Client overview
Thrust Carbon is an award-winning green tech start-up, which has been in operation for just over four years. Their vision is of a world where our actions don’t have to cost the earth and their company mission is to enable travel to be effortlessly green.
Thrust Carbon has revolutionised the way in which GHG emissions from business travel are calculated, transforming the industry’s approach to net zero, and empowering organisations to achieve genuine decarbonisation and compliance with emissions disclosure regulations globally.
Client challenge
With increasing pressure on organisations to avoid greenwashing, deliver on net zero goals, and publish emissions under new disclosure laws, prioritising integrity and accuracy is more important than ever.
Thrust Carbon is responsible for millions of carbon calculations every month, for travel activity worth over $100bn annually. They wanted to both demonstrate their own commitment to data quality and integrity, while simultaneously enabling their clients to benefit from carbon calculations which adhere to the gold standard. This is particularly important when companies are having to set and align to important net zero goals, while also reporting their emissions publicly as new disclosure regulations, such as the EU CSRD, come into force.
A new opportunity
The industry and ecosystem for the calculation of GHG emissions from business travel is still young. It has grown organically and there are numerous different methodologies of varying granularity and quality for each mode of travel (e.g. air, rail or car).
ISO 14083 is the first carbon accounting standard specifically designed to create consistency for the travel and transport industry. ISO 14083 was adopted by the European Commission for the CountEmissionsEU initiative, demonstrating a clear preference and approval for this standard for carbon reporting.
“The ISO 14083 standard provides a comprehensive set of rules that make carbon calculations clear, understandable, repeatable and consistent. It provides that missing link between the very high level GHG Protocol and the numerous individual and disparate methodologies themselves. It is a game changer and a real force for good,” explained Tan Strehler-Weston, Head of Operations and Policy at Thrust Carbon.
"For years, customers have been worried about which methodology is correct for their business since there has been no global standard for emissions reporting," Thrust Carbon founder Kit Aspen said in a statement. "This landmark ISO assurance puts that to rest, since it is the first third-party global standard for travel methodologies, enabling companies to use leading carbon calculations with confidence."
What was the approach?
The team’s initial priority was to find a large, credible and well-known assurance partner. “The brand of the assurer was important to us. LRQA fit this bill! ISO 14083 is a new standard, and we were impressed by LRQA’s approach and openness to carrying out an assurance project on this topic for the first time, while simultaneously remaining committed to quality and process,” said Tan.
Thrust Carbon dedicated significant resources to this project, and it was a truly cross team endeavour. Climate policy and carbon methodology experts first worked to thoroughly understand the ISO 14083 standard in full, and then performed an internal gap analysis against Thrust Carbon’s methodology and their ‘Thrust Calculator’ GHG calculation platform.
The team then re-ran the gap analysis with the technical expert from LRQA to identify areas they needed to work on. The gap analysis primarily validated the team’s own findings and confirmed priorities to be addressed before the stage 1 assessment, such as ‘Well-to-Tank’ (WTT) emissions. These are the emissions from the production, transportation, transformation and distribution of the fuel used to power an aircraft, train or car, which is in addition to the emissions of the fuel being used by the vehicle itself.
In the Stage 1 assessment with LRQA, the main areas of focus were confirmed, with the verifier examining the methodology and the Thrust Calculator in depth. Thrust Carbon’s climate policy and methodology experts then worked with the product team to implement changes to the Thrust Calculator. In parallel, Thrust Carbon’s Advisory team updated their methodology and tested their carbon calculations to ensure they were being performed exactly within the parameters of ISO 14083.
The Stage 2 assessment then saw LRQA colleagues work with the Climate Policy and Advisory teams to thoroughly test the Thrust Calculator and the methodology for compliance in line with ISO 14083. The verifiers confirmed Thrust Carbon’s conformance with ISO 14083 and issued an assurance statement.
Future outlook
This process resulted in concrete changes to the way Thrust Carbon measures and reports on its GHG emissions. The team plans to continue with annual verification to ensure they retain the rigour and credibility that independent third-party assurance delivers, so that clients and other stakeholders can trust in the data provided.
The process will also enable Thrust Carbon to continue to play its leading role in bringing sustainability expertise and best practice into the travel industry. Via direct client relationships, industry events and thought leadership webinars, Thrust Carbon will ensure that the value and importance of ISO 14083 is understood by organisations of all types and sizes globally.
Top tips
“Getting assured to a complex technical standard such as ISO 14083 requires a truly cross-functional effort. Everyone, from subject matter experts through to product designers and engineers, needs to be involved. Plan your project meticulously and ensure you have buy-in from across your whole organisation!”
The team at Thrust Carbon