Thursday, March 4, 2021
  • Events
  • Interviews
  • Jobs
  • Community
  • Expert Blog
  • Whitepapers
  • Directory
Cloud7
  • Cloud Computing
  • Web Hosting
  • Data Center
  • Linux
  • Cybersecurity
  • More
    • Network/Internet
    • Windows
    • Software
    • Hardware
    • Blockchain
    • Policy/Legislation
No Result
View All Result
Cloud7
  • Cloud Computing
  • Web Hosting
  • Data Center
  • Linux
  • Cybersecurity
  • More
    • Network/Internet
    • Windows
    • Software
    • Hardware
    • Blockchain
    • Policy/Legislation
No Result
View All Result
Cloud7
No Result
View All Result

Home > Expert Blog > Building organizational emissions baselines for GHG Management

Building organizational emissions baselines for GHG Management

Upon surveying the landscape of organizational climate commitments, it is not uncommon to hear about attention grabbing goals like committing to 100% renewable energy.

Serena Mau by Serena Mau
February 19, 2021 2:42 pm
in Article, Expert Blog
4 min read
0 0
0
Building Organizational Emissions Baselines for GHG Management

You might be wondering: how do these organizations get started? Looking around your own organization, it may be difficult to imagine how the fragmented efforts that are taking place within different business units and on different timelines can come together to form a coherent story about the opportunity for impact and risk mitigation.

The key to getting started is to establish a carbon baseline.

A carbon baseline is an inventory of sources of carbon emissions from business activities. This is typically a one (or more) year(s’) snapshot that serve as a reference point for organizations to understand and track their changing emissions over time.

Building a multi-year emissions baseline not only enables an organization to have a better understanding of its recent historical GHG emissions trends but it also enables an organization to grasp the business trajectory and associated potential future emissions. A carbon baseline includes both direct and indirect emissions, also known as Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions (see image below for detailed categories).

Scope 1: Direct carbon emissions from owned or controlled sources (e.g. fuel)

Scope 2: Indirect carbon emissions from consumed purchased electricity, heat, or steam

Scope 3: Indirect carbon emissions from all other business activities (e.g. purchased goods and services, capital goods, production of purchase materials, transport-related activities not owned or controlled by the organization, waste disposal, business travel, use of sold products, etc.)

‍

Why establish a carbon baseline? 

Just as companies take stock of other types of resources or supplies, it is important for organizations to assess their carbon budget in order to understand which areas of business activities have the greatest opportunities for impact. We’ve discussed the importance of data quality in a previous blog when establishing carbon inventories.

Establishing a detailed carbon baseline provides management with the ability to understand carbon emissions across different business units and make data-informed decisions, for example, by having specific fuel type information according to projected business growth, or understanding how carbon-intensive specific regions’ electric grids are going to behave in the future where the company operates. Given the likely volume of data collection and calculations, the baseline inventory data can be much easier to visualize, analyze and synthesize if it is established in a centralized software system.

A secondary benefit to establishing a baseline carbon inventory is for tracking change over time. Since a baseline carbon inventory is only a snapshot in time, organizations need to build their processes for ongoing data collection to evaluate the effectiveness of operational changes. Having a baseline carbon inventory also supports companies in conducting peer benchmarking and evaluating their market position.

So you’ve built your baseline… what’s next?

Establishing a carbon inventory baseline is only the first step to managing organizational GHG emissions. Once an organization undertakes the effort to put together this emissions approach to understanding its impact, the organization can extend the same approach to thinking about risks and opportunities in business decision-making processes.

For example, when evaluating capital investments into a new facility, a company can inquire and collect data about the historical operational costs—including energy data—for existing facilities it is considering for acquisition, and/or factor in how “dirty” the electric grid is in the potential regions where a new facility may be sited.

Because an organization already has a baseline understanding of its existing portfolio of facilities, the organization can evaluate potential facilities against their own portfolio’s average emissions as well compare potential acquisitions against each other from a carbon impact standpoint. Siting new facilities in a region with a cleaner electrical grid, or with easier access to cleaner alternative fuels, can be considered alongside other performance and market factors in the capital investment decision-making processes.

Beyond singular business decisions, having an established carbon inventory baseline can facilitate an organization’s goal setting and scenario planning. Companies that have a target year and an established emissions target can draw a line from their established carbon baseline to their designated emissions target to understand the necessary change in their carbon budget over time compared to business as usual (see purple and green lines in graph below).

