Complex business relationships involving subsidiaries, joint ventures, etc., can create ambiguity regarding the scope of your greenhouse gas (GHG) calculation and target boundary. To ensure clarity, the SME Climate Hub offers the following guidelines:
- Subsidiary: SME subsidiaries, even if your parent companies exceed 500 employees, are welcome to submit individual targets through the SME Climate Hub. Please clearly specify the specific subsidiary entity represented in the commitment by using the subsidiary’s name during sign-up.
While subsidiaries can sign up for individual targets at the SME Climate Hub, we encourage you to work with your non-SME parent companies to explore more robust target-setting initiatives which may be better suited for their combined footprint.
- Parent Company: Parent companies are required to include all your subsidiaries in your commitment and reporting scope. This means combining the employee numbers of all subsidiaries to determine whether the whole entity qualifies as an SME (up to 500 employees).
Only parent companies with a combined workforce (including all subsidiaries) up to 500 employees are eligible to sign up for the SME commitment. If your total employee count exceeds 500, we encourage you to explore alternative climate initiatives designed for larger corporations.