Neste

The European edition of the Fortune 500, ranking companies by revenue.

Fortune 500 Europe

The first-ever European edition of the Fortune 500, ranking companies by revenue. 

F500 Europe Matti Lievonen, president and CEO of Nes

Neste Corporation ranks 149 with $25.4 billion in revenue (up 57.5%). The Finland-headquartered petroleum refining company has 5,428 employees and made a profit of $2 billion (down 5.2%).

Fortune Global 500

Key Financials (last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

Profits ($M)

Assets ($M)

Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

Neste (NTOIY): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

legacy

neste

Neste (NTOIY): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

Marissa McGowan, Chief Sustainability Officer, L’Oreal NA Paul Moinester, Founder, Executive Director, Topo Finance Ann Tracy, Chief Sustainability Officer, Colgate-Palmolive Moderator: Molly Wood, Founder and CEO, Molly Wood Media; Co-chair, Fortune Impact Initiative

Impact Initiative 2024: Solutions And Strategies For Solving Scope 3 Emissions

Photography by Rebecca Greenfield/Fortune

Conferences

Marissa McGowan, Chief Sustainability Officer, L’Oreal NA Paul Moinester, Founder, Executive Director, Topo Finance Ann Tracy, Chief Sustainability Officer, Colgate-Palmolive, Molly Wood, Founder and CEO, Molly Wood Media

Marissa McGowan, L’Oreal NA, Paul Moinester, Topo Finance,Ann Tracy, Colgate-Palmolive, Molly Wood, Molly Wood Media

