
  A collaborative experience in the form of interviews to craft the narrative for the CDP questionnaire to ensure the company is providing full transparency into their sustainability efforts, assessment of climate related risks and commitment to a long-term strategy and progress to goal.

Solution

Carbon Management Gains Momentum

Prior to managing and reporting their carbon emissions, the auto parts retailer only had year over year reduction goals but no long-term goal or long-term strategy. The greenhouse gas inventory enabled them to start thinking in ways that are long-term to create strategies to accelerate carbon reduction within their company. Momentum grew as they saw good progress from implementing initiatives like an LED light retrofit across all their stores. Now, they are no longer just reporting and calculating emissions due to the investor pressure, but are investing in more sophisticated carbon reduction initiatives and are considered to be an industry leader.

Benefits

Since partnering with Arcadia's carbon experts, the auto parts retailer has built a long-term decarbonization strategy that includes a renewable energy strategy, climate-related risk assessment, and TCFD reporting — with measurable results to show for it:

• 100% success rate with verifiers
• A- CDP Score, up from a B in the prior year of reporting
• Increased internal sustainability initiative engagement

With sustainability now embedded in the retailer's culture and business strategy, they're investing in more ambitious initiatives and raising the bar on their own targets.