The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a collaboration between its founding partners, CDP, the

United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to get businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is the world's ...

World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. Subsequent presidents include Jonathan Lash (1993– ...

(WRI) and the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

(WWF), and We Mean Business Coalition. As of 2025, over 10,000 companies have set or committed to set science-based climate targets validated by SBTi.

Organization

The Science Based Targets initiative was established in 2015 Real Sustainability
Science Based Targets for Financial Institutions
accessed 2 December 2021 to help companies to set emission reduction targets in line with climate sciences and

Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement (also called the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords) is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Paris Agreement was ...

goals. It is funded by IKEA Foundation,

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

, Bezos Earth Fund, We Mean Business coalition, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and UPS Foundation. In October 2021, SBTi developed and launched the world's first

net zero Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon dioxide (). Reaching net ze ...

standard, providing the framework and tools for companies to set science-based net zero targets and limit global temperature rise above pre-industrial levels to 1.5 °C. Best practice as identified by SBTi is for companies to adopt transition plans covering scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, set out short-term milestones, ensure effective board-level governance and link

executive compensation Executive compensation is composed of both the Salary, financial compensation (executive pay) and other non-financial benefits received by an Senior management, executive from their employing firm in return for their service. It is typically a mix ...

to the company's adopted milestones. SBTi is a UK charity with a commercial subsidiary, SBTi Services, which offers to validate climate targets set by companies as science-based targets for a fee. As of 2025, SBTi operates without a central office and has 200 staff who primarily work remotely, including part-time employees. This has led to challenges in meeting the demands of a growing client base of companies seeking SBTi validation for climate targets.

Sector-specific guidance

SBTi developed separate sector-specific methodologies, frameworks and requirements for different industries. As of September 2024, sector guidance is available for: *

Aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

(Scoping phase) * Apparel and footwear (Finalized) *

Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

(In development) * Buildings (Finalized) * Chemicals (In development) *

Cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

(Finalized) *

Financial institution A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial ins ...

s (Finalized) * Forest, Land and Agriculture (Finalized) *

Information and Communication Technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...

(Finalized) *

Land transport Land transport is the transport or movement of people, animals or goods from one location to another location on land. This is in contrast with other main types of transport such as maritime transport and aviation. The two main forms of land tr ...

(In development) * Maritime (Finalized) *

Oil and Gas A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geologi ...

(In development) *

Power Power may refer to: Common meanings * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power, a type of energy * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events Math ...

(Finalized) *

Steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

(Finalized)

Carbon offsets controversy

In April 2024 the SBTi Board of Trustees released a statement setting out an intention to permit the use of environmental attribute certificates (EACs) for abatement purposes against Scope 3 emissions reduction targets. SBTi did not previously permit the use of EACs due to the difficulties faced in tracing, measuring and validating their impact. The Bezos Earth Fund, a major funder of the SBTi, exerted influence on SBTi board members to relax the organization's position on

carbon offsets Carbon offsetting is a carbon trading mechanism that enables entities to compensate for offset greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere. When an entity invests in a carbon offsetting p ...

. The statement led to a response letter signed by various teams within the SBTi and media speculation about the policy change. The counter argument set out in the response being that carbon offsets are incompatible with the Paris Agreement. Launched in September 2022, the SBTi's Forestry, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) guidance allows companies to claim the achievement of their emission reduction targets through ‘insetting’, breaking from the long-held SBTi position that emission reduction targets should only be achieved through emission reductions. Insetting is a business-driven concept and not a term defined in

international standards An international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International O ...

and guidelines such as

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

14050 Environmental Vocabulary and IWA 42 Net Zero Guidelines. On 2 July 2024, CEO Luiz Amaral announced that he would step down for personal reasons. In January 2025, David Kennedy was announced as the new CEO.

References

{{Reflist Corporate social responsibility Environmental science Greenhouse gases Greenhouse gas emissions Organizations established in 2015

Organization

Sector-specific guidance

Carbon offsets controversy

See also

References