Conflict of interest statement

Purpose and Scope

Conflicts of interest (CoI) occur when outside personal, professional, or private interests, including but not limited to those related to family, professional interests outside the organization, friendships, and financial or social activities, could compromise a person’s judgment, decisions, or actions in their work or the services they provide to the SBTi or SBTi Services. There are three types of CoI:

• Actual CoI. When conflicts are proven to exist between the party’s activities with the organization and the party’s outside interests.
• Perceived CoI. When an unbiased observer could reasonably form the view that the party’s outside interests influence or could influence their decisions or actions related to their activities with the organization.
• Potential CoI. When there is some probability that the party’s outside interests could conflict with or influence their decisions or actions related to their activities with the organization now or in the future. All potential CoI have some risk of occurrence.

While the aim of the SBTi’s CoI framework is to prevent CoIs from arising, CoIs cannot always be avoided, and their mere existence does not necessarily imply any wrongdoing. The aim of the framework is to ensure that any CoIs which do arise are proactively managed in order to safeguard the integrity and impartiality of the organization’s decision-making processes. This could include, for example, temporarily recusing the conflicted party from the relevant decision-making process in order to maintain impartiality.

SBTi’s CoI Framework

The SBTi has adopted a comprehensive set of policies and processes to manage CoIs in relation to the activities of the SBTi and SBTi Services. This framework includes an overarching Conflict of Interest Policy, as well as targeted policies and processes for managing CoIs at specific levels of the organization:

• SBTi’s Board of Trustees
• SBTi’s Technical Council
• SBTi’s Executive Leadership Team
• SBTi’s Technical Department
• SBTi Services’ Board of Directors
• SBTi Services’ Validation Council
• SBTi Services’ Target Validation Team

Each level of the organization has a CoI Coordinator, with responsibility for managing CoI processes in respect of the activities which they oversee. Under these processes, in scope parties are required to file annual declaration of interests and declare CoIs via specific channels if they arise. The CoI Coordinators oversee these processes and ensure that any CoIs are documented, tracked and escalated where appropriate. In addition to its internal staff and governance bodies, the SBTi has CoI processes in respect of its external relationships, such as relationships with funders and consultancies.

Managing conflicts of interest

The SBTi manages its COI processes in accordance with the Charity Commission Charity Governance Code and the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems. The COI Coordinators have responsibility for ensuring that any CoIs which are disclosed are proactively managed in order to safeguard the integrity and impartiality of the organization’s decision-making processes.

If there is reasonable cause to believe that a covered person has failed to disclose actual or possible conflicts of interest, such covered person will be informed and will be afforded an opportunity to explain the alleged failure to disclose and to correct the omission. If, after hearing such a response and after making further investigation as warranted by the circumstances, it is determined that the covered person has failed to disclose an actual or potential conflict of interest, appropriate disciplinary and corrective action may be taken. In severe cases, this may include expulsion of the covered person from the applicable position or governance body according to the procedures in that body’s respective Terms of Reference.     

Reporting a concern

The SBTi encourages interested parties to report any threat to the independence and impartiality of the SBTi and SBTi Services, including in respect of CoIs. General enquiries regarding COIs can be directed to SBTi’s Compliance Team at the email address: compliance@sciencebasedtargets.org. Parties wishing to submit a general or whistleblowing complaint should refer to the relevant policy on SBTi’s website page here.

Change log

• April 28 2026: Statement updated
• December 19th 2023: Statement updated
• December 2nd 2022: Statement updated
• February 22nd 2022: Statement published