Beiersdorf’s Responsible Shea Supply Chain reaches validation

Beiersdorf’s Responsible Shea Supply Chain, a SustainCERT Value Change pilot, has reached validation. An important milestone that signals a value chain intervention – and its related GHG mitigation activities – has been planned according to credible guidelines and requirements and is in line with leading climate science.

As part of its sustainability agenda, Beiersdorf is joining forces with its shea supplier AAK to build an improved shea supply chain in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Beiersdorf’s Value Chain Intervention aims at reducing carbon emissions and improving health and safety for shea collecting women (through AAK) by training them on how to build safer, more efficient cookstoves from locally available materials. Training should result in the construction of large efficient cookstoves that improve the shea butter production process, which can be used for Scope 3 reporting claims, and small stoves for reduced emissions in household cooking (for reporting claims outside of Scope 3 boundary).

Validation is the first stage in SustainCERT’s Value Change Verification Pathway. It is an important milestone confirming that the Intervention – and planned GHG mitigation activities – are designed in line with relevant standards and guidelines (such as ISO14060; GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard; the Value Change Guidance[1] and SustainCERT Value Change Verification Requirements) and will deliver credible emissions reductions in a company’s Scope 3 carbon footprint.

The next step is verification: Once mitigation activities from the intervention have been implemented and the data has been collected to feed Beiersdorf’s Responsible Shea Supply Chain monitoring plan (detailed in the Intervention Design Document provided for validation), the actual performance or Scope 3 GHG impacts can be verified and publicly disclosed on SustainCERT’s data hub – currently under development.

[1]“value chain (Scope 3) interventions – greenhouse gas accounting & reporting guidance, version 1.1”