FUTURE OF ENERGY CHALLENGE
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2021 Future of Energy Challenge: Net-Zero Emissions
Dec 29, 2020
For the fourth year in a row, Shell is partnering with Net Impact to host the Future of Energy Challenge for chapter members. This year’s competition focuses on innovative ways to reduce scope 3 emissions and will culminate with an accelerator and pitch competition at the end of the program.
Shell aims to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy products we sell by 100% by 2050 in step with society1. Becoming a net-zero emissions energy business is a huge task, and the business plans we have today will not get us there. Shell’s plans must change over time – as society and customer also change – and Shell’s ambition requires consideration of scope 3 emissions produced by customers.
Shell’s Climate Ambition | #MakeTheFuture
Read the transcript
Title: Midform - US - FINAL
Duration: 1:51 minutes
Description:
An introductory video about Shell's plans for tackling climate change.
Midform - US - FINAL Transcript
[Background music plays]
Cheerful instrumental music.
[Animated sequence]
Stylised view of a street lined with tall buildings. A young woman wearing hoop earrings and a red top is in the foreground, walking towards the camera. Several people are walking on the street behind her. Screen splits to three continuing this scene and also showing a young man with a backpack and a face mask on a train platform, and a young woman with a face mask standing on a subway train holding onto a strap. Zoom in to the woman on the train in a single screen. Train windows are behind her. She looks at her phone which displays the words tackle climate change.
[Voiceover]
Even though the world is going through uncertain times, we know there's an urgent need to tackle climate change.
[Animated sequence]
Young man with backpack on train platform watching train depart. He looks at his phone, which also displays the words tackle climate change. Zoom in to poster on the station wall, which shows diagrams of a wind turbine, trees and a solar panel. Hands appear that rearrange the diagrams, which then merge into a whiteboard displaying the words net zero. A male scientist in a lab coat and a female engineer in a hard hat stand on either side of the whiteboard. The Shell logo appears behind the scientist.
[Voiceover]
That's why, at Shell, our ambition is to be a net zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner.
[Animated sequence]
The engineer gestures to the whiteboard and the text changes to net zero by 2050.
[Voiceover]
We aim to meet our customers' demand for cleaner energy, keeping in pace with society.
[Animated sequence]
The whiteboard appears alone, without the people. Letters drop onto it reading but what does that mean? A question mark made up of scientific diagrams including a wind turbine and solar panels appears next to the whiteboard. Zoom out, and the scientist and engineer reappear, joined by a seated female office worker with a laptop. The diagrams showing solar panels, trees and a wind turbine are arranged around the whiteboard. The engineer pulls down a screen over the whiteboard. On the screen are the words it means change.
[Voiceover]
But what does net zero emissions mean? It means change.
[Animated sequence]
The scene changes to three phone screens, each showing people. One shows an engineer wearing a hard hat with an industrial background. The next has a split screen showing four people with different backgrounds, and the third shows a man in front of a window overlooking a city. They smile and wave at each other. Cut to a turning wind turbine. Solar panels and lightbulbs appear around it. Stylised trees pass in front of the scene, which then changes to a woman kneeling amongst plants, with the sun and clouds behind her.
[Voiceover]
It means the world working together to get as close to zero emissions as possible, and using technology and nature to address emissions that remain.
[Animated sequence]
This scene zooms out and becomes a poster on the wall. The engineer, scientist and office worker are shown discussing diagrams on the wall, which include a wind turbine, solar panels, a house and a car. These diagrams rearrange to reveal a whiteboard in the middle. On the whiteboard is an industrial scene showing solar panels and wind turbines with a car driving past, and the text 2050.
[Voiceover]
Getting to net zero means change for Shell, too.
[Animated sequence]
Scene is replaced by white text on a yellow background reading three ways.
[Voiceover]
We aim to get there in three ways.
[Animated sequence]
Numeral one appears on screen, white with yellow background. Screen splits to show an office building flying flags with the shell logo, an industrial plant with the shell logo, and an offshore platform.
[Voiceover]
Firstly, as an energy user, we aim to be net zero across all our operations.
[Animated sequence]
Zoom in on the offshore platform, which slowly rotates. A wind turbine and solar panels appear on its roof.
[Audio]
Seabird sounds.
[Voiceover]
For example, a small Shell installation producing gas in the North Sea was the first of its kind to be powered by wind and solar energy.
[Animated sequence]
Numeral two appears, white on a yellow background. A house with a tree beside it is approached by a car. Night falls.
[Voiceover]
Secondly, as an energy provider, we aim to sell more lower-carbon products.
[Animated sequence]
Screen splits to show the house, a pump reading Shell Hydrogen, and another pump reading Shell Recharge. Above the house there is a Shell logo and the words Greenlots, a member of the Shell Group. Screen split changes to show the house and the young woman with hoop earrings from the start of the video. She gets into a car and smiles. The car drives away from the house.
[Voiceover]
We have hydrogen and by acquiring Greenlots, fast electric vehicle charging stations for cars. By selling products like these, we can help our customers reduce their carbon footprint.
[Animated sequence]
Split screen showing numeral three, white on a yellow background, and two women in front of a blueprint diagram. One is standing and wearing a hard hat, the other is seated with a laptop. Cut to a scene of a meeting with four people around a table. Cut to a scene with people seated on benches, reminiscent of a government assembly. A screen in front of them shows a scene with buildings, wind turbines, solar panels and a car and the text 2050. Cut to a scene of a man in a hard hat watching a container being loaded from a ship onto a flatbed truck. Cut to a scene of an airplane being refuelled.