All right, I am super excited about this conversation because I think we're gonna go in some unexpected directions and we're gonna try to be tactical because I think there is this sense whenever we talk about Scope Three that everyone goes. Yep, it's really hard and we still haven't figured it out yet. So let's try to like make some strides toward figuring it out. Um I'm gonna jump right in with a, a conversation we have already been having with apologies about making sure that you understand fundamentally what your scope is. This is a question of nuance, focus and new strategies. So ann talk about identifying and deciding what to focus on when you're looking at Scope three. Yeah. Um Sure. Thank you and thank you for having me here. Um So Scope Three starts by breaking it down to its lowest level granular across your whole value chain and Colgate you probably know us from our, our oral care products. But also we have personal care, home care and pet care products globally around the world. We sell in 200 coun countries. So we have a pretty broad footprint. Um And, and you know, we've been measuring our reduction to greenhouse gas emissions as well as water, um energy and so forth for over 20 years. So we have a baseline and with that baseline, we've been doing a lot of work to break down scope 12 and three. So our footprint and we're, you know, we're global multinational like l'oreal. Um Our value chain is based on our products is 15% upstream. So that's largely our purchase goods and services. It's the materials, it's the packaging that we buy to make our products and then 5% our own operations. So our factories, um some of our logistics in our own operations and then 80% is when the consumer takes our product home and uses it. So every one of those 15, 5 and 80 we have broken that down to very granular level. So that took a lot of work. So that's step one is understanding your scope three at a detailed level. Um So if we wanna talk tactics um to, to we're focused right now very much on that upstream piece that 15%. And over the last several years, we have really grown and evolved our partnership with our procurement team. So their procurement team owns this, I mean, they're all over it. They, in fact, over those two years, they've formed a team within procurement called the Sustainability Procurement team. It's about five people that are focused on our commodities that are focused on our packaging um and working with suppliers on scope three on reducing their emissions. And it's really interesting because we've broken those suppliers down the top, the top, I think 200 make up 80 we, we use over 20,000 suppliers globally, but the top 200 make up 85 or 80 to 85 the 8020 rule. So tactics 8020 rule that works make up most. So we're focused on that 1st 200 suppliers. And it's very interesting because they really range in maturity in terms of where they are on their journey. So that's I'll leave it there, but that's where we're focused procurement as a partner is really critical and up focus that focus on an upstream, right? Super Yeah, interesting. And then Marissa, you, I think have some good examples about focusing on the downstream and taking some kind of again, like some unexpected strategies. Well, thank you for listening to us, talk about Scope three. Similarly, we didn't wanna repeat ourselves. So I thought I would talk a little bit about downstream but just to level set for the audience. Um I am the head of North America for sustainability. North America represents about 22% of l'oreal's footprint of that in North America. About 50% is our packaging of raw materials. And then the next 30% is actually how we bring our goods to market. So that's digital marketing point of sale and promotional materials and our owned stores. So it's, it's actually interesting. We, we had our initial S BT I in 2017 and this restated one showed us just what a huge part of our footprint actually bringing the mat, the, the products to market represents. So that's what I mean, that's more than the percent of our logistics and transportation or even the 4% of our business travel. So even just a level set, that so much of what we do is really how we bring our goods to market. So that was one of the big sort of learnings in this last iteration um of our SVT I I would say um the tactical example I was gonna give of working on our digital advertising. So even just identifying who we are as a company, yes, we sell amazing products that hopefully you're all using. Um But we also are the fourth largest advertiser in the world. So we're seeing that come through in the footprint. So we started working on digital media and the campaigns that we do with probably some of our retail tail and media partners who may be in this room. And what we saw was very quickly, there was actually low hanging fruit. So we just did a mess with Lancome tiktok campaign that if you haven't seen, please check it out. Um But we used a um a tool to let us actually decrease our emissions 41% versus a campaign of the same size and quality in the past. And that was things like shrinking file sizes, making fewer takes, transmitting fewer takes over to our partners who are actually in this case, Tik Tok putting it on. Um And we just didn't even realize that we, we could do all that. So I think scope three can be seen as a monolith. It's actually, you know, like Ann said, breaking it down and then looking at areas of opportunity to bring business transformation to new groups in this case, or CD Mo or our chief digital marketing office and also then engage new partners like Tik Tok and some of our um advertising partners. You know, before I come to Paul, actually, I wanna follow up on this question of BT I and how it changes and helps you evolve your scope three strategy and realization. So can I come back to Anne on that? And then maybe you can talk a little bit more about that? Yeah. And we, and we first we got our net, we so we have a target to be net zero carbon by 2040 to get S BT I approval for that target and your plans to get there, you if they, you work with them at science based, it requires you to have interim targets. And we first got that approval in I think it was 2022 and we were the first multinational global consumer goods company to receive that approval. And since then, you know, other companies are joining, which is great. Um It's not easy and Marissa can tell you it's, it was very difficult, a