Hello from the Green Team led by Jordan Hiller and Katie Stone. We’re here with an update on JMP’s sustainability progress. If doing our part to combat climate change is important to you, read on.
What we did last year
Last year we took the first steps towards improving our sustainability as an organization – by conducting a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory for the year 2021. The inventory is an accounting of all the GHG emissions that JMP is responsible for, through our business activities. After all, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Data precedes action!
Producing the inventory was a significant effort, and our small volunteer team had a lot to learn. We hired a consultant to help with this first inventory, he helped guide our data collection and crunched the numbers. We also had plenty of help from JMP and SAS folks. Special thanks to Chris Hoh and Janet Stone, who were instrumental in obtaining data.
Where we stand now:
A summary of the inventory can be viewed in JMP Live, here. Some top-line results:
- JMP’s emissions for 2021 were about 3,467 metric tons. How does this compare to other companies? It’s very hard to say. Inventories like this are known to be a poor basis for comparison across companies, due to differences in calculation methods and inclusion/exclusion choices. The chief value of this inventory is to track our emissions within JMP over time. So think of this first inventory as a baseline measurement.
- Over 90 percent of our GHG emissions come from only two categories. Purchased goods and services were responsible for about 62 percent of JMP’s emissions, and the second largest category was purchased electricity, at about 29 percent.
- Air travel was negligible in 2021, and so were the associated emissions. But if we had been traveling like we were in 2019, Air travel would have been our third largest source of emissions. Unfortunately, this category will almost certainly see increases as travel restrictions ease.
What comes next:
Inventory for 2022: Our sustainability work is only beginning. To monitor progress, we’ll need to conduct a Greenhouse Gas inventory each year. Presently, we are preparing for the 2022 inventory. Just like last year, we’ll be collecting data about all aspects of JMP operations for the year 2022. Look for a survey on business travel and commuting soon – we’ll be grateful for your assistance.
Improvements to data quality: One of the key lessons from the 2021 inventory is that we need higher quality data, particularly in the categories of our largest emissions sources: Purchased goods & services and purchased electricity. These two categories are the key to improving our carbon footprint, but they are also where our estimations are fuzziest. We lack clear data that would allow us to take meaningful action. Currently, the emissions associated with purchased goods and services are estimated using money spent in broad categories. To find opportunities for improvement, we need to drill down into specific vendors and learn their emissions. Vendor-level data about our spending has been difficult to obtain, but this will improve as JMP continues updating and modernizing our business systems.
Goal Setting: Of course, it’s not enough to simply track our carbon footprint – the point is to reduce it. We should have a concrete goal to measure our progress against. One reasonable idea is to align our company with the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5°C. This would require cutting our emissions in half by 2030, and essentially eliminating them by 2050. A growing number of companies (including SAS!) are adopting this framework. We hope that JMP can too.
How you can help this effort:
Please, fill out the 2022 Business Travel and Commuting survey when it is released. Accurate data is the key to success, and we need everyone’s input. The survey will be released within a month.
Want to get involved? This work concerns all of us, and representation from different departments and regions is critical. Please join us! We especially welcome assistance from our colleagues outside the US. Reach out to Katie Stone and/or Jordan Hiller for more information.
Do you have suggestions or questions? Let’s discuss in the comments below. Thanks for your support!
Great work team! Looking forward to seeing what new trends are revealed as data quality improves.
