I’m getting in touch about
My existing target or commitment
If your company already has an emissions reduction target, please submit an SBTi commitment letter to join the initiative and commit to having your existing target independently validated against our of science-based criteria.
Alternatively, your company could skip the commitment phase and move directly to submitting a target for validation.
Commitments are normally processed and published on our website within two weeks of submitting the commitment form. Approved targets are published within one month of a company receiving their approval notice via email which will contain a suggested publication date.
Companies may choose to reschedule their publication date to be published on any Thursday within six months of receiving your official target validation notice via email. To do so, please contact communications@sciencebasedtargets.org or respond to your target validation email at least three days in advance of your original publication date.
Yes. You may reschedule your targets to be published on any Thursday within 6 months of having received your official target validation notice via email. To do so, please reach out to communications@sciencebasedtargets.org no later than 6:00 PM GMT on the Friday prior to your desired/scheduled Thursday publication date.
Approved company commitments and targets are shown on our website Target Dashboard and accompanying data download file. The target wording and publication date are agreed by the company with the SBTi.
The SBTi safeguards other information provided by the company to assess its targets in accordance with the target validation service contract, which companies review and sign before the target validation process begins.
The SBTi publishes information about companies and their targets and commitments on our website.
The following information is published after a commitment is made:
1. Company name
2. ISIN
3. LEI
4. Headquartered region and location
5. Sector
6. Commitment type
7. Commitment status
8. Commitment deadline
9. Reason for commitment extension or removal
10. Commitment publication date
The following information is added once a target is approved:
11. Full target language
12. Target type, scopes covered, base year, target year and target value
12. Company temperature alignment
13. Target publication date
Companies should notify the SBTi of any significant changes in growth projections and other assumptions that were used in developing the target, as well as the business or data and emissions factors used in the inventory process.
We recommend that companies report these changes publicly, where relevant. In addition, we recommend that science-based targets are recalculated, as needed, to reflect significant changes that would compromise the relevance and consistency of the targets.
The following changes should trigger a target recalculation:
· Scope 3 emissions become 40% or more of aggregated Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions;
· Emissions of exclusions in the inventory or target boundary change significantly;
· Significant changes in company structure and activities (e.g. acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, insourcing or outsourcing, shifts in goods or service offerings);
· Significant adjustments to the base-year inventory or changes in data to set targets such as growth projections (e.g. discovery of significant errors or a number of cumulative errors that are collectively significant);
· Other significant changes to projections/assumptions used in setting the science-based targets.
For more information please see the SBTi Near-Term Criteria criterion 26 & 27 and the SBTi Net-Zero criterion 32 & 33
The 24-month commitment period begins the day that the commitment letter is signed. Your targets must be submitted for validation on the last day of the same month, 24 months later (e.g., a commitment signed on July 20, 2021 would expire July 31, 2023). For further information, please consult our Commitment Compliance Policy.
To ensure targets remain aligned with the most recent climate science, companies will be required to review if targets meet SBTi criteria, and if necessary update and revalidate, their targets every five years from the date of the original target approval.
This criteria was first introduced in 2019, with the first round of mandatory reviews in 2025. Companies shall follow the most recent applicable criteria at the time of submission. For example, any companies with a well below 2 degree scope 1 & 2 target, would need to align with a 1.5 degree ambition, as a result of this mandatory five year review.
For companies with targets validated in 2020 or earlier, companies have until December 31, 2025 to submit an updated target if a target update or resubmission is required, following their review.
Please refer to NT C26 and NZ C32 in the SBTi Criteria Assessment Indicators for more information.
For the latest about what to expect during the target validation process, please refer to the Procedure for the Validation of SBTi targets. All the latest SBTi target setting tools and submission forms can be found in the SBTi Resource Library.
The Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign ran between June 2019 to October 2021. Companies that committed to set science-based targets as part of the campaign had 24 months to fulfill, and net-zero commitments had an additional extension to January 31 2024. The campaign helped shape the benchmark for climate leadership, shifting the focus from 2°C and well-below 2°C emissions reduction trajectories towards 1.5°C.
The SBTi released updated versions of its Corporate Net-Zero Standard (V1.2) and Corporate Near-Term Criteria (V5.2) in March 2024. These updates are classified as non-substantive or minor revisions, this means that they do not significantly impact the manner in which entities conform with the standard.
Minor/non-substantive revisions do not impact validation decisions and/or processes compared to the previous version(s). This means companies that prepared targets for submission using Corporate Net-Zero Standard V1.1 or Corporate Near-Term Criteria V5.1 will not need to prepare submission materials again for their target submissions.
You can read more about the changes made as part of this minor update here, where you can also find the Main Changes document.