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Your Carbon Baseline Must be a Key Business Metric

By Daniel Stouffer

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 20May2010 Word count: 506 Viewed: 440 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

For generations now, economists within an organization strive to classify the performance of that entity by reference to certain key business metrics. It is fair to say that among these metrics, the definition of carbon baseline has been far from their minds.

These days, economists must also wear the hat of a scientist to a certain extent and understand the importance of carbon baseline measurement as it pertains to the very core of the business itself.

Business executives may no longer refer to energy efficiency in terms of utility costs alone, as society now demands that every company reveals the volume of carbon emissions associated with energy use. Carbon by itself is not yet classified as a commodity to be traded, although this could change fairly shortly, could one day soon have an attached value and be of equal importance on a balance sheet as well.

A carbon baseline must be a key business metric. Unless an organization is aware of the amount of carbon emissions that is by definition responsible for, then it can not take action to modify and improve such a situation. Improvements will be called upon as there is a growing groundswell of opinion calling for sustainability in the corporate world.

Sustainability demands that a company is responsible for the footprint it creates and that it must not "take more than it gives." Sustainability therefore means that the company must be able to endure without placing too much of an imposition on the world around it. Energy use traditionally is responsible for carbon emissions and these greenhouse gas emissions are damaging our very environment.

A carbon baseline can be measured according to direct and indirect emissions. As such, emissions can be broken down into three separate scopes. It is widely believed that the third scope, relating to emissions outside of the direct control of the organization, such as occurring during the supply chain or after sale may represent the largest share. This will be traditionally the most difficult for the organization to account for.

Every individual asset within an organization is responsible for using a certain amount of energy. Every time this energy is used, a certain amount of carbon is emitted into the atmosphere. It is therefore essential that an organization is aware of the operation of each asset, how each performs and how each is responsible for making up a share of its overall carbon baseline.

We can see efforts around the world to force organizations to become sustainable. Some jurisdictions are implementing trading schemes to set economic barriers to the production of these become widespread, any organization that is not aware of its carbon baseline could be doomed to failure.

Carbon baseline standards must be adopted and individual asset energy performance understood before any steps can be taken to create a position of sustainability for the company. Many organizations are just becoming aware of this growing threat to their very survival, yet those who have initiated an early action could strive for a position of superiority over their peers.

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