Monitoring carbon emissions

Businesses are increasingly working towards reducing their environmental impact. One of the most significant ways to do this is by reducing their carbon footprint, and this starts with monitoring carbon emissions.

According to the leading GHG Protocol corporate standard, a company's greenhouse gas emissions are classified into three scopes.

Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions
Scope 1 and 2 are mandatory to report, whereas scope 3 is voluntary and the hardest to monitor. However, companies succeeding in reporting all three scopes will gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Scope 1 emissions - are direct emissions from company-owned and controlled resources which are defined in four (4) categories:

1. Stationary combustion (e.g fuels, heating sources).                        
2. Mobile combustion is all vehicles owned or controlled by a firm, burning fuel (e.g. cars, vans, trucks).   
3. Fugitive emissions are leaks from greenhouse gases (e.g. refrigeration, air conditioning units.        
4. Process emissions are released during industrial processes, and on-site manufacturing (e.g. production of CO2 during cement manufacturing, factory fumes, chemicals).

 
Scope 2 emissions - are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, from a utility provider, being the consumption of purchased electricity, steam, heat, and cooling, from which the emissions being released into the atmosphere.                                                                                                                            
Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions - not included in scope 2 - that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions. In other words, emissions are linked to the company's operations, and are separated into 15 categories:

Upstream Activities
Waste generated in operations
Purchased goods and services
Transportation and distribution
Capital goods
Fuel & energy related
Business travel
Employee commute
Leased assets
 
Downstream Activities
Investments
Franchises
Leased assets
End of life treatment of sold products
Use of sold products
Processing of sold products
Transportation and distribution

Contact Footprint Energy to discuss a potential business assessment of your Carbon Footprint.

Author - Paul Sedman