SBTi V2.0: what to do before February 2028

If you're setting or renewing science based targets, the Corporate Net Zero Standard V2.0 gave you a deadline on 11 June, although not the one most companies will act on straight away.

Nothing changes for target submissions immediately. Companies can keep submitting under Version 1.3.1 right through the transition period, with validation under V2.0 opening in early 2027 and V1.3.1 remaining valid until 31 January 2028. From 1 February 2028, every new submission has to align with V2.0.

That gap looks generous. It isn't, if the data behind your targets doesn't exist yet.

The transition period isn't a waiting room. It's the only window where you can build the underlying data before it becomes a submission requirement rather than a competitive advantage.

Under V2.0, equipment procurement sits at the intersection of things that get scrutinised separately: embodied carbon, operational energy use, and whole life cost. If your specification process can't show all three side by side at the point a buyer chooses between two machines, that's the gap to close now, not in January 2028.

Three things worth doing inside that window. Audit what carbon and energy data you already hold on the equipment you specify, and where the gaps sit. Ask suppliers for verified figures rather than manufacturer estimates, since the standard your targets get judged against won't accept the latter indefinitely. And build the comparison into procurement now, so by 2028 it's routine rather than a scramble.

Companies that treat this as a compliance deadline will spend early 2028 assembling data under pressure. Companies that treat it as a data project will spend early 2028 submitting targets they already have the evidence for.

So the real question isn't whether you're ready for V2.0. It's whether, right now, you could pull the carbon, energy and cost data behind a single equipment decision if someone asked for it.