Sustainable ambitions driving impactful decarbonization in a complex supply chain

KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies, using leading-edge methods to continuously improve yield for farmers and plant’s resistance. With a tradition of family ownership and over 5,000 employees in more than 70 countries, KWS has operated independently for 165 years.

Achieve fast carbon transparency across the value chain in order to reduce Scope 3 emissions.

Achieve fast carbon transparency with a solution that aligns different departments to company-wide ESG goals and shows results within just a few weeks. 

The company is serious about sustainability and is committed to using innovative processes, eco-friendly technologies and clearly defined internal standards to minimize the environmental impact of our locations and operational activities. In addition to reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions, the company aims to bring them to net-zero by 2050. 

Despite the many challenges when tackling Scope 3 emissions, Peter Hagenow, Head of Strategic Group Procurement at the company, decided to undertake the challenge and searched for external solutions to manage and reduce the company's Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Around 80% of emissions globally are categorized as Scope 3. Calculating and tracking Scope 3 emissions are complicated, but companies need to create an action plan to make meaningful progress. Peter Hagenow believed in having the KWS Procurement team at the forefront of the company’s net-zero strategy and being a key driver of KWS achieving their sustainability goals. 

However, measuring Scope 3 in-house would require new team members dedicated to this initiative alone and take months to implement using traditional methods, due to its high level of complexity. With little experience on the topic, the team wasn’t sure where to start managing their supply chain emissions and wanted to find a solution that would empower them to make smart procurement decisions that led to emissions reduction.

With sustainability becoming an increasingly crucial business topic, Peter knew he had to act fast to help maintain KWS’ market position. His first priority was to establish baseline carbon transparency results quickly and set Scope 3 emission reduction targets – making KWS a decarbonization pioneer in their industry.

• Calculate Supplier Carbon Footprint 94% faster with automation technology than with traditional methods.
• Save thousands of euros by using carbmee's powerful technology rather than expensive consultants
• Analyze over 2,260 Supplier Carbon Footprints, leading to the identification of the top 36 suppliers that are responsible for 80% of emissions.

Achieve full carbon transparency over most strategic purchasing categories 

As an international seed specialist, KWS has an extensive value chain and a complex supply chain composed of thousands of suppliers. With carbmee EIS™, KWS identified the data they need for an activity-based carbon footprint. Many companies resort to a spend-based methodology, which might be easier to initially gather data for, but is insufficient for defining an impactful net-zero strategy. 

Activity-based calculations analyze the manufacturing and transportation of products a company purchases, i.e. Scope 3. Gaining transparency with this method lets companies understand their hotspots and know where to take action. carbmee consulted KWS on the topic and guided them towards the data needed for activity-based calculation and how to gather them.

“Once we spoke with carbmee, it became clear how we could best go about gathering and measuring the data we needed. But it also became clear that for an enterprise of our size, we couldn’t achieve this without technology – and this is what we are now doing with carbmee EIS™.”

• Automated calculations: Companies with complex supply chains need automated carbon management solutions to get their Scope 3 emissions under control. With the EIS™, KWS achieved carbon transparency across its entire value chain in just 28 days.
• Holistic platform: To achieve an impactful net zero-strategy, identifying the right data gaps is essential. carbmee is able to identify supplier emission hotspots and the maximum reduction potential in just a few days.
• Domain expertise: When it comes to Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, creating a reduction strategy can become devilishly complicated. carbmee’s expert team has a background in supply chain, procurement, and sustainability to consult and execute a complete reduction strategy.