Organizational Carbon Footprinting

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

The world's population comprising seven billion people consume varying amounts of the planet's resources. Growing populations drive up emissions and deplete the planet's resources. Increased greenhouse gas emissions directly impact global warming, accelerating climate change with disastrous effects on our planet.

Carbon footprint is the total quantity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the production, use, and residual end-of-life disposal of a product or a service. It includes carbon dioxide and other gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and some fluorinated gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, thereby causing global warming. A carbon footprint is usually measured as tons of CO2 emitted per year, a number that can be supplemented by tons of CO2-equivalent gases.

Companies produce GHG during their production, transport, and energy consumption during operations. Measuring the corporate footprint includes all GHG emissions, whether they are direct and controllable or not. It is crucial to know the organizational carbon footprint for the following reasons.

• It enables companies to identify and reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions,

• It allows them to publish their environmental performance statistics to external stakeholders such as investors and society,

• Companies can use this information to raise awareness of ecological costs internally and thus take proactive action.

• It is a valuable tool for environmental and energy management.

Organizational footprint and it's standards

An organizational carbon footprint measures GHG emissions from all activities across a company, including energy used in buildings and industrial processes, company-owned vehicles. In addition, it may measure indirect emissions associated with activities outside an organization's operations including its suppliers. The value chain analysis considers every step a business goes through, from raw materials to the eventual end-user.

ISO 14064-1 guides the principles and requirements for reporting GHG emissions. It provides additional guidance on verification, required levels of data validation, and external reporting frameworks to ensure consistent external communication.

GHG Protocol Corporate Standard categorizes GHG emissions into three scopes. Scope 1 (Direct emissions that result from activities within the organization's control), Scope 2 (Indirect emissions from any electricity, heat, etc), and Scope 3 (other indirect emissions from sources outside its direct control).

GHG Protocol Value Chain Standard accompanies the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard. Particularly useful for companies that want to report detailed information on their Scope 3 value chain emissions externally. For example, companies reporting to the CDP are required to provide extensive value chain emissions assessments.

Reducing the organizational footprint

An organizational carbon footprint is an essential component of net-zero and is the first building block towards any sustainability strategy.

To reduce carbon footprint, companies can improve energy efficiency, consume renewable energy, raise awareness by running campaigns among stakeholders, investing in green projects, paying green environment taxes, and buying carbon credits on the international emissions market, among other options.

A carbon footprint should account for:

• Emissions from the fuel combustion, such as that for corporate vehicles or water heating; use of diesel generators

• indirect emissions from the consumption of electricity including use of coal-based power.

• indirect emissions from travel for operations or the sourcing of raw materials

Below are some ways to reduce the carbon footprint for its business within its organization.

Buildings

Globally, one-third of carbon emissions are generated in buildings. These emissions can be significantly reduced by adopting the principles of Green Buildings, which include building location and transportation, energy and water efficiency, material selection, indoor environment quality, operation and maintenance, and waste reduction.

Electricity

To meet electricity needs more sustainably, organizations can switch to certified renewable electricity providers or off-grid solutions, such as photovoltaic panels.

• Energy efficiency - In addition to improving the carbon footprint, improving energy efficiency can also reduce costs considerably. For example, intelligent solutions for cooling and lighting can adapt the energy supply to match employees' working hours, which saves up to 25% of costs.

• Server - If a company work with large amounts of data or its offering consists mainly of software services, it will undoubtedly use data centers to process and store its data. Data centers are responsible for about 2% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Companies not operating their own data centers can still reduce their carbon footprint by switching to a carbon-neutral cloud provider.

Mobility

Mobility emissions are caused mainly by employee commuting and business trips. Therefore, any form of mobility in which conventional fuels are burned or non-renewable electrical energy is used is harmful to the climate, which considers the company's internal fleet and the commuting of employees, and the business trips they take.

• Business travel - Especially for service companies that require frequent customer interactions, transport can play a decisive role in the carbon footprint. Replacing personal visits with telephonic or online meetings can reduce carbon emissions. For unavoidable meetings, train connections are an environmentally friendlier option as compared to air travel.

• Commuting - Many employees travel to work by car or other personal transport, which increases emissions and noise, and stress levels, especially in the city. Here it is increasingly worthwhile to offer employees the freedom to work from home. Encouraging battery-operated cars is also a good option, which companies can support by providing the required infrastructure such as charging stations.

In addition, companies can give their employees incentives to switch to public transport by making a financial contribution to their public transport subscription.

Another good option to significantly reduce carbon footprint is if its employees can cycle to work. As a result, leasing company bicycles are becoming increasingly popular, and companies can claim a tax break through salary conversion.

Office operation

• Catering - Companies that offer food and drinks such as coffee and snacks to their employees add to the release of emissions over their life cycle. They can minimize it by promoting  Vegan or vegetarian food, which is healthier in general and more climate-friendly: meat production is responsible for 14.5% of global emissions.

• Waste production - Proper segregation of waste can result in enhanced reuse or refurbishment of materials, thereby reducing virgin products. It has a significant impact on carbon emissions.

The above are some common measures that companies can adopt to reduce their carbon footprint. There are several other strategies. The crucial aspect of implementing the plan, once identified, is to execute it throughout the organization.

A climate strategy can be successful only if the entire organization works together towards it. Climate action should be firmly anchored within the corporate culture and be a part of the company's performance appraisal system and recruitment process. Employees must adhere to the measures and develop an understanding and acceptance of them. Ongoing actions such as training programs, employee education, rewarding innovative ideas, and initiatives can help achieve this goal.

Written by Inderjit Ahuja