How this Former Investment Banker’s Carbon Accounting Platform is Accelerating the Transition to Net Zero for 100s of Corporates

On a surfing trip to Morocco, Lubomila Jordanova saw beaches covered in plastic and other types of waste. 

Instead of surfing, she spent her time collecting rubbish and cleaning the beach. 

The whole trip opened her eyes to the horrors that face many of our precious ecosystems. 

Once she came back to London, she knew she had to do something and felt the urge to learn about the science behind climate change and human impact on our planet. 

This “hobby” turned into a year-long investigation. 

During this time, she built a data model and interviewed over 300 people to gather their opinions on climate change. 

After all the facts and evidence was gathered, she didn’t feel comfortable working on anything else but enabling corporations to address climate change. 

Which is how Plan A was born.

‍Achieving Science-Based Net-Zero Targets 

The Plan A Sustainability Platform serves as a central sustainability hub enabling businesses to self-manage their entire end-to-end net-zero journey in one SaaS solution. 

By automatically mapping all necessary data across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 and merging them with national emission factors and datasets, Plan A’s software is able to create individual emissions profiles and provide granular carbon and ESG insights in dynamic dashboard overviews. 

Based on the indicators with the most significant reduction potential, their software empowers companies to set science-based net-zero targets and achieve them through 1,000+ decarbonisation solutions and activities, best practices, as well as a network of service providers and sustainability professionals. 

At the end of this holistic process, the platform produces regulation-proof ESG reporting.

‍Navigating the Complexities of Net Zero

While committing to net-zero targets may seem straightforward, the practical implementation is intricate and multifaceted. 

For organisations striving for net-zero, it involves a comprehensive approach that extends across all dimensions of their operations. 

This includes taking charge of reducing emissions not only within their direct operations but also across their supply chains, and within the lifecycle of their products, services, and financial investments. 

Achieving net-zero often necessitates a fundamental transformation of corporate strategy, which affects the overall operating model. 

To support this transition, companies are increasingly channeling investments into skills development, innovation, and research and development (R&D), all geared towards building new capabilities, technologies, and business models that facilitate the move towards net-zero.

Similarly, data collection, aggregation, and presentation can be difficult depending on the size of the company. 

For example, a recent study shows that 55% of companies house ESG data within rudimentary spreadsheets. 

But help is at hand, as the Plan A Sustainability Platform enables businesses to manage their entire net-zero journey – from data collection over emissions calculation, target setting, and decarbonisation planning to non-financial reporting – all in one central hub.

Collaboration, Community and Climate Champions 

Collaborating with all levels and understanding their different needs and requirements means we need to take an all-encompassing approach to decarbonising companies. 

It’s a prerequisite for the board to be engaged on the company's sustainability journey to be able to achieve net-zero objectives.

So how do you do that as a Chief Sustainability Officer of a multinational company, or the first person in the organisation to be tasked with corporate sustainability? 

This goes beyond mere enablement by means of Plan A’s Sustainability Platform, but also encompasses education, guidance, and operational expert support. 

This is what Plan A offers to foster collaboration, along with access to a community of like-minded sustainability champions, facing the same challenges and sharing information, expertise, knowledge, and best practices to succeed.

Take for example, GANNI.

Working with Plan A over the past few years, GANNI has shown substantial progress and is becoming a pioneering sustainability leader in the fashion industry through a 20% absolute emission reduction in 2024 compared to their 2021 baseline, which builds upon their previous achievement of a 44% reduction in material emissions between 2019 and 2020. 

Leveraging the platform’s automation of GANNI’s data input, emissions calculations, and external reporting, GANNI continues to be able to leverage flexible emissions calculations in line with quarterly reporting and communications. 

Lubmoilla tells us ‘’Plan A’s personalised decarbonisation services have enabled GANNI to onboard 5 suppliers in total to their carbon insetting initiative, introduce transportation pilots to lower air freight emissions, and lower their waste through fibre-to-fibre recycling initiatives.’’

‍What’s next for Plan A?

In a word, growth. 

Plan A will expand their team to drive market penetration across Europe. 

This also means further expansion internationally, opening more offices in strategic key markets soon. 

With ambitious targets in terms of the carbon they aim to put under management, this can only be achieved through expansion to maximise their impact.

‍Coming up, the HackSummit

Lubomila will join us for a fireside chat, where she’ll cover how we can fight greenwashing and bring accountability to carbon accounting.

With lots of new legislation brought in across Europe that's driving change, there's a long way to go before genuine decarbonisation is achieved, she’ll share her take with us live at the HackSummit.

So who is she keen to meet with?

‘’I’m most looking forward to connecting with Muthoni Wachira, who does wonderful work promoting startups in Africa to drive positive change. She shines a light on the fantastic initiatives emerging across Africa that we should all be paying attention to. 

I’m also really excited about meeting Marissa, Felix, Jim and Ginger. We are really spoiled for great minds and ideas, it will be an excellent event.’’

Join Lubomila and hundreds of Climate Founders in Lausanne at the HackSummit this June 13-14th. Use code EARLYBIRD20 to save 20% off your pass and meet us there.