Measure Your Organisation’s Carbon Footprint or Greenhouse Gas Inventory

For an organisation, the term carbon footprint or greenhouse gas inventory includes the carbon emissions and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated directly from the organisation’s activities or use of fuels, and also indirectly from the use of electricity and from the use and disposal of materials, products and services.

By measuring its carbon footprint or GHG inventory, the organisation can manage and reduce emissions over time, and also use it for disclosure to stakeholders or for marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR) purposes.

After calculating the carbon footprint, it is then possible for the organisation to take active steps to manage the emissions. The organisation can:

• Set emissions reduction targets
• Identify opportunities for energy efficiency and reduction of emissions
• Take action to implement emissions reduction projects
• Monitor the performance of the projects and improve accordingly

The approach to an organisation’s carbon footprint usually involves five steps:

1. Define a consistent methodology
2. Specify the boundary and scope involved
3. Obtain the emissions data and calculate the carbon footprint
4. Verify the results with a third party
5. Disclose the carbon footprint in a report and to stakeholders

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GHG Protocol

If your organisation wishes to calculate your carbon footprint or GHG inventory, you can follow the GHG Protocol produced by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD):

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard provides standards and guidance for companies and other organizations preparing a GHG emissions inventory. It covers the accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

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ISO 14064

You can also follow the ISO 14064 from the International Organization for Standardization, which comprises three standards on specifications and guidance for the organisational and project levels, and for validation and verification. Read more about the standard here.

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Carbon Footprint Calculators

Or you can use these online carbon footprint calculators to estimate your carbon emissions:

• Carbon Trust
• Carbon Footprint
• The CarbonNeutral Company
• ClimateCare

Some of the above websites provide carbon offsets to help your organisation become carbon neutral.

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Carbon Disclosure Project

If you wish to study how companies disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, visit the Carbon Disclosure Project website:

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organisation which holds the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. The data is obtained from responses to CDP’s annual Information Requests, issued on behalf of institutional investors, purchasing organisations and government bodies. Since its formation in 2000, CDP has become the gold standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process, providing primary climate change data to the global market place.

Image credit: CMSeter; Plusverde.

The Carbon Disclosure Project 2009, Asia ex-Japan Report

The Carbon Disclosure Project 2009, Asia ex-Japan Report, authored by the Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA), reported a double increase in the number of companies reporting their corporate greenhouse gas emissions data, from 61 last year to 127 this year.

Carbon Disclosure Project

Founded in 2000, The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) represents about 475 global institutional investors with more than US $55 trillion in assets under management. CDP collects climate change data from 2,500 major corporations into the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emissions database.

Asia ex-Japan Report

In this 2009 Asia ex-Japan Report, there are 4 key themes from the CDP questionnaire responses:

1. From Mitigation to Adaptation – Companies Start to Move Beyond Regulatory Uncertainty and Focus on Opportunities
2. More Substantive Disclosure of Emissions and Operational Data
3. IT Sector leads on Responses and Data
4. Korea Pushes Ahead, India Emerges Strongly

The Carbon Disclosure Project 2009, Asia ex-Japan Report, is available for free download from the ASrIA website.

Singapore

For Singapore, the number of companies involved and the response rate is less than satisfactory (see tables below). 14 local companies were involved in the questionnaire and the response rate was 21%. Only 3 companies answered the questionnaire – Capitaland Limited, City Developments Limited and Singapore Airlines. In contrast, the response rate in Korea is 50% with 50 companies answering the questionnaire.

Response Profiles of Asian Countries

Singapore Companies and their Responses

More Effort Needed

Clearly, more Singapore companies need to take climate change seriously and start reporting their corporate greenhouse gas emissions data and take steps to reduce their emissions. If not, local companies will fall behind more proactive companies in Korea and India, and lose their competitive advantage in the coming carbon constraint market.

Source and image credit: Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA)