Australia’s largest retailer of technology, office supplies, education materials, furniture, arts and crafts supplies, and print and create services—needed to tackle supply chain emissions and decarbonization.
However, the complexity of their global supply chain and reliance on spreadsheets made this a daunting task. The company turned toUnravel Carbon to gain an accurate baseline and better control of their sustainability efforts, thus advancing their journey toward net zero. This led to 50% reported lower emissions, improved accuracy of baselines for target setting, greater confidence reporting Scope 3 emissions, reduced time and costs, and proactive business and sustainability decisions.
Unraveling complex supply chains, operational scale & Scope 3 reporting
Unravel Carbon’s customers struggle with alternative emissions measurement solutions, which are often complex, time-consuming, and inaccurate. The insights from these spreadsheets are inefficient and offer little business or decarbonization value. Further, the process involves manual raw data cleaning and extraction, all of which contribute to low auditability and difficult end-to-end traceability.
These spend-based, or industry averages approaches make it difficult to model interconnected data effectively, thus rendering results inactionable. Officeworks faced these same challenges as well as managing and reporting their GHG emissions as established by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Within this all-inclusive measurement and reporting approach to net zero, Officeworks struggled with data capture and reporting of these requirements, especially Scope 3. Key pain points included navigating large volumes of downstream transportation data, the complexity of their supply chains, the scale of their operations, and engaging suppliers effectively without burdening them.
This opacity made it difficult for Officeworks to realize the real business gains of meeting the Greenhouse Gas Protocol: identify emissions hotspots across the value and supply chains, discover the supply chain partners leading the way and those that are in the way, make informed and impactful decisions across the organization on emissions reductions, and engage in a decarbonization strategy that is realistic, measurable, and auditable.
Therefore, the company needed a robust tool to streamline data management, generate accurate insights, and track the impact of decarbonization initiatives across the enterprise and its entire supply chain and/or any other indirect upstream and downstream sources of emissions.
From opaque complexity to end-to-end visibility
As Officeworks searched for the just-right solution, Unravel Carbon quickly emerged as the leading choice. The Unravel Carbon emissions platform stands out among all others due to its ability to generate granular results and insights via our advanced artificial intelligence (AI) agents. Unlike competitors that provide broad results, our emissions platform uses hybrid spend activity-based calculation methodology and specific item emission factors, leading to lower total emissions and actionable insights.
The AI agents also save time and reduces errors compared to manual processes while supporting the capacity to handle millions of rows of data to calculate emissions in minutes. Data workflows built for enterprises means that Unravel Carbon solutions simplify the process of collecting and uploading data with full transparency, traceability, and audit-grade results that achieves a 100% audit-pass rate with enterprise-grade ISO 27001 and SOC 2 security certifications. Deep understanding of the APAC region and its unique challenges and opportunities gives Unravel Carbon a unique perspective on a region that comprises 60% of the world’s supply chains and is responsible for 53% of global emissions.
“Unravel Carbon has given us greater confidence in our emissions data while saving us time and costs. The improved accuracy and insights allow us to focus on driving real impact in our supply chain.”
— Patrick Heagney, Energy & Carbon Manager, Officeworks
Unravel Carbon quickly proposed a solution and architecture for Officeworks to transition the company from a spreadsheet-based, spend-driven methodology to a more nuanced approach using product-specific emissions factors to deliver accurate baselines for realistic target setting. The solution and architecture would also be capable of ingesting large amounts of data including downstream transportation data efficiency and generating Scope 3 emissions profiles in moments. It could also track potential decarbonization solutions in their supply chain, such as trials with EV fleets for downstream transportation and measure their impact. Implementation would lead to a replication model for ongoing annual reporting and improved ownership of emissions data and methodology. Unravel Carbon could also partner with Officeworks to set targets and engage suppliers without overburdening them.
Streamlined, strategic, data-driven and impactful decarbonization
With Unravel Carbon in place, customers can expect simplified carbon accounting and compliance via an automated AI-powered system that streamlines Scope 1-3 carbon measurement, reporting, and compliance, as well as faster, more accurate decision making with real-time data and predictive insights to identify risks and opportunities.
- 19%-36% emissions reductions
- 100% audit pass rate
- 50-60% reduction in total project time and human resources
The emission platform includes additional frameworks such as International Sustainability Standards Board, Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards, Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, and the Global Reporting Initiative. Cost and resource efficiency is enhanced by automating reporting and measurement processes that save time and operational costs while improving accuracy. Additional benefits include stronger regulatory and investor confidence, clearer path to net zero and decarbonization, and competitive advantage and brand leadership.
Officeworks successfully transitioned to the Unravel Carbon Saas platform thereby achieving 50% lower reported emissions* due to reduced uncertainty in their data collection and improved accuracy of baselines for target setting.
They were also able to use the raw data collected for purchases and deliveries, eliminating the need for summarization or classification on their side of each interaction, which has led to significantly reduced time and costs. They improved their ownership and control over sustainability data and methodology thus empowering their team to make informed, proactive decisions. Notably, Officeworks gained the downstream and upstream vision to overcome their key pain points, allowing them to confidently meet Greenhouse Gas Protocol reporting requirements, including Scope 3.
* Observed emissions reductions may not be the same for all customers
About Officeworks
Melbourne-based Officeworks is Australia’s largest retailer of technology, office supplies, education materials, furniture, arts and crafts supplies, and print and creative services. Established over 30 years ago, the company operates more than 170 stores, online channels with 40,000 products, and delivers to more than 3,000 postcodes.
