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A Carbon Emissions Baseline. Now What?

By Daniel Stouffer

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 28Jun2010 Word count: 589 Viewed: 281 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Calculation of a carbon baseline is an important first step for any organization's sustainability team, as they set out on the road to reporting emissions and justifying reductions. Understanding your carbon emissions baseline is a good start but it is just the beginning.

You must now look beyond this static calculation of where your organization was and move to determining the priorities that are specific to your organization moving forward. A reduction in carbon emissions is called for but how do you get started cost effectively. How can these efforts start small and be part of an integrated approach to an environmental management or sustainability program. Every organization must become sustainable, so that it uses fewer precious resources, be it human, capital, or natural, manages it's water consumption and waste production effectively and is as energy efficient as possible.

These are not just examples of environmental stewardship; these actions represent associated savings that go right to an organization's bottom line. While legislators show increasing desire to introduce carbon regulations, few today truly force organizations to report, trade, or buy the right to emit. Forward thinking organizations can create a better, strategic position for themselves by taking early action; by preparing for the not to distant future. In a challenging economic environment, every organization wants to see a positive return on investment (ROI), for every action, regardless of the environmental considerations. Having projects produce cost savings or improved operations, as well as improve an organization's sustainability initiatives, is win-win.

Those who take early action and understand the need to embrace sustainability holistically will be able to leverage their efforts in step-by-step fashion. Through the establishment of an automated carbon and energy management system, an organization will be able to locate areas of risk and identify opportunities, enabling management to be proactive rather than reactive.

In an increasingly competitive environment, an organization should strive for collaboration & visibility with real-time decision making, learn how it compares to its peers, and how it could reposition itself for better operational results.

Data management, actionable data, and information is power. When in possession of on-demand, accurate and timely information, the organization's management will be able to plan for operational and strategic efficiency.

A common carbon calculator allows an organization to manually record carbon emissions from the most common sources, in order to establish their initial, point in time carbon baseline. This represents a good start.

This enables a comparison with a "point-to-point" figures across the enterprise or industry if shut data exists. All of this is to prepare strategic scenarios and plan successfully for the future of a low carbon economy.

The next step involves the more timely calculation and input of emissions related to ALL electricity, natural gas, refrigerant use, and vehicle operation across your entire organization. A variety of reporting points may be used.

Carbon emissions calculations may subsequently be utilized from historical data comparison going back many years if the utility bill data is available. This is the basis for the establishment, more accurate observation, and tracking of site level footprints. Automatic data capture is the next and one of the most important steps, allowing your organization to calculate and call upon dynamic reports, based on potentially large amounts of disparate information. The receipt of timely and accurate information can lead to real savings in time and resources across large distributed organizations.

Real and effective environmental management is only achievable if the organization's leadership team has access to correct, timely and comprehensive information. It's time to move beyond the carbon baseline.

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