Heavy duty transport and the power of buyers alliances to unlock deep decarbonization | Webinar overview and recording

On Thursday, September 12, 2024, decarbonization leaders Kim Carnahan and Andre de Fontaine (Center for Green Market Activation) along with Ingrid Irigoyen (Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance) hosted their first joint public webinar. The session featured insights into how procurement-focused buyers alliances, such as the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), ZEMBA, and GMA Trucking are helping companies reduce Scope 3 emissions in hard to abate sectors while catalyzing new markets for low and zero-emission alternatives.  

These member-based organizations pool demand to run collective tenders for the green premium associated with low and zero-emission goods and services, co-develop high-integrity book and claim systems and standardized environmental attribute certificate (EAC) registries, create robust sustainability standards to guide procurements, and help ensure companies can accurately claim and report the impact of their investments in climate solutions. Through this work, they help propel impactful action on Scope 3 emission reductions by channeling investment where it is needed most and driving the decarbonization of value chains where the majority of corporate emissions lie. While the three buyers alliances featured are focused on heavy transport, such alliances are powerful decarbonization tools with cross-sectoral applications to other hard-to-abate sectors such as cement & concrete and chemicals.

Over the course of the webinar, the speakers defined the challenges specific to different sectors when tailoring a buyers alliance approach, the importance of tools like book and claim in the early stages of these sectors’ decarbonization journeys, and the significant opportunity to apply common aspects of successful buyers alliance models such as SABA and ZEMBA to drive and scale industrial decarbonization across heavy industry. The panel outlined specific successes where program participants have been able to achieve collective impact, gain early access to high integrity scope 3 reductions, and benefit from economies of scale for green goods and services.  

The session concluded with an in-depth Q&A that drew on the expertise of the panel, including questions around the evolution of Scope 3 greenhouse gas accounting, current and emerging registries and guidance, and the potential value of a standardized cross-sector platform for the procurement of environmental attribute certificates.  

A recording of the webinar is available by clicking here. 

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