Effective on January 1, 2024, the California Climate Corporate Accountability Act (SB 253), has the same goals as the ones addressed above. This is a set of climate reporting rules that aim at requiring more visibility on climate-related risks and impacts. But SB 253 is targeted at corporations earning yearly revenues greater than $1 billion. The law requires any company doing business in California to address Scopes 1 and 2 of their ESG by disclosing their direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their indirect emissions from purchased energy. Pushing even further, SB 253 wants companies to be transparent on their Scope 3 emissions, which is a much more difficult exercise with it will require them to report on all other indirect emissions, including logistics and the supply chain among third-party suppliers and service providers. The resulting reports will be made public, adding more pressure on companies, including ITAD firms. And to make things more stringent, the disclosures have to be audited by third parties.
SB 253 is part of a broader set of regulations adopted by California legislators to enhance environmental reporting. They include the 2012 California Transparency in Supply Chains, California Air Resources Board Regulations, the California’s Senate Bill 261 (SB 261), and the California’s Senate Bill 1364 (SB 1364), which was effective early 2023.
Businesses say are concerned about the higher costs of compliance, but perhaps the lesser spoken problem is disclosing too much data.
