The London Business Climate Leaders (LBCL) aims to speed up the capital’s progress in tackling climate change and help make London a zero-carbon city by 2050.
Action in cities will account for 40 percent of the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals and are locations where rapid gains can be made. Decisive and immediate action is essential to limit warming to well below 2°C and strive for a 1.5°C pathway. As a global business centre with a booming sustainable economy, London is an ideal location to showcase how businesses can help cities drive the low carbon transition.
The initiative – which involves 11 climate leading businesses, the Mayor of London, as well as CDP, B-Team, C40 and WMB – are adopting new ways of sustainable working and encouraging other London businesses to do the same. They have carried out the following activities since launching in September 2018:
Targets
Companies have committed to targets in four areas.
Sustainable Buildings
- Setting energy efficiency targets for 2020, 2025 and 2030 to reach zero emission buildings by 2050
Renewable Energy
- Purchasing 100% renewable electricity by 2020
- Mapping on site renewable potential of London based properties by 2020
Clean Transport
- Switch to zero emission capable vehicles for company owned vehicles in London by 2025
- And/or support the development of electric vehicle charging required in London by installing infrastructure on London-based properties by 2025 (or nearest procurement date).
Waste and Circular Economy
- Reducing waste generation by 50 percent by 2030
- Achieve a 75% recycling waste and no waste to landfill by 2025.
They have committed beyond the baseline targets, with all adopting further faster actions. These include installing on-site renewable energy on London based properties, using suppliers with increasingly low or zero emission fleet in London and phasing out single-use plastic packaging within their organisations.
Disclosures
Companies cannot manage what they don’t measure. The LBCL companies are disclosing their London-specific emissions to CDP for the first time, on top of their annual global reporting. This will allow them to better understand their local impacts and take effective action to curb emissions. The UK government has asked businesses to disclose emissions nationally from April 2019, the London Business Climate Leaders will have disclosed emissions for their London operations ahead of this schedule.
Collaboration for Change
Through the LBCL, companies are learning from each other’s experiences and sharing best practices. They're also exploring how to apply collective purchasing power and influence to drive low carbon solutions both in London and beyond. For example, some LBCL companies will be exploring joint-procurement of electric vehicles to bring costs down and drive the market for new models.