by Shane Henson — October 12, 2011—The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, an international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions, recently launched two standards that can assist facilities executives in better measuring, managing, and reporting greenhouse gas emissions.
The standards, the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard and Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard were developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
The Corporate Value Chain Standard reveals opportunities for companies to make more sustainable decisions about their activities and the products they produce, buy and sell. Large and small companies can look strategically at greenhouse gas emissions across their value chain, showing them where to focus limited resources to have the biggest impacts.
The Product Life Cycle Standard enables companies to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of an individual product. Covering materials, manufacturing, use and disposal, the product standard will help companies improve and design new products, and provide insights for more informed consumer choices.
Already, these new standards are gaining widespread traction:
- The Consumer Goods Forum, representing over 400 consumer goods companies and retailers with a combined $3 trillion dollars in sales, has recommended the new standards be used by members who choose to measure and report scope 3 and product greenhouse gas emissions.
- The Sustainability Consortium has adopted the Product Life Cycle Standard as the GHG methodology used in their tools to promote product sustainability.
- The Global e-Sustainability Initiative, a consortium of leading information and communications technology (ICT) companies and other experts, are utilizing the Product Life Cycle Standard as the basis for developing sector guidance for ICT products and services.
- The Sustainability Consortium has adopted the Product Life Cycle Standard as the GHG methodology used in their tools to promote product sustainability.
