National Grid: Turning Aspirational Goals into Operational Plans with Copperleaf
It’s with great pride that we saw one of our key clients, National Grid, become a Principal Partner of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference—the world’s most important climate conference, better known as COP26. Nearly 200 countries met in Glasgow to set more ambitious goals to reduce climate change under the Paris Agreement. National Grid leaders participated in a series of events and hosted a panel discussion titled, “Innovating our Way to Net-Zero: How Startup Investments Can Help Solve the Climate Crisis.”
During COP26, Copperleaf® CEO Judi Hess interviewed Lisa Lambert, National Grid Chief Technology & Innovation Officer and National Grid Partners (NGP) Founder & President, about how Copperleaf is helping National Grid implement its net-zero and climate change strategies.
NGP is National Grid’s venture investment and innovation arm. One of its mandates is to invest in high-growth companies with disruptive technologies that can help National Grid make its electricity and natural gas networks cleaner, smarter, and more resilient while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Lisa also discussed NGP’s role in launching the NextGrid Alliance, which brings the world’s energy providers together to share best practices and address some of the industry’s key challenges, including planning for net zero.
According to the International Energy Agency, annual clean energy investment worldwide will need to more than triple by 2030, to around $5 trillion, to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. “Using software as a plan of record for how we’re performing, measuring, tracking, reporting, assessing, optimizing, and implementing our progress is really key,” Lisa explained.
Leading the way in asset management
According to Lisa, one of the key things that attracted NGP to Copperleaf is our focus on asset management and decision analytics. She described how the Copperleaf solution has enabled National Grid to transition from typical spreadsheet-based modeling to an efficient, centralized platform for planning and optimizing capital investments across thousands of diverse assets.
When we adopted the Copperleaf solution, we found that we got more accuracy, better decisions. We’re able to optimize our investment selection and timing, to help us focus our capital on the right investments.
Lisa Lambert
Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at National Grid
Founder & President of National Grid Partners
Making net-zero commitments a reality
Bold ambitions need concrete plans to fund and resource the many programs required to meet net-zero goals. Lisa outlined how having a view of all the measures that support National Grid’s strategic goals—and being able to evaluate how individual projects will contribute to those goals—is key to achieving its net-zero strategy. For example, National Grid is looking for ways to quantify earnings value at risk for climate, physical, and transition factors. Being able to assess measures such as property damage, policy, liability, and reputation is vital to its decision-making approach.
Copperleaf helps clients identify the most appropriate metrics to evaluate such factors based on their unique needs. Organizations can get started quickly by leveraging best-practice models from the Copperleaf Value Model Library—an extensive and constantly evolving collection of models proven by organizations across multiple industries.
To learn more about how National Grid is driving its sustainability targets with decision analytics, check out our case study here.