Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

Our TCFD statement

• Governance

  Experian has a long-established process for identifying, assessing, responding to and reporting business risks through the Global Risk Management framework that combines a bottom-up approach at a regional and business unit level, and a top-down approach at a global level.

  Risks are identified and assessed at project and regional level, overseen by the Strategic Project Committees and Regional Risk Management Committees that report to the Executive Risk Management Committee (ERMC), on a quarterly basis. The Board has oversight of climate related issues along with the Audit Committee, which oversees a response for global risks and opportunities, including climate change.

  Our carbon neutral plan, published in June 2020, is an example of our long-term strategy to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Regular updates on our plan are presented to the Group Operating Committee. The Board also receives reports of our corporate responsibility activities and performance from the Chief Executive Officer at every Board meeting. These reports include progress made on strategic drivers to address climate-related issues (for example, our science-based target and TCFD reporting). In 2021, the ERMC endorsed both our science-based target and this TCFD statement, prior to Board approval.

  Regionally, our established environmental management system (EMS) demonstrates best practice in minimising the environmental and climate impacts of our business, ensuring we comply with local regulations and continuously improve our performance. Where certified, regular management reviews of the EMS are performed, involving regional leadership, to ensure the objectives of the management system are being met, the system is effective, and risks and opportunities are reviewed. Three of our sites in the UK and our site in Bulgaria are certified to ISO 14001:2015. These locations are externally audited to ensure conformity with this standard, and we align all our operations globally to this standard, which is internationally recognised as best practice.

  In FY21, we strategically reviewed existing and future climate change risks and opportunities with a multi-disciplinary group of stakeholders across the business, representing each geographic region we operate in. The output of this was to:

  • Identify and assess climate-related risks and opportunities to our business arising from climate change
  • Conduct climate scenario analysis to help understand the long-term impacts of climate change on our business model
  • Ensure climate-related risks are fully incorporated into our established risk assessment framework
  • Identify risk owners to develop the capability in the management team for assessing and managing the identified risks.
• Strategy

  Experian recognises the significance of climate change to our stakeholders and we are committed to identifying, addressing and managing risks and opportunities presented by climate change both now and in the future. We have been responding to the CDP climate change questionnaire since 2007, which is aligned with the TCFD recommendations, and most recently achieved an 'A-' leadership rating.

  Our climate change strategy includes a commitment published in June 2020 to become carbon neutral across our own operations by 2030, an example of the long-term strategic approach we are taking to respond to the physical and transitional risks associated with climate change. Our carbon neutral plan incorporates a science-based target to reduce our global carbon emissions and purchasing certified carbon credits to offset unavoidable, residual emissions across our direct operations (Scope 1 and 2). We are gradually phasing in carbon offsetting between 2021 and 2025.

  During the last year we have engaged with our top 20 strategic global suppliers, acknowledging the indirect environmental impact of our business operations. Our supply chain plays an important role in achieving our carbon reduction target for Scope 3 and we are keen to explore opportunities that can help to accelerate our decarbonisation plan. We will expand the scope of the engagement in future years to include a greater number of suppliers and prioritise those with the most material environmental impact.

  We have reviewed our climate risks and opportunities that exist across our business lines, and across the regions in which we operate, by engaging with key internal stakeholders.

  This process has enabled us to create a comprehensive climate risk and opportunity register identifying a wide range of physical and transitional climate-related risks and opportunities across short (one to two years), medium (two to five years) and long-term (five or more years) timeframes. This climate-specific risk and opportunity register has been developed in accordance with the Global Risk Management framework to ensure this was performed as a fully integrated process.

  The risks included in the matrix below have been identified as part of the recent strategic review, and have been classified based on their inherent risk (before control measures have been considered). The standard process for risk classification is based on residual risk (once control measures have been fully considered and reviewed). This will be a priority for FY22.

  

  In FY22, we will complete our journey to report in full alignment with the TCFD recommendations and will perform climate scenario analysis using high and low carbon scenarios. This analysis will systematically review our assets across the globe against a series of region-specific climate-related hazards (for example, water stress, susceptibility to drought and increased rainfall events) based on specified increases in mean temperature.

