Sponsored by Deloitte

Environmental liability (E-liability) introduces a simple, accurate, and verifiable calculation for the total cradle-to-gate emissions of any product or service.  Karthik Ramanna is the Co-founder and Principal Investigator at the E-liability Institute . He's also the Professor of Business & Public Policy and Director of the Master of Public Policy Program at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. (3:17) Karthik explains the basics of E-liability and makes the case for why companies, standards setters and regulators all around the world should be familiarizing themselves with the concept of E-liability.

Few companies produce as many household products as Colgate-Palmolive. Vance Merolla is the Senior Vice President of Global Sustainability at Colgate-Palmolive and he joins the show (28:28) to discuss how the company tackles sustainability across all its products and brands.  The initiatives Vance outlines include advancements in recyclable toothpaste tubes, what the company learned from getting certain aspects of its Sustainability and Social Impact Strategy approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative and how Colgate-Palmolive recently went about signing a virtual power purchase agreement to help Colgate-Palmolive power its operations.

From Deloitte
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Sustainability SmartPod episode featuring Deloitte's John Mennel

More resources about E-liability
Harvard Business Review: Getting a Clearer View of Your Company’s Carbon Footprint
Harvard Business Review: Accounting for Climate Change
Harvard Business Review: Accounting for Carbon Offsets

Highlights from Karthik
What is E-liability? - (3:26)
Mobile phones as an example of how E-liability would work - (5:27)
The impact E-liability could have on supply chains - (9:33)
Pilot program with Giti Tire - (11:34)
How E-liability is better than standard carbon measurement approaches - (14:24)
Bringing more supply chain companies into the process - (15:51)
Eliminating "inspirational disclosure" for Scope 1-3 reporting - (20:34)
What's preventing wider adoption of E-liability - (22:21)
How many companies will adopt E-liability in 3-6 years - (25:52)

Highlights from Vance
The details of Colgate-Palmolive's VPPA - (28:40)
Key points in the VPPA decision-making process - (32:43)
Collborating with other market participants - (34:42)

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