long slog of a year of back and forth with them. Um But one thing I wanted to add to what Marissa said was the importance of tools, digital tools and investing in those tools. So she mentioned, I think it was called the Impact Plus Impact Plus. So for upstream, we are in the process of implementing a tool called watershed um which will help us to better track all of that data coming from the suppliers. It's i it's immense, it's massive and we use, we have been doing this very manually and that's untenable. We can't do that, barely do it for 200 suppliers, let alone 20,000 suppliers. And then another tool we're putting in place is called M 2030 which is a different platform that helps bring uh companies and suppliers together to work jointly on things like renewable energy projects and things like that. So the tools in the platform and the digital piece are really critical. Yeah. Um And then of course, keeping with our theme of sort of evolving learnings, there are things that are hiding in your backyard that you did not know about and that is where Paul comes in. Um talk about what you're doing with Topo Finance and the like magical scope three reduction that you could literally implement almost overnight. Yeah. Um thanks. And um yeah, so uh TOBA Finance is a nonprofit organization. Um We essentially are pioneering the field of climate align Treasury management. Um So that's a very wonky term but to break that down and don't call it that. Yeah, I know, I know. Terrible framing, terrible framing. But uh so um you know, no matter if you're an individual or organization or a multinational company, everybody, you know, 95% of Americans have banks, all companies have huge banking partnerships. And essentially corporate treasury is kind of always sat outside the bounds of your climate companies, your company's climate objectives and goals. But what we sort of started looking into and what we found was that there's actually a huge emissions lever, excuse me, a huge source of emissions, but also a huge climate lever. That is the thing that's hiding right in your backyard. And so we developed some pioneering data and methodology that basically allowed us to figure out that for many companies, we spend a lot of time working in the tech sector. So companies like Microsoft Apple etc their banking and investing is actually generating more emissions than everything else they're doing combined scope 12 and three. And the reason why is because for those companies and for a lot of companies that have a lot of money sitting in the bank, that money doesn't just sit there accruing interest, banks, take your deposits and then they lend it out across the economy and the emissions generated by that is enormous. So banks, they're lending is generating 700 times more emissions than everything else they're doing combined. And about 20% of all the money that's deposited in large US banks when, when the Wall Street banks lend that out, that's flowing to the world's most carbon intensive sectors and generating massive emissions. And so what we found is that not only is this a huge source of emissions, but it's also this incredible climate lever because for companies like l'oreal and Colgate, who are working really aggressively to reduce all their emissions. So much of your work is outside of your control. But because of the invisible hand that the financial sector plays flowing money across the economy, it's actually the best tool possible that companies have is actually to reach their scope three emissions is to go and talk to their banks and get their banks and the other assets that they have under management to be flowing towards climate solutions rather towards accelerating all of the things that are happening right now in terms of where money is flowing and the impact it's having on the climate. And does it also include potentially just using different banks? I mean, there's maybe only so much conversation you can have with your bank about how to use your corporate cash, I would imagine. Yeah, I mean, so um I'm to still a term from Phil earlier, banking is boring af until you actually realize the impact that it has. And so I am a nerd. I've come into the banking world from the world of politics. But if you go and you look at a company's 10-K, what you're actually, which is their financial report. What you actually see is a road map to decarbonisation of the global economy because it's not just the money that sitting in cash, but it's everything else, it's the municipal bonds. And so how can you be using green municipal bonds that are going towards climate resilience and climate adaptation in a town like Atlanta? How do you, we need to decarbonize the housing stock companies have millions and billions of dollars at times in mortgage backed securities. How do we use those as a vehicle for decarbonizing the housing stock and you know, corporate debt securities, etc, all of these things are these potential vehicles. And so there's this really fascinating paradigm which is we spend all this, I'm thinking about, you know, climate technologies that we need to be adapting. How can we change things culturally, but really, it's actually the wiring in the financial system that needs the most innovation because we need to move over $200 trillion into climate solutions over the next 30 years. And the best way to do that is to use the money that we all have. There's over $7 trillion in corporate cash right now in this country and it's generating, you know, indirectly about what represents about 20% of all emissions in the US. And so, so if you can, if companies can step up and start engaging with their banks and start working with their banks to really drive innovation, not just in terms of where that lending is going to, but also how we're viewing all these different multiple financial products. It really is this like boring but very fascinating way to rewire the world to drive climate transformation. I mean, honestly, aren't all the best solutions like kind of the boring hardware. Um Sorry, except fusion, which is super sexy. Um This raises this question for me about, you know, as we're talking about breaking these problems into their component parts and engaging with different parts of the company, right? Like you wouldn't have necessarily thought, oh, I have to engage with my art department on smaller file sizes. Um Now I have to talk to the CFO S office more than I ever