New Balance – Yookyung Kim – 2018

Goals

New Balance Athletics, Inc., a multinational footwear and apparel company, was assessing the feasibility of joining one or more of the We Mean Business coalition initiatives. EDF Climate Corps fellow Yookyung Kim was brought onboard to help New Balance understand the scope of those initiatives and to build a business case that would give senior leadership confidence in making a public commitment to set climate change goals and help them fully understand what that would entail for the business.

Solutions

Kim examined various climate change goals including Science-based targets, RE100 (committing to 100% renewable energy) and EP100 (doubling energy productivity). In order to determine feasibility of these initiatives, she completed a GHG emissions inventory that covered worldwide operations, including an evaluation of current renewable energy procurement within New Balance operations and a Scope 3 emissions screening to identify key priority areas within the supply chain.

Kim worked with the New Balance team to create a phased recommendation, beginning with a commitment to RE100 and continuing to work toward setting SBT by further studying strategies needed to address the largest emissions in Scope 3. This phased approach enables New Balance to immediately take steps towards low carbon transition while also building momentum internally regarding broader climate change goals.

Potential Impact

Because of Kim’s research and the creation of the GHG emissions inventory, New Balance could see a holistic picture of their climate impacts. The company also learned they were already a lot closer to reaching the suggested RE100 target than originally thought. This clear, achievable goal provides a solid step towards a low carbon transition across their global operation.