Humanscale

Carbon per million dollars of revenue. The legacy industry-standard reference (CDP, MSCI). Useful for cross-sector context, but distorted by margin — high-margin firms appear artificially efficient. Read alongside the operational and asset intensities for the full picture.

OpEx (operating expenditure) is the running cost of the business — staff, services, energy, materials. This shows how carbon-intensive operations are per million dollars of spend. Removes the margin distortion that revenue-based ratios introduce.

EVIC (Enterprise Value Including Cash) is the firm's total capital footprint — equity + debt + cash + minority interest. The EU's standard intensity measure (SFDR PAI 3) — answers: how much carbon does each million of capital deployed in this business produce?

PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment) plus leased real-estate assets is the firm's physical infrastructure on the balance sheet. This shows the carbon intensity of that physical footprint — uses Scope 1+2+3 for consistency with the other headline intensities. Surfaces stranded-asset risk for asset-heavy firms.

Humanscale reports 100% renewable electricity from 2021 onwards across all factories. All electricity is assumed to be grid-supplied with renewable energy credits, supplemented by on-site solar generation. In January 2024 a 350-panel, 80KVA solar PV system was activated on the Dublin factory roof. Piscataway has on-site solar; Nogales began construction in 2024 to install solar panels. Renewable electricity reduced market-based Scope 2 to zero.

Humanscale does not purchase durable carbon removals (DAC, BECCS, biochar). Instead, it sponsors third-party solar PV installations at non-profits via partners RE-volv and Resonant Energy (8 projects cited in 2024 across animal shelters, schools, affordable housing, faith communities). These 'handprint' projects are accounted for as positive lifetime carbon, water and energy impacts external to Humanscale's footprint, targeting handprints ≥110% of total footprint. Cumulative 2024 handprint ledger: 18.6 million kg CO2e equivalent.

• Factory energy efficiency & on-site renewables

  Sustainability team tracks monthly energy use; executive team reviews annually. SBT target to reduce Scope 1+2 by 50% by 2030 vs 2019 baseline. Scope 1+2 in 2024 was 593 + 1008 location-based (0 market-based). Insourcing manufacturing activities at Piscataway and Nogales caused factory energy use to increase 306 MWh in 2024 — missed the 1% reduction goal.

• Ocean plastic & recycled material substitution

  Humanscale incorporated 1 kg of ocean plastic into Freedom chair bases in 2024 (new standard). Path chair uses 9.5 lb (6.2 lb from discarded fishing nets); Smart Ocean and Liberty Ocean also use ocean plastic. Material inputs in 2024 were 41% recycled and 31% renewable. Founding member of NextWave Plastics consortium since 2017.

• Upstream transportation & distribution

  Cat 4 upstream transport is the second-largest Scope 3 category at 20,317 tCO2e in 2024. Humanscale targets local/domestic suppliers (within 500km of factories) — in 2024, 7.52% of raw materials used in production were from local suppliers. The firm uses Scope 5 cloud software with EPA, WRI, and CBECs emission factors.

• Supplier engagement on Science Based Targets

  SBT-validated commitment: 75% of suppliers (by spend; purchased goods, upstream transport & distribution) will have science-based targets by 2027. In 2024, 27% of suppliers agreed to set their own SBTs (54% of 50% engagement goal). For 2025, target is outreach to 75% of suppliers.

• Low-carbon product design & Living Product Challenge certification

  Humanscale targets Living Product Challenge climate-positive certification across products; 26 products certified in 2021 (>60% of product sales). Embodied carbon reduction pursued via Design for Environment 5-stage process, life cycle assessment at component level, and material selection prioritizing recycled (41% in 2024) and renewable (31%) inputs. Scope 3 Cat 1 (purchased goods) is the largest emissions category at 88,864 tCO2e.