[Voiceover]
Finally, as a partner for change, we'll endeavour to work with businesses, governments, and other experts, to help sectors find their own path to net zero emissions.
[Animated sequence]
Cut to a view from above a flying plane, we see the plane and the fields beneath it. The plane's shadow, a wind turbine and some buildings can be seen on the ground. A quick sequence shows a container ship against a background of islands, and a truck driving past some buildings. A cyclist is going downhill in the foreground.
[Voiceover]
This means working together to find ways to encourage the use of cleaner fuels in planes, ships, and heavy-duty trucks.
[Animated sequence]
Scene changes to show a suspension bridge with traffic. Quick cut to show the woman with hoop earrings in a car with a boy in a red hat as passenger. They are smiling and moving their heads as if to music.
[Voiceover]
So, our ambition means change.
[Animated sequence]
Cut to view of a service station with the Shell logo. A car pulls up to the pumps. A sign in the foreground says Shell Recharge.
[Voiceover]
The business plans we have today will not get us there.
[Animated sequence]
The woman in hoop earrings gets out of the car. Closeup of a pump with two nozzles labelled diesel and gas, with the Shell logo. The woman's hand is seen reaching for the gas nozzle. Cut to her looking at the gas nozzle as it changes into an electric charger. She looks surprised, then looks at the camera and smiles. A green hill and colourful trees are in the background.
[Voiceover]
So, our business plans must change, as society and our customers also change.
[Animated sequence]
The car drives away from the service station. We again see the occupants of the car, the woman and the boy. They smile and look at each other. The screen splits, showing the pair in the car in the middle. They are surrounded by scenes from earlier in the video: the diagrams and whiteboard, the phone displaying tackle climate change, two people in front of a blueprint diagram, a pump labelled Shell Hydrogen, the Shell logo, a service station, a wind turbine surrounded by solar panels and lightbulbs, a house with a car parked beside it, and a woman kneeling amongst plants.
[Voiceover]
And by working together We can achieve a net-zero emissions world.
[Audio]
Shell jingle.
[Graphic]
Shell logo.
[Text displays]
Subscribe now. #MakeTheFuture. Shell.us/NetZeroAmbition
However, we can’t achieve our ambitions alone. In the Future of Energy Challenge: Net-Zero Emissions, Net Impact chapter members are charged this year with finding innovative solutions to help reduce scope 3 emissions. The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard is an international guideline designed to help companies and other organizations identify, calculate, and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It classifies emissions into three scopes:
- Scope 1: direct emissions produced by company-owned facilities and operations
- Scope 2: value chain emissions outside scope 1 operations. They are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, sourced from outside facilities
- Scope 3: value chain emissions outside scope 1 and 2, including emissions from suppliers, employees, and product users. E.g., in the case of Shell, scope 3 emissions include those that come from customer use of refinery and natural gas products (individual and commercial).
Scope 3 emissions tend to be greater volumetrically than scope 1 and 2 combined. These emissions are wide-ranging in what they encompass and vary significantly by company. Scope 3 emissions are often the most complex portion of a company’s GHG footprint, and because they are indirect emissions that take place down the supply chain and outside the company’s direct control, it is often more difficult for companies to address them in efforts to reduce their overall carbon footprint. For example, Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries (Shell Group) aims to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy products they sell by 100% by 2050 in step with society. Becoming a net-zero emissions energy business is a huge task. The business plans that Shell Group has today will not get us there. So, those plans must change over time, as society and customers also change. This work requires consideration of scope 3 emissions produced by customers.
While mobility and plastics are deemed out of scope for this competition, solutions may address the following areas and examples:
- Carbon technology (e.g. carbon capture and/or storage, direct air capture)
- Infrastructure efficiency (e.g. smart buildings or fugitive emissions from gas usage in a community)
- Material circularity (e.g. materials recycling and re-use, excluding plastics)
- City-level solutions (e.g. electrifying infrastructure, green urban planning, carpooling incentives, smart cities)
- Power: hydrogen, renewable, Storage (e.g. wind, solar, tidal energies)
- Regenerative energy (e.g. waste to energy systems, wind turbines on highways, microturbines on rainwater runoff)
- Energy access (e.g. microgrids in disadvantaged communities, resilient energy supplies)
- Energy education (e.g. learning programs on efficient energy usage)
Amidst the complexity of supply chains, addressing scope 3 GHG emissions is an area with substantial opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to have an impact in the energy space. Shell is excited to invite the next generation of innovators to submit their solutions to this year’s Future of Energy Challenge.
1We may refer to Shell’s “Net Carbon Footprint”, which includes Shell’s carbon emissions from the production of our energy products, our suppliers’ carbon emissions in supplying energy for that production and our customers’ carbon emissions associated with their use of the energy products we sell. Shell only controls its own emissions. The use of the term Shell’s “Net Carbon Footprint” is for convenience only and not intended to suggest these emissions are those of Shell or its subsidiaries. Shell’s operating plan, outlook and budgets are forecasted for a ten-year period and are updated every year. They reflect the current economic environment and what we can reasonably expect to see over the next ten years. Accordingly, Shell’s operating plans, outlooks, budgets and pricing assumptions do not reflect our net-zero emissions target. In the future, as society moves towards net-zero emissions, we expect Shell’s operating plans, outlooks, budgets and pricing assumptions to reflect this movement.
