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How The Climate Registry's Carbon Footprint Calculator Works

By Daniel Stouffer

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 05Jun2010 Word count: 504 Viewed: 297 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Just about every facility emits some type of greenhouse gas. In an effort to encourage businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, The Climate Registry includes a carbon footprint calculator to assist in identifying reduction of carbon emissions. With the calculator, entities can more easily recognize their greenhouse gas emissions, implement measures to reduce them and set benchmarks to gauge their progress.

The Climate Registry is a nonprofit agency that sets uniform standards for calculating, verifying and reporting greenhouse gas emissions into one registry. Membership in The Climate Registry is voluntary, however most North American states, provinces, territories and native sovereign nations are taking part in the effort to reduce carbon emissions.

The Climate Registry's carbon footprint calculator is a valuable tool where facilities can enter data about their daily operations in areas that contribute greatly to greenhouse gas emissions. Energy use, waste generation, purchased materials and transportation are among the main areas that play a major role in the emitting of harmful gases into the environment.

It is becoming increasingly critical for businesses to measure their carbon footprint. The current and future health of the planet depends on it. New research shows that certain gases are depleting the ozone layer and contributing to global warming. Because these gases remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, steps must be taken now to slow their damage. These measures include reducing carbon emissions.

The carbon footprint calculator measures gases proven to cause the most harm to the atmosphere. These substances include carbon dioxide, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs). According to scientists, these gases contribute to the earths warming, which could lead to extreme heat waves, rising sea levels and severe harm to humans, animals, plant life and marine life, if no action is taken to stop the damaging effects.

The carbon footprint calculator enables a business of any size to identify the extent of their greenhouse gas emissions, create an inventory management plan, establish goals and report their emissions as outlined under EPA requirements. The calculator is of particular importance to companies with multiple buildings or locations.

A carbon footprint calculator uses data that represents a company's Emissions Factors (EF) and Global Warming Potential (GWP) for each emission source. Carbon emission sources are either direct or indirect. Direct emissions are those from equipment or other sources owned or operated by a company, such as commercial refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) systems or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Indirect emissions are used by a company during daily operations, but are supplied by another source, such as the use of electricity or heat. The total emission is factored by multiplying the EF and GWP numbers of each source.

With the complexity of the data that needs to be inputted into the carbon footprint calculator, most companies with AC/HVAC systems in offices, stores, hospitals, warehouses, etc., are turning to refrigerant management programs that are computerized and include a carbon calculator to handle the tedious monitoring, tracking and reporting tasks with ease.

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