What if Your Boss Asks You To Do an Emissions Inventory?

By Michael Arny, President Leonardo Academy

Why Companies and Organization are Interested in Quantifying their Emissions Inventories

There is a growing interest in emissions by companies and organizations for a variety of reasons, such as: (1) Helping to improve air quality is the right thing to do; (2) Environmental impacts and performance are starting to become part of the brand of companies and organizations; (3) Current and potential customers and audiences of companies and organizations are starting to ask their suppliers about their environmental impacts and sustainability practices and include this information in procurement decisions. Also, emissions reduction actions are an important part of annual sustainability reports that more and more companies and organizations are preparing.

The bottom line is that emissions are becoming an important business issue .

Knowing the Terminology

Know the emissions and sustainability terminology and you will sound like a pro!

Terminology for the Inventory
Calculating the emissions caused by your company or organization is called conducting an emissions inventory or determining the emissions footprint or emissions foot printing.

Key emissions are greenhouse gases that affect climate change and other emissions that affect health. Both are important because we need to stop climate change and be able to breathe the air.

Terminology for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
There are six greenhouse gases identified under the Kyoto Protocol that are often emphasized (CO2, CH4, N2O, PFCs, HFCs, and SF6), but there are many other gases that contribute to global warming as well. Greenhouse gases each have different potencies of impact on global warming and how long they linger in the atmosphere after emission. The overall impact of each green house gas emission type is called its ‘global warming potentials,’ which compares the impact each emission to impact of CO2 over a period of time, typically 100 years. These ‘global warming potentials’ are used to normalize all of the different types of emissions into one number the total ‘CO2 equivalent (CO2e).’

Terminology Emissions that Affect Health
Examples of emissions that affect health are: NOx, Sox, particulates (large and small), mercury, lead and many others. Each of the many types of emissions that affect health has a different impact so it is not meaningful or helpful to add up an accumulation of all the different types of emissions that affect health. For this reason, the amounts of each type of emission that affect health are listed separately by emission type in an emissions inventory.

Terminology for Environmental Footprints
Environmental footprints include all types of environmental impacts: emissions, water, waste management and the supply chain for all the goods and services your company or organization buys.

Terminology for Sustainability
Sustainability includes all of a company’s or organization’s impacts and actions including: (1) All environmental impacts, (2) All impacts on social equity and (3) All impacts on economic performance. Common descriptions of sustainability are:

  • People, Planet, Profit
  • Environment, Equity, Economy
  • Environmental Improvement, Social Equity, Economic Prosperity

Getting Started on Your Inventory: Data Gathering

Decide whether you are doing the inventory internally or if you will get help from a consultant. Whichever approach you choose, the first step is gathering the needed data:

For your entire company or organization gather the energy use and emission data for each of the three scopes of emission inventories:

  • Scope 1:
    • This includes:
      • Direct energy use (buildings, vehicles, manufacturing, etc.)
      • Direct emissions (from manufacturing process, etc.)
  • Scope 2:
    • This includes:
      • Electricity use
      • Use of energy from district heating to cooling systems
  • Scope 3:
    • This includes:
      • Everything else
        • Commuting
        • Travel
        • Supply chain
        • Etc.

Emissions Calculations
Use the energy use and emissions data gathered to calculate the emissions of your company or organization. This involves identifying the appropriate emissions factors for each toe of energy use and using these emissions factors, the energy use data and the emissions data to calculate the emissions of your organization.

A good place to start is the Leonardo Academy’s guide to emissions calculations that provides a description of how to do these calculations and emission factors for electricity by state and emissions factors for other types of energy use. (www.leonardoacademy.org/resources)

Leonardo Academy is a nonprofit organization that develops sustainability solutions through consultation and certification services in the LEED Green Building Rating System and the Cleaner & Greener sustainable event program. Leonardo Academy also provides sustainability and continuing education training, including training for the LEED Green Associate credential for individuals who support green buildings in their profession, such as building owners and facility managers.

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