De La Rue SBTi Targets Approved

The Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) has approved De La Rue’s near-term science-based emissions reduction target.

De La Rue has committed to reducing its absolute Scope 1 and 2 Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 46.2% by the financial year 2030 from a base year of 2020. De La Rue has also committed to reducing its absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 46.2% within the same timeframe.

De La Rue’s environmental journey started in 2002 when it first reported its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions followed, in 2003 with its UK operations becoming accredited to ISO 14001. In 2010 it started reporting annually to the Carbon Disclosure Project, in 2011 all sites became ISO14001 certified, in 2016 it signed up to the UN Global Company, in 2020 all UK sites were using 100% renewable energy, and in 2021 De La Rue committed to the SBTis, which have now been approved.

In the financial year ending March 2022, De La Rue reduced its overall carbon footprint by 23% compared to the 2020 financial base year, with Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions reduced by 36% and Scope 3 emissions by 22%.

SBTi is a partnership between Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It has criteria which must be met if targets are to be validated. When ready, companies send their targets to SBTi, and these are validated as ‘science-based’ if they are in line with what the latest climate science deems necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.

The targets are made publicly available, and the company must report company-wide emissions and track progress against the targets each year. De La Rue’s targets are available on the SBTi website from 1 December.