Corporate/Organizational Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Analysis

CleanMetrics can help evaluate the full climate impact of your company or organization by accounting for the life-cycle GHG emissions generated and resources consumed to create, deliver and use your products or services. An annual GHG inventory is a snapshot of the company's total climate impact that year. It is a critical environmental performance metric that should be tracked over time and continually reduced by setting a series of clear and achievable targets. Request quote

What is a GHG inventory?

The greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory of a company or organization is a detailed life-cycle-based accounting of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases emitted in the process of operating the company/organization, producing the products or services delivered to customers, using those products or services, and finally disposing them. The GHG inventory captures the mix of energy sources used in producing, delivering and using the company's products or services, as well as non-energy related greenhouse gas emissions. Over time, the inventory also captures energy efficiencies achieved as well as any transition to renewable energy sources and materials/processes with lighter footprints.

Our Solution

 

Using our GHG and life-cycle assessment software tools and the Rapid Carbon Footprinting methodology, we can quickly and cost-effectively develop an annual GHG inventory of your company or organization. Once we have created an initial inventory, an annual refresh is even faster and easier. An initial inventory also sets the stage for investigating emission reductions and offset strategies. In addition to greenhouse gases, we will also report out the energy and water footprints of your organization.

 

Our analysis is comprehensive and typically includes:

  • Setting organizational and operational boundaries

  • Scope 1: Direct GHG emission sources

    • Direct fuel combustion in stationary and company-owned mobile sources
    • Direct emissions or sequestration in the manufacturing or farming processes

  • Scope 2: Indirect GHG emission sources related to electricity

    • Indirect fuel combustion from the generation of purchased electricity, based on the actual local grid mix and accounting for any green power purchased

  • Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emission sources

    • Production of purchased materials or goods (cradle-to-gate)
    • Transport of purchased materials or goods
    • Employee business travel
    • Employee commuting to and from work
    • Transport, storage and use of sold products and services
    • Waste disposal, including transport
    • Extraction, production and transport of fuels used in scopes 1 and 2
    • Transmission and distribution losses related to purchased electricity in scope 2

The analysis is guided by the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, and supported by our large database of life cycle inventory (LCI) data for raw materials used in manufacturing/construction/packaging, common industrial processes, agricultural processes and food products, energy sources, transport modes, and waste disposal. We can use either process LCI (PLCI) to model all scope 3 emission sources or environmentally-extended input-output LCI (EEIOLCI) data for purchased materials, transport and waste disposal as appropriate.  EEIOLCI covers the entire US economy and can convert dollar amounts spent into corresponding emissions (as well as energy/water uses) -- this can be an efficient and quick method of estimating some of the scope 3 emissions for an initial inventory in some cases, and then we can refine the more critical items in the inventory using a sensitivity analysis.

In addition to providing total environmental footprint figures, our detailed reports will help you to focus on "hotspots" of carbon emissions, energy use and water use within your organization. The analysis is useful not only for corporate climate/sustainability communications, but also serves as a tool for measuring and directing continual operational and process improvements. 

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