Tech to save the planet.

About the MobiCycle Group

Explore how our unique platform empowers you to accurately report Scope 3 emissions, foster biodiversity, and reduce pollution related to your electronics and electrical devices.

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Last updated on June 30, 2023

Who we are

MobiCycle's mission is to help all organizations report - in a meaningful way - the Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) generated by their electronic and electrical equipment.

Why we do it

The catastrophic effects of climate change cannot be averted without a significant reduction in emissions. While fuel and carbon emissions are often a focal point, supply chain emissions warrant further attention, given their significant role in climate change.

Electronics and electricals, among all products and services we consume, generate the most potent gases. The process of mining, manufacturing, and disposal of acquired electronic and electrical equipment releases greenhouse gases that are up to 20,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2).

A likely solution lies in organizations reducing the emissions they can measure. However, with only 21% of organizations currently reporting their Scope 3 footprint, both the private and public sectors fall short in their shared responsibility to monitor their emissions.

Our goal is to motivate organizations to accurately identify and report their emissions. The potential benefit to our planet and society is immeasurable.

Enhanced Scope 3 transparency could potentially drive market demand for repairable electronics with lesser footprints, help ethical waste management companies grow their businesses faster, and reduce our dependence on critical minerals.

Current best practices

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol mandates organizations to report emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) - and more recently, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).

1 Nitrogen trifluoride is used to manufacture electronics. As we delve deeper into the correlation between electronics, electricals, and climate change, more gases like NF3 are likely to be included in the list of GHGs.

2 The Protocol doesn't include ozone(O3), water vapor (H2O) or chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs were phased out following the 1987 Montreal Protocol.

The GHG Protocol classifies emissions based on 'who' does 'what'. Each actor falls within a particular scope. Scope 1 encompasses emissions produced by the organization itself, such as company vehicles or facilities. Scope 2 includes emissions from your electricity providers, and Scope 3 includes emissions from all other external sources serving your organization (suppliers).

If a typical company were to calculate their Scope 3 emissions across all 15 categories outlined by the GHG Protocol, between two-thirds and 95% of their total emissions would be classified as Scope 3.

New upcoming requirements

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is poised to regulate Scope 3 reporting for publicly traded companies, with a proposed rule change slated for a vote by the fall. If approved, large accelerated filers, as well as accelerated and non-accelerated filers, could disclose their emissions data as early as 2024.

*Small companies could also be affected by the SEC's rule-making, either through direct sales to larger publicly traded companies or by providing goods or services to smaller or medium enterprises, which then sell to larger corporations.

As we usher in an era of intensified scrutiny due to the fight against climate change, various stakeholders, including investors, insurance companies, rating agencies, customers, journalists, and the general public will rigorously inspect your data and business processes. They want to ensure that your organization is leveraging all opportunities for emissions reductions.

The challenge

Greenhouse gases trap energy, leading to global warming as the trapped energy warms the Earth. This energy eventually returns to the atmosphere at an uncontrollable and unpredictable pace. However, we can limit the initial absorption of energy through collective cooperation and compromise.

The Paris Agreement aimed to restrict the increase in global greenhouse gas emissions to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius, with an absolute limit of 2.0 degrees. Yet, we are on track to surpass 2.7 degrees. To date, the signatories of the Paris Agreement have demonstrated a lack of political will to tackle the root cause of the problem - Scope 3 emissions. Governments are reluctant to regulate entities within their jurisdictions.

A handful of non-compliant companies leverage threats of relocation and lost tax revenue to evade accountability for their emissions. Most, however, are continually seeking ways to reduce their share of trapped atmospheric energy. They seek to balance their genuine desire to reduce emissions, protect biodiversity and minimize pollution against their fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value.

Support available

You might be wondering, what support is there to help my organization with Scope 3 reporting? Who can assist us in determining where our responsibility to curb emissions starts and ends? Many organizations consult with experts or devise survival strategies.

For publicly traded organizations, Wall Street's potentially contentious advice might be to offload high-polluting assets or buy carbon offsets. Offloading could result in the same pollution levels continuing under new ownership. Carbon offsets are not scalable and can be costly to manage.

Climate scientists will not delineate your responsibilities or guide your organizational transformation. Their aim is to convince you of the reality, speed, and geographical distribution of climate change. Climate experts often discuss 'short-lived', 'long-lived' or 'cumulative' greenhouse gases and their harmful effects, while your world may revolve around concepts such as "ESG" and "Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions".

Another, perhaps more cynical, option is to maximize profits in anticipation of the looming 'dark' period. You might support groups advocating for the status quo, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually to obstruct climate change countermeasures. Alternatively, you could consider MobiCycle.

A Potential Solution: MobiCycle's Platform

MobiCycle's founder is a business process consultant and Psychology graduate with postgraduate diplomas in Finance and Accounting and master's degrees in Program and Project Management. She designed MobiCycle's platform to help clients

  • understand their internal data, their suppliers' data and the gaps in between through consulting services
  • measure and report EE emissions via digital and hardware solutions
  • upskill the workforce using educational games
  • gain customer respect through marketing campaigns that authentically and meaningfully reflect your progress.

Despite our global reach, we are a small, woman- and minority-owned for-profit social enterprise with a limited capacity to take on new projects. We may expand our operations in future based on demand. Therefore, we aim to ensure that MobiCycle is the right fit for your organization.

Our ideal customer will

1. Annual Reports & Anecdotes

Annual reports rarely mention Scope 3 emissions. Government agencies, corporations, nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, and academia tend to substantiate their eco-friendly endeavors with anecdotal evidence. An anecdote is a particular occurrence of one event. Anecdotes are not conclusive, one way or the other, of an organization's commitment to sustainability.

A new trend is emerging in Scope 3 reporting. Organizations are replacing anecdotes with categories from the GHG Protocol. The first shift was to Business Travel and Employee Commuting (categories 6 and 7, respectively). Today, the momentum is with category 1: Purchased goods and services (PG&S), with an occasional nod to category 10: Processing of sold products.

2. Limitations of Secondary Data

Companies should be applauded for producing reports based on numbers instead of anecdotes - but not if their emissions calculations rely on secondary data. Secondary data includes amounts spent on purchases or industry averages.

The per unit cost of an item or service has no bearing upon the type or amount of emissions generated.

Moreover, averages hide the truth. Scope 3 reporting is meant to help you discriminate amongst your suppliers. Only then can you identfy and procure from suppliers with the lowest emissions. The basis for comparison falls away if one applies an industry average to each supplier with a similar product or service. Individual emissions should be used to calculate individual footprints - in other words, primary data.

3. The Importance of Primary Data

Primary data is valuable only if the emissions recorded are actual rather than estimated. We advocate for obtaining this data directly from your supply chain, or alternatively from trustworthy third parties.

Ideally, your supplier should provide emissions data from their Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). LCAs account for emissions produced throughout the entire lifespan of a product or service.

Alternatively, governments are increasingly releasing the emissions data they have gathered. The EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), for example, shares data on industrial gases from large-scale emitters. NASA also disseminates greenhouse gas data gathered through its airborne, satellite, and ground-based instruments.

4. Utilizing Artificial Intelligence

The data you collect will be copious and contain irrelevant information. Your supply chain could include tens of thousands of suppliers. One item could represent hundreds of suppliers, each with their own emissions data.

Our algorithms are adept at navigating large datasets to extract meaningful information.

Unfortunately, your suppliers may not have completed enough LCAs to satisfy your Scope 3 reporting needs. In such cases, we can assist you in making your own inferences. Estimates should be calculated based on your own assumptions. Supplier estimates may be biased due to the inherent interest in maintaining a business relationship. All estimates are secondary data, but not all estimated secondary data is the same.

Machine learning models can be leveraged to infer emissions data.

5. Integrations

MobiCycle's consultants and developers can collaborate with your supply chain to retrieve the necessary emissions data.

We facilitate the creation of a comprehensive Scope 3 reporting system by integrating applications, databases, or primary hardware systems with your own existing infrastructure.

6. Will technology save us?

If, as the saying goes, culture eats strategy for lunch, then processes eat tech for dinner. We understand your current business needs and readiness for change before recommending solutions from our portfolio. We may:

  • 1. Ask you about your current strategy towards Scope 3 reporting, the data required to achieve your goals, and possible access points for this data.
  • 2. Request emissions data from your suppliers.
  • 3. Conduct random site audits across your supply chain.
  • 4. Map the actual processes of your suppliers.
  • 5. Recommend process improvements or alternative suppliers.
7. Beyond CO2: Short-lived greenhouse gases

Present methodologies often result in three common errors: preference for anecdotes over data, reliance on secondary data rather than primary, and conversion of non-carbon greenhouse gases to their 'carbon equivalents'. While the mitigation of climate change is often equated to reducing carbon dioxide, this represents only approximately half of greenhouse gas emissions. CO2 and NO2 are long-lived upstream GHGs.

Short-lived climate pollutants contribute up to 45% of current global warming and frequently emanate from electronic and electrical equipment. These include methane(CH4, fluorinated gases(HFCs, PFCs and SF6) and black carbon(BC). With a global warming effect up to 22,800 times that of CO2, HFCs, PFCs and SF6 are short-lived upstream GHGs. CH4 and BC are short lived downstream GHGs that are 80 times more powerful than CO2.

8. Carbon Footprints & Global Warming Potentials (GWPs)

Our fixation with climate change is often narrowed down to discussing carbon footprints. Carbon dioxide, however, is only one of many greenhouse gases. Each of these gases absorbs and emits energy differently, and they should be evaluated independently. We should avoid converting other gases to carbon equivalents, or at least limit such conversions to long-lived gases.