Forecasting different projections of possible futures based on the current carbon baseline provides a data-driven approach to stacking individual or decentralized business decisions together to get a comprehensive understanding of the planned emissions reductions, which aggregates the approved project pipeline. The planned emissions reductions can then be compared to the planned emissions gap or the targeted emissions reduction that has yet to be accounted for based on existing company mitigation strategies.

Finally, for companies thinking about supporting a 1.5-degree climate scenario, modeling the path from their carbon baseline to the company’s current goal versus what the target emissions would need to be to achieve the 1.5-degree scenario can facilitate an internal discussion around the target emissions gap (shown as the steepest emissions pathway in the graph above).

To understand how SINAI Technologies can support your organization to build carbon baselines, visualize scenario planning and risk analysis, and enable meaningful progress towards your decarbonization journey, contact for a demo.

‍

Source: SINAI Technologies

Previous Post

InoCloud joins the Innovations for Digital Infrastructure

Next Post

DC BLOX expands its Birmingham, AL data center

Serena Mau

Serena Mau

Passionate realist with over 10 years of experience focusing on energy and sustainability, fostering a circular economy, and achieving social justice, be it framed as risk management, adaptation, and resiliency, or healthy communities.

Related News

7 security feature every hosting provider must have

7 security feature every hosting provider must have

February 25, 2021 10:52 pm
The next green initiative is internet sustainability

The next green initiative is internet sustainability

February 23, 2021 3:04 am
Rittal International appoints Markus Asch as CEO

Rittal International appoints Markus Asch as CEO

February 22, 2021 8:28 pm
7 best CentOS alternatives

7 best CentOS alternatives

February 19, 2021 12:26 am
Next Post
DC BLOX expands its Birmingham

DC BLOX expands its Birmingham, AL data center

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Editor's Choice

Jeff Bezos to resign as CEO of Amazon

Heficed announced IPXO, World’s first IP marketplace

AlmaLinux Beta ready to download

Interview with Igor Seletskiy on AlmaLinux

Interview: Chiew Kok Hin, CEO of AIMS Data Centre

7 top hosting control panels for Linux servers

Five trends for data centers in 2021

Moosend

Get the Cloud7 Newsletter

Get FREE daily newsletters from Cloud7 delivering the latest news and reviews.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Recent News

  • Cologix is expanding its Columbus campus
  • IBM announced new senior roles for NewCo
  • Mageia 8 is now ready to download
  • Public cloud end-user spending to grow 18% in 2021 Gartner says
  • IPFire 2.25 Core Update 154 released

Most Popular News

  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) Daily Build ISOs are ready to download

    Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) ISOs are ready to download

    0 shares
    Facebook 0 Twitter 0
  • Parler.com domain moves to Epik

    0 shares
    Facebook 0 Twitter 0
  • itopia to secure $5 million in funding

    0 shares
    Facebook 0 Twitter 0
  • CDS unveils three new services for enterprise data center support

    0 shares
    Facebook 0 Twitter 0
  • IBM appoints Kathryn Guarini as CIO

    0 shares
    Facebook 0 Twitter 0
  • 7 best Linux mail servers

    0 shares
    Facebook 0 Twitter 0
  • ImmuniWeb Community Edition offers continuous security monitoring

    0 shares
    Facebook 0 Twitter 0

Dome Binasi, Yesilce Mah. Dalgic Sok. No: 3/5 Kat: 1, Kagithane / Istanbul / Turkey

We bring you the latest news, articles, interviews, reviews, solutions, and videos related to cloud tech, data center, cyber security, web hosting, Linux and so on.

News Categories

  • Web Hosting
  • Cloud Computing
  • Data Center
  • Cybersecurity
  • Linux
  • Network/Internet
  • Software
  • Hardware
  • Blockchain

Our Free Modules

  • Events
  • Interviews
  • Jobs
  • Community
  • Expert Blog
  • Whitepapers
  • Directory

Get the Cloud7 Newsletter

Get FREE daily newsletters from Cloud7 delivering the latest news and reviews.

  • About Us
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Copyright Policy
  • Contact

© 2021 Cloud7 News

No Result
View All Result
  • Cloud Computing
  • Web Hosting
  • Data Center
  • Linux
  • Cybersecurity
  • More
    • Network/Internet
    • Windows
    • Software
    • Hardware
    • Blockchain
    • Policy/Legislation
  • Events
  • Interviews
  • Jobs
  • Community
  • Expert Blog
  • Whitepapers
  • Directory

© 2021 Cloud7 News

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

*By registering into our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.