Williams-Sonoma
At a Glance
Industry
Retail and Apparel
Project Types
Engagement and Behavior Change, Supply Chain
Year
2022
Location
San Francisco, CA
Summary
Mary Margaret developed resources and research to help implement and inform WSI’s vendor engagement strategy around scope 3 emissions reductions.
Goals
In accordance with its Science-Based Target, Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSI) has committed to achieving a 14% absolute reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2030. With the production of goods accounting for approximately 22% of its scope 3 emissions, WSI must work with its vendors across the world to realize these reductions. To this end, Mary Margaret was tasked with developing resources to implement the first phase of WSI’s vendor engagement strategy and with conducting market and policy research to inform future phases.
Solutions
Mary Margaret developed three resources to encourage emission reductions within production.
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In a capacity building effort, Mary Margaret developed a resource guide to help vendors measure and manage their scope 1 & 2 emissions. The guide contains 150+ resources arranged in a series of sequential steps that follow the natural progression of an effective GHG management plan, catering to all levels of knowledge and maturity.
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Mary Margaret conducted market and policy research to identify opportunities and challenges for vendors seeking to procure renewable energy in India, China, and Southeast Asia – geographies essential to WSI’s vendor engagement strategy. To supplement her research and identify opportunities for collaboration, Mary Margaret interviewed regional experts working to innovate and scale market mechanisms to increase corporate clean energy deployment.
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Mary Margaret developed discrete forms to solicit input from vendors on WSI’s climate commitments – each form caters to a different performance level in accordance with WSI’s internal environmental scoring system so that WSI can identify how to support vendors with relatively low scores and extract lessons from those with relatively high ones.
Potential Impact
The resource guide (1) will encourage emissions reductions across WSI’s value chain, supporting vendors in their efforts to transition to a low-carbon economy and making concrete contributions to WSI’s Science-Based Target. The remaining resources (2 & 3) will inform WSI’s ongoing conversations with priority vendors around specific emissions reduction strategies for their circumstances and encourage shared learnings among vendors to replicate and scale effective strategies.