We should assess short-lived greenhouse gases based on their inherent characteristics. To illustrate, envision attempting to define racism, ableism, classism, or homophobia using the terms applied to sexism. Each of these forms of discrimination shares common challenges such as career advancement hurdles and health disparities. Still, we wouldn't suggest a 'sexism equivalent', as that would neglect crucial nuances in each situation. Similarly, each greenhouse gas should be understood on its own terms.

9. The Impact of Electronics on Biodiversity and Pollution

The life cycle of electronics and electrical equipment - from mining and manufacturing to sales and eventual eWaste disposal - carries significant repercussions for biodiversity and pollution levels.

Species extinction is accelerating at an alarming rate. A staggering 90% of large fish species have vanished, and half of the world's coral reefs are now extinct. The remaining reefs are projected to experience a similar fate at an alarming pace. Elevated levels of particulate matter in our air, coupled with toxins in soil and water, contribute to increased rates of disease and premature death.

Our actions are causing harm to the biosphere's living organisms and weakening our environment's natural resilience. The connection between our consumption habits, biodiversity loss, and pollution is irrefutable.

10. Ready for a Consultation?

Every engagement starts with a consultation. Purchasing a solution from us without prior discussion could lead you to commit either of two common mistakes: making small changes or investing heavily in hardware.

Incremental change will not meet the urgency of the moment. According to the United Nations, we have less than ten years to avoid triggering one of the nine or so tipping points. Once begun, the release of those emissions becomes self-sustaining.

Climate tech projects rely on capital intensive infrastructure that require millions in upfront costs and carry high risk. COTS projects initially save you money on the upfront costs. Last minute upgrades may lead to cost overruns that could derail your project.

Our platform brings clarity to Scope 3

We are a global startup with product-market fit, the potential for big greenhouse gas emissions reductions and commercial traction.

1

Consulting

Start with an independent review of your supply chain for electronics and electricals.

2

Technology

Ask eAdvisor questions, search for answers via our digital tools, put the answers in context via the metaverse. Buy specialty waste bins.

3

Games

Navigate worlds built around the challenges of climate change, pollution and eWaste. Envision a better planet.

4

Marketing

Advertise your progress to your customers. Share how your best practices and technological innovations have led to sustainable outcomes.

Upstream solutions

Our planet is facing an unprecedented demand for its natural resources. To meet our daily needs and transition to a green economy, we extract minerals, assemble electrical components, and market finished electronic goods. At MobiCycle, our consultants are equipped to demonstrate how you can leverage artificial intelligence to access vital data from your upstream suppliers across the mining, manufacturing, and retail sectors. Discover more about our services on MobiCycle's AI page at https://mobicycle.ai

Downstream solutions

The mantra of 'reduce, reuse, recycle' is well known, but the reality is that only 10% of electronic waste is recycled globally, despite being the fastest-growing waste stream. We need innovative tools to manage electronic waste effectively. After an initial consultation, MobiCycle can provide a suite of digital solutions and hardware to help you promote best practices among your downstream suppliers in the waste sector. For more information, visit MobiCycle's eWaste Tools page at https://ewaste.tools

Holistic approach

Our comprehensive suite of consulting, technology, gaming, and marketing solutions applies to both upstream and downstream activities. To learn more about how we can support your journey towards sustainable operations, visit the MobiCycle Consulting, Tech, Games or Marketing pages.

Assumptions to be Challenged

  • Spend data is a substitute for emissions per product
  • Carbon capture will save us
  • Carbon credits will save us
  • Not all emissions created by organizations are relevant

Let's collaboratively reassess our assumptions regarding the management of Scope 3 emissions.

MobiCycle's platform is a comprehensive blend of Consulting, Technology, Games, and Marketing expertise. We've already touched upon Consulting and Technology. In terms of games, we offer engaging experiences that depict the real-world consequences of ignoring best environmental practices, providing a powerful educational tool.

Our marketing efforts celebrate your achievements and shine a light on your organization's dedication to responsible mining methods, cleaner manufacturing processes, and appropriate disposal and recycling techniques. The addition of educational games and marketing solutions to MobiCycle's portfolio underscores our commitment to raising awareness and inspiring action.

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In conclusion...

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At MobiCycle, we empower organizations to harness the power of technology, data science, and collaborative endeavors to shape a sustainable future. Our vision is of an electronics industry that operates in symbiosis with the environment, significantly reducing its ecological footprint and safeguarding biodiversity for the generations to come.

If our vision resonates with you, we're ready to offer our support. We can help foster transparent dialogues with your suppliers, facilitating the acquisition of vital data, even when the discussions may prove difficult. The key to our collective longevity on this planet lies in incorporating the collection and reporting of accurate emissions data into daily operations across the entire supply chain.

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