Building Enclosure was recently joined by Kathleen Hetrick, an Associate and Senior Sustainability Engineer with Buro Happold. 

Two California bills were recently signed into law this month requiring companies to analyze and report on their GHG emissions—as well as their climate-related financial risks. Kathleen sat down with us to discuss what these bills mean.

Listen as she goes over: 

SB 261: The Climate-Related Financial Risk Act

This requires companies to disclose both physical and transition climate-related risks, in accordance with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, or TFCD, as well as revealing the measures they've taken to reduce and adapt to identified, increasing transparency.

SB 253: The Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act.

The law requires companies to report their annual emissions (Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions), increasing transparency into corporations’ emissions and providing essential insights for investors and consumers.

Note this is not limited to emissions originating within California. It’s for all emissions under the reporting entity. This bill also includes an assurance engagement, performed by an independent third-party assurance provider for Scopes 1 and 2.

Lastly, in 2024, Buro Happold says a third bill, SB 252: California Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, will likely pass. 

This rule is dedicated to "banning California’s public pensions from investing in the 200 most carbon-intensive fossil fuel companies and divest current holdings in those companies by 2031,” says Buro Happold’s Hanna Swaintek, their Seattle-based principal and regional discipline leader for sustainability.