Cascale Explores MCAP and the Role of Collective Action in Driving Change

Joyce Tsoi, senior director of the Decarbonization Program at Cascale, recently presented at the Bureau Veritas 3rd Sustainability and Supply Chain Quality Transformation Summit hosted by Rakesh Vazirani, director of decarbonization supply chain sustainability at Bureau Veritas. The virtual event brought together brands and retailers committed to reducing carbon emissions, with many also including Scope 3 (upstream supply chain) targets.

A Cascale member, Bureau Veritas is a global leader in Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) services. It helps its clients improve their performances by offering services and innovative solutions to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure, and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection, and social responsibility.

Tsoi kicked off her presentation by noting Cascale’s unique position as a global non-profit alliance to drive collective action to reduce climate impacts across the industry. She shared common challenges faced by factories and countries when developing science-based targets, noting the complex and fragmented nature of the supply chain and highlighting the relevance of mapping out upstream and downstream suppliers.

After emphasizing the importance of engaging with stakeholders across the value chain, Tsoi recommended it’s doable to set science-aligned targets (SATs) by identifying data owners and existing tools and platforms such as Higg FEM to gather facility-specific data from tier 1 to 3 that produce major emissions. She shared that while most manufacturers might not have a complete data set of the whole value chain from the start of the target-setting process, this is fine. It’s acceptable to use secondary data or life cycle inventory data to estimate emissions in the absence of complete data using the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI). Very often, companies can gather more accurate data and insights over time and adjust their targets accordingly.

Tsoi highlighted that the Scope 1 direct emissions and Scope 2 indirect emissions were good levels for collecting concrete data and shared feedback from Cascale members, many of whom found the data collection and consolidation process is easier if their facilities and their upstream suppliers had already reported through the Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM). Tsoi noted the difficulty manufacturers faced in emission accounting is the lack of in-house knowledge and expertise. She emphasized the need to develop capacity-building programs for manufacturers, like Cascale’s Manufacturer Climate Action Program (MCAP), to ensure the knowledge and skills can be scaled to support them step-by-step from target-setting process to eventually developing their decarbonization plan

Following an overview of Cascale and the Higg Index, Tsoi shared more information on MCAP, an initiative that provides a stepwise, intermediate, and pragmatic approach to accelerating target setting for manufacturers. She also shared insight on the origins and evolution of the program, highlighting Cascale’s collaboration with Nike to build and continuously improve, with the goal of evolving the program to become an industry standard.

Tsoi highlighted MCAP’s framework and how Cascale works with manufacturers to commit and set SATs for validation, evaluate their climate risks, develop a decarbonization plan, and communicate progress with stakeholders. She shared details of benefits, including peer-to-peer learning and best practice sharing in the industry, as well as technical advisory support, training, and guidance. She also detailed Cascale’s work with industry partners such as Apparel Impact Institute (aii) on financing opportunities.

For brands, Tsoi highlighted how MCAP provides a structured approach for them to engage and support manufacturers in setting SATs and getting started on climate action. She shared how this common approach to engaging with strategic suppliers to set targets reduced duplication of programs and allowed for cost-sharing between brands and manufacturers.

Asserting the importance of buy-in from top management and decision-makers, Tsoi shared the need for sufficient resources to support manufacturers in setting SATs and embarking on their decarbonization journeys, emphasizing the importance of having a clear target to track progress and move forward.

Finally, Tsoi recommended that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) follow a streamlined target-setting route with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), which facilitates a focus on measuring, setting, and validating targets for their scope 1 and 2 emissions. She concluded her presentation by urging companies to take action and invited them to register their interest in learning more about MCAP and get the support they need to get started.