Episode 15: A world without waste, with Sims Limited

Driving Net Profit with Zero Emissions

“One of the things that we've also done is put in an internal carbon price. We'll be using that in modelling all our CapEx decisions and strategy to understand the impacts of various decisions on our targets and the financial return. The CFOs of our businesses saw immediately how that process could help us achieve our goals and what their responsibility was in terms of making that happen, and the contribution that they could make towards delivering this critical outcome for Sims.

The carbon price was a new way of helping our people connect to our purpose of delivering a world without waste. We make a lot of asset decisions, such as buying material handlers. They're long-lived pieces of capital equipment. If we buy a diesel one today, we're going to be offsetting that in 2030.”

In this podcast episode, we speak with Blaise Porter, Group Director Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility of Sims Limited, a global leader in metal recycling and circular solutions for technology, as well as an emerging leader in renewable energy. Sims focus on building a sustainable, diverse, and innovative supply chain throughout the country and across the globe.

Blaise shares how important reusing and recycling materials are to prevent emissions from entering the atmosphere and how Sims Limited plays an important role in closing the loop and enabling a circular economy and thus minimising greenhouse gas emissions. Specific topics discussed are:
· Decarbonising steel and aluminium
· Repurposing cloud assets
· Reusing materials such as plastic in cars
· How Sims engaged its internal stakeholders to set ambitious targets
· How Sims set an internal carbon price of $100 by 2030
· How Sims helps its customer reduce their carbon footprint
· How we can divert waste from landfill

Other relevant links:
1. 100% Renewables Net zero diagnostic tool - https://netzerodiagnostic.scoreapp.com/
2. Sims Limited 2021 Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures Report -- https://sltd.s3.amazonaws.com/2021/2021_TCFD+Report.pdf
3. Completing the Picture: How the Circular Economy Tackles Climate Change - https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/completing-the-picture
4. LMS Energy, methane destruction and bioenergy - https://www.lms.com.au/
About Blaise Porter
Blaise Porter is the Group Director of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility at Sims Limited. She directs Sims Limited’s long-term sustainability ambitions and goals, integrates sustainability throughout the company’s divisions worldwide, and helps Sims fulfil its purpose - to create a world without waste, to preserve our planet. Blaise also directs Sims' corporate social responsibility framework.

Prior to joining Sims in 2021, Blaise was the Director of Responsible Business at Fujitsu Australia & New Zealand, where Blaise and I first met. She recently completed a Masters in Sustainability & Climate Policy from Curtin University.

If you want to get in touch with Blaise, you can connect with her on LinkedIn - https://au.linkedin.com/in/blaiseporter
Meet the host
Barbara Albert is the Co-CEO of 100% Renewables. She is passionate about business and works to make organisations’ transition to net-zero emissions simpler and profitable. Barbara is the award-winning author of ‘Energy Unlimited – Four Steps to 100% Renewable Energy‘, one of the world’s most important books on renewable energy, as ranked by peers and experts in the industry.