Blog
3 ways companies can reduce their scope 3 emissions
As a manufacturing partner, we help deliver products that improve people’s lives. Flex embraces the responsibility of meeting our customer’s needs on a global scale, which requires understanding our operations’ impact on the world. Our unique position in the value chain and global footprint empowers us to progress towards a more environmentally responsible future in the face of climate change.
Flex’s sustainability strategy and goals are aligned with global calls-to-action and stakeholder needs, supporting our vision to become the most trusted global technology, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions partner to improve the world.
A critical component of our sustainability strategy is our commitment to reducing emissions and investing in green sources of energy.
We committed to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040 in 2022, but our emissions reduction journey started over 20 years ago.
With more than two decades of sustainability investment, Flex has laid the necessary groundwork, gathered critical learnings, and honed disciplined practices needed to set and progress against our emissions reduction goals.
Flex’s multi-pronged approach to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 involves investing in site and system efficiencies, deploying and procuring renewable energy, and collaborating with customers and suppliers.
Mitigating the effects of climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our past, present, and future. We’re committed to taking urgent action within our four walls and across the value chain to ultimately reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions and secure a better future for the industry and our world.
In 2012, we defined the foundational elements of our sustainability reporting, which included identifying and standardizing environmental data across over 100 sites and 30 countries. The extent of our global reach, complex supply chain network, and cross-industry footprint resulted in numerous disclosure challenges that we identified and systematically addressed. The multi-year effort to establish and eventually automate our sustainability data reporting process required deep collaboration across IT and other internal partners.
This work culminated in publishing our first report aligned to the reporting framework, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), in 2013, a milestone in our standardization and transparency.
Today, we continue to consult with organizations like the GRI and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) for guidance on alignment with external standards. We also continue to report to CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) Climate Change, an initiative we started in 2009 as a framework to provide environmental information — such as our emissions reduction targets and more — to stakeholders.
In 2021, we launched our most ambitious sustainability strategy to date, announcing our commitment to cut our operational emissions in half by 2030. Additionally, we committed that 100 percent of our preferred suppliers would set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets by 2030 and a segment of our customers would have science-based targets by 2025.
We doubled down on our climate action efforts in 2022 when we announced our commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and progressed along our emissions reduction journey. Flex’s leaders are engaged in building and activating our sustainability strategy from the top down. Our CEO, Revathi Advaithi is a member of the WEF Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, a community committed to accelerating the net zero transition across key sectors.
Started disclosing CDP-Climate as a framework for providing environmental information to our stakeholders.
Started standardizing site names to set-up baseline data collection for key environmental metrics.
Implemented GRI reporting for guidance on external sustainability reporting.
Released first annual sustainability report, aligned to GRI.
Received third-party verification for environmental data.
Launched 2030 sustainability strategy, including our most ambitious emission-reductions targets to date.
Committed to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
To find out more about out sustainability strategy and goals, see our company sustainability page.
To support our ambition to reach net zero, we take a multi-pronged emissions reduction approach that includes investing in site and systems efficiencies, and procuring and deploying renewable energy. We also prioritize continued collaboration with our ecosystem of customers and suppliers to develop and implement energy and emissions reduction strategies.
To ensure that our climate strategy aligns with the global transition to a low-carbon economy, we have continued our membership in the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which guides organizations to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Implementing energy efficiencies is a vital component to not only achieving net zero, but also providing cost-efficiency opportunities. Our green energy initiatives are led by Flex operations and driven by our customers at sites across our global footprint. After conducting resilience assessments to identify opportunities to minimize energy consumption, we’ve implemented operations and maintenance improvements. These include installing energy efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, replacing lighting with light emitting diodes (LEDs), and improving building controls.
Some of our sites have also installed systems efficiencies, such as an energy platform powered by smart meters to help teams make informed decisions about current and future energy management solutions and practices.
We recognize the importance of not only reducing energy usage but investing in cleaner energy sources to help reduce emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. We’ve mobilized renewable energy projects across Flex operations globally and continue to strategize and further increase our renewable energy capacity at manufacturing sites.
Flex cannot reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions alone. Reducing scope 3 emissions, or indirect emissions, requires partnerships across the value chain. Our 2030 sustainability goals reflect commitments to reducing customer and supplier emissions, providing the opportunity for deeper collaboration as we progress along our integrated sustainability journeys together.
Taking an ecosystem approach to value chain emissions, Flex partners with a set of customers, based on emissions, to share lessons learned and scale best practices to help brands navigate the complexities of setting emissions reduction targets.
We leverage frameworks such as the Task Force in Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) to share knowledge and progress along our sustainability journey as we work towards our goal of 70 percent of customers setting science-based targets by 2025.
We help customers reduce certain categories of scope 3 emissions through our circular economy solutions. Identifying circular opportunities in a product’s lifecycle can help reduce a product’s environmental impact and maximize value recovery. We also leverage our proprietary environmental impact calculator, Flex ECO2™, to assist customers in measuring, reporting, and achieving our climate goals.
Our trusted supply chain partners are critical to building and delivering products for our customers that make a positive impact. Our supplier sustainability program is dedicated ensuring our suppliers share our sustainability goals and ethical values. Flex’s Supplier Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program is part of our broader supplier sustainability program. Through this emissions reduction initiative, we partner with preferred suppliers — sharing customized communications, trainings, and resources developed in partnership with CDP — to help us achieve our science-based targets together.
Flex also launched a Renewable Energy Program as part of the Supplier Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Program in 2022, which helps preferred suppliers in their annual energy disclosure. The program consists of a series of trainings, a data collection phase, assistance on disclosure with one-on-ones available, and follow up invitations to participate year over year.
We continue to evolve our programming to improve our partnership with suppliers and reach our goal that 50 percent of our preferred suppliers will set GHG emission reduction targets by 2025, and 100 percent of preferred suppliers will do the same by 2030.
To view Flex’s latest progress on our net zero strategy, see our reports and disclosures.