did. How do you when you hear this? Like, how does it imagine I'll start with you. Um How do you imagine reengaging with different parts of the company to have different conversations to uncover all of these levers potentially? Um Well, I I love the opportunity, I think as a practitioner and the team leader, you always have to be conscious that when you're moving into a new area so it could be engaging our finance teams, which I know in Ann's case you have a great relationship. We do too. Um, but maybe not on this conversation and it may not involve Treasury or, um, we may historically work more with the controllers than the treasurers or. Um, so just being conscious that you're gonna have to start the conversation from the beginning, uh, probably it's not the same conversation you had a few years ago when you started engaging other parts of your business, but it is starting over and I think I see it with my teams where they get frustrated that they're having the same conversations. But I say, but you're reaching broader audiences and new audiences. And as a result, we need to understand their aspect of the business, their challenges, their needs so that we can cope create solutions to do things like, you know, uh decrease emissions and file sizes and they love it too because it's actually less work for them rather than 100 and 50 renderings of something you can do maybe 75 right? So there are a lot of opportunities. I I think you mentioned earlier, Molly, this idea of actually seeing scope three as a window into something. So having set the first S BT I in 27 and then our revised S BT I being validated in 2024 I think the most interesting thing was actually seeing the shifts in the market. So if you look at our footprint it shows that digital media is significant in a way that it wasn't, you know, seven years ago, I think on the flip side, we're seeing the increased importance of brick and mortar, which we all thought after COVID. Oh, no, we're gonna be, it's just gonna be econ. So that's not the case, right? So it's also interesting to look at as a window into who we are as a business. So we're both a producer of product and a marketer of products. And wow, let's see how the business landscape has shaped or shifted which in some cases, it really hasn't. It's still brick and mortar and in other cases, it really has in terms of reaching the consumer of digital. So I know I went off, you know, a little different from, from the question, but I think it's a, it's just a neat talk about Nerd Paul. We're on a scope through pan like this clearly excites me. We're all, we're all a bunch of happy, you're with our people. So, um so similar to Marissa, I mean, I, we in order to tackle scope 12 and three, every person in the company has a role to play everyone. Um I joke that our, our strategy, I'm the master of none, keeper of all because I have to, I feel like I have to keep my arms around everyone. So every function and our, our understanding relationship, road map with different functions are at different stages for me and this is we're wrestling with how to best do this, but I think education is critical as a first step. Um but pleasingly just to focus more on the finance commu you know, our finance function and which includes the controller of the treasurer, the CFO himself, et cetera audit team who are now auditing ESG elements across our businesses. Um We, we have been really building that relationship. I would say our procurement team is the most mature, but finance is quickly following. Um we pleasingly, we are engaging our treasure. We are now, you know, looking into what I love what Paul, you know, we've already agreed to talk after this because it's amazing what he's kind of uncovering. As we said, we're looking into things like funds that directly impact our target. So things like the water equity fund that will help to help us with our target to reach people with fresh water. We have a target that so these are good funds. But what he's talking about goes much deeper and broader than that. So our, I have a treasurer who's very interested in that and who she and I have been jointly working on something called an impact investment framework to help guide us. And it's basically a decision tree on what we do want to invest in what we don't, how to use our cash. But again, this whole idea of engaging banks broader than that is something I'm sure she hasn't really thought of. We have a lot of cash. So how do we best put it to work? Yeah. And it's, it's a really common thing and I mean, it's, we go and we, we're actively engaged now with companies with over $600 billion in cash and investments, helping them align their banking and investing with their climate values. And almost to a company this is new and it's part of what makes it so exciting is it's this new powerful lever that you didn't know was there before. And so a lot of the work that we actually as a nonprofit is we provide a free advising and consulting services to these companies. And so if you're a company out there that wants to tackle this, please find me after the call at Paul atop of finance.org, you can email me, but we, we just plug it a little bit. Uh you know, on the stage, have to take a shot when you got it. But uh do your shot man. Um But a lot of the things that we do is really just having and setting up these initial conversations because this is new education. And so the sustainability team doesn't really understand how the Treasury team functions. The treasury team doesn't understand the sustainability side of this. And so so much of what we do is setting up those initial conversations and creating alignment around it. But also really understanding that the treasury function is foundational in all of this and that this isn't about divestment. This isn't going and yelling at your banks and saying we got to get out of fossil fuels. It's really about developing a supply chain partnership just like you do with all all your other supply chain partners and just taking that same lens of how do we add a climate lens. How do we add a social lens to our banking and investing on top of our core needs for liquidity services, etcetera. And I have to end it there. But I will note and Pablo will probably tell you later that future regulations are likely to address this topic. Yeah. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

Neste

Neste in Fortune Rankings

Neste stock chart

Videos