New booking system

I would like to ask you something about the new booking system. A collegue of mine told me that all dates up to August 2022 have been reserved.

We have already completed our calculations for target setting of our client and we are planning to submit SBTi filled form in the first months of 2022.

Question a: Which is the procedure for booking? We book a date months (pre-booking) before and this date we upload the filles form or not?
Question b: In case all dates are closed up to 8/22. Are we obliged to update our calculations (already performed) by taking into account that from June 2022 target setting must be consistent with the scenario of 1.5 C?

Thanks a lot and in advance

Best regards

Vasso

Vasso, our team had the same question. We weren’t able to “reserve” a spot without making a submission and are in the process of finalizing our target language, so don’t have a submission form complete. Following this thread! :grinning:

Thanks Ariel for sharing it :blush:

Thanks for your question @Vasso_H and @akangasniemi,

Can I please ask you to clarify, if you are asking about targets for financial institutions (FI) (as this forum is currently mainly supporting financial institutions) or if this is related to companies ex financials?

For FIs there will soon be a separate booking system for validation, with its own resources. .

Τhank you Donald for your reply. I was asking about FI so as far as I can understand we are waiting for the FI’s booking system.

Correct, but we don’t have an ETA, I’m afraid.

Thanks a lot Donald.

In case we are going to submit SBTs for our FI in early March and before the launching of SBTi’s new booking system for FI. I suppose that we shall use the ex financials booking system. Many users in this forum said that in the ex financials system the nearest available date would be in late July or August. So, if this is true and in case we would manage to find a date for validation in August for example. Should we perform again our calculations in order to be consistent with the 1.5 C scenario or is it possible to submit our almost done calculations (WB2C for S1+S2 and min 2C for S3)? Τhe former case would be hard for us since extra data, resources, time etc would be required. Is there any particular provision for FIs that have already completed target setting in order to avoid recalculations?

Thanking you again and in advance

Vasso

Hi Vasso,

FIs will need to submit their SBTs using the FI booking system and not the companies (ex financials) booking system. We are aiming to make an announcement with further details on the former in the coming weeks.

Thanks,
Howard

Thanks a lot Howard for your reply. So, we are waiting for.

Hi Vasso,

FIs can now book slots for validation of their near-term targets via the booking system: SBTi Target Validation Booking System (jotform.co)

Please note that submission forms will need to be completed and uploaded in order to book a slot. Also, the date of the booked slot is when the review of the target submission will begin, and not the date that target validation results will be delivered.

Thanks,
Howard

Thanks a lot for the info Howard.

Howard let me ask you one last question. Which FI’s near term target submission form shall we use? The one provided in the Resources topic of the website, dated February 2022 (https://sciencebasedtargets.org/sectors/financial-institutions#resources) or the other one (pilot version) in the booking system platform (SBTi Target Validation Booking System) dated October 2020?

Thanking you a lot and in advance

Vasso

Hi Vasso,

Thanks for spotting that - we will update that! Please use the latest version (dated February 2022).

Cheers,
Howard

Hi @HowardS

Thanks for your helpful replies above. I have a follow-up question regarding the waiting times for FIs in the new booking system.

Is it realistic to plan with ~6 weeks from submitting the FI targets in the booking system until receiving a validation decision? If not, how can I find out about waiting list times for financial institutions (ahead of submission)?

From the SBTi newsletter from 17 February I understand that FIs do not need to take note of the waiting list for the new booking system. Hence, I assume that we can immediately book a slot and the timeframes listed on the SBTi website apply:

  • Initial screening: ~1week
  • Contract: ~ few days
  • Validation: 30 days – if responses to technical queries are received within two business days
    → ~6weeks in total

Is this an accurate assumption? Or are there any changes that need to be considered?

Thank you a lot in advance.

Thanks,
Christin

Hi Christin,

The booking slots for FI target validations are separate from those of other companies so indeed you will not be subject to the same waiting list that currently exists for other companies. In comparison, the next available slot for FI target validations is in April at this particular point in time. You would be able to see the available slots after uploading a submission form in the booking system.

While the initial screening and contract steps should take the same amount of time as for other companies, we have not put a specific timeframe for the validation step for FI targets. So far it has similarly taken about a month from the booking date (if responses to queries are received within two business days) though it can potentially take two, depending on the number of rounds of questions and response times.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Howard

Thank you for the update, Howard.