  This scenario modelling will be performed using recognised climate models such as RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5* that explore a well below 2°C (low carbon scenario) and 4°C (high carbon scenario) climate change pathways respectively. This will enable us to assess our exposure and vulnerability to climate-related risks, quantify the financial impact of climate-related risks and opportunities, and demonstrate the resilience of our strategy when we consider the future impact of climate change.

  ^{* Representative Carbon Pathway 2.6 (RCP 2.6) is a climate model based on a greenhouse gas projection that requires global CO2 e start declining by 2020 and reach zero by 2100, representing a ‘best-case scenario’. RCP 8.5 is a climate model based on a greenhouse gas projection that projects global CO2 e continue to rise, representing a ‘worst-case scenario’ of climate change.}

• Risk management

  Climate-related risks are identified using the established Global Risk Management framework as detailed in the Annual Report. This framework combines a bottom-up approach of engaging with local subject matter experts (First and Second Lines of Defence), who have in-depth knowledge of business activity, with a top-down approach (Third Line of Defence) that conducts a strategic review of the risks.

  The following process ensures risks are appropriately identified, addressed and managed.

  

  This process is completed at least twice a year to ensure that it remains appropriate and that any new activities or changes to variables have been captured. Key risks that are identified as a result of this process are maintained in the Global Risk Inventory, reviewed by the ERMC, approved by the Audit Committee and presented to the Board. At present, climate change is classified as an emerging risk.

• Metrics and targets

  We measure, externally assure and publicly report Experian’s carbon footprint (see data tables). In order to accurately reflect our renewable electricity consumption, we are shifting our emissions metrics from using location-based Scope 2 emissions to market-based Scope 2 emissions^**. Our emissions in FY21 dropped by 58% compared with the previous year. This reduction was due to a combination of factors, including the intermittent closure of our offices as a result of local COVID-19 restrictions, increased use of renewable energy contracts and a reduction in business travel.

  Our total carbon footprint this year was 16.8 thousand tonnes of CO2e, down from 40.3 thousand tonnes the previous year. The carbon intensity of our business decreased by 60% to 3.1 tonnes per US$1m of revenue. We continue to invest in energy efficiency technologies in assets around the globe and are progressively sourcing more renewable electricity. In FY21, 34% of our electricity consumption was from renewable sources.

  This year, we set our Science Based Target:

  • Scope 1 and 2 (1.5 degree scenario): To reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030^** (from 2019)
  • Scope 3 (2 degree scenario): To reduce Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services, business travel and Well-To-Tank*** by 15% by 2030 (from 2019)

  To enable the delivery of our Scope 1 and 2 target and carbon neutral plan we have worked with colleagues across the globe to identify carbon reduction, energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities. To date, over 40 projects have been identified and in FY22 we will implement these projects to drive progress towards our 2030 commitment.

  To achieve our scope 3 target, we will engage with our suppliers to minimise the indirect environmental and climate impact of the products and services we procure. We have already engaged our top 20 suppliers to understand their climate strategies including commitments to science-based targets and net zero strategies. This engagement will lead to the identification for collaborative opportunities to reduce the carbon intensity of the products and services that we purchase and also discuss strategic opportunities such as the use of renewable electricity, adoption of electric vehicles, end-of-life takeback schemes, eliminating the use of single-use plastics and minimising packaging. We will continue to monitor the levels of business travel in FY22 as travel corridors reopen however, we do not expect business travel to return to pre-pandemic levels

  ^{** In FY21 we updated the way we calculate our total greenhouse gas emissions by using our Scope 2 market-based rather than the Scope 2 location-based indicator. This enables us to factor in the renewable energy we purchase and helps track our performance against targets and our carbon neutral commitment.} 

  ^{*** Also known as ‘Fuel-and-energy-related activities’, is an average of all the greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere from the production, processing and delivery of a fuel or energy.}