In today’s corporate landscape, stakeholders have higher expectations for companies to address and comply with responsible and sustainable business standards. A crucial step to meet this demand is the calculation and continuous monitoring of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Equally important is crafting a narrative to illustrate how investments in efficiency improvements and the establishment of science-based goals provide a comprehensive sustainability strategy.
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Specialized Knowledge for Proper Execution
Burton provides our clients with the foundations for establishing a publicly facing corporate sustainability program. This includes:
- Establishment of an initial greenhouse gas emissions baseline.
- Continual measurement and validation strategy.
- Measurement of past and future energy project effectiveness.
- Evaluation of mandatory benchmarking compliance standards.
- Development of a proactive program to identify opportunities and measure corporate goals against actual performance.
These tasks are straightforward but require specialized industry knowledge to execute properly. Understanding which calculations, standards, and practices are appropriate for a particular company is key. Common challenges include determining when to utilize market-based calculations instead of relying on electric grid averages, selecting an appropriate baseline year, and identifying actionable opportunities to reduce GHG emissions.
Burton Energy Group has valuable expertise in this field, offering services that span from basic carbon inventory calculations to developing complete sustainability programs tailored to your business. Burton specializes in diverse sectors, including retail, hospitality, fast food, financial institutions, data centers, and office buildings. We have a proven track record in producing greenhouse gas reports and conducting decarbonization audits, demonstrating our commitment to advancing environmental stewardship in partnership with our clients.
Scope 1 – Direct Emissions
Scope 1 emissions largely account for the combustion of fuels (natural gas, propane) in company facilities or fuels in company-owned/operated transportation assets. This scope includes fugitive emissions, which cover the emissions that stem from refrigerants leaking into the environment, as well as the emissions from vehicles and other modes of transportation used by businesses and gas combusted in boilers or furnaces. This includes all retail operations, office and support, manufacturing, distribution, and storage facilities.
Scope 2 – Indirect Electricity Emissions
Scope 2 emissions incorporate the emissions associated with electricity that is purchased and consumed to operate a business and its facilities, such as retail stores, warehouses, offices, support centers, etc. Since this electricity has emissions that result from its generation, this is a necessary portion to factor into a company’s total emissions calculations – not only the amount of energy consumed but also the source of that energy (nuclear, natural gas, coal, etc.). Burton calculates and tracks both Location-based (eGrid) and Market-based Scope 2 GHG Emission factors.
Before accounting for Scope 2 emissions, companies should consider which business goal(s) they aim to achieve. Companies consuming electricity may seek to:
- Identify and understand the impacts of emissions from purchased and consumed electricity.
- Identify internal GHG reduction opportunities, set reduction targets, and track performance.
- Engage energy suppliers and partners in GHG management.
- Enhance stakeholder information and corporate reputation through transparent public reporting.
- Consider how capital investments and business expansion scale the carbon footprint.
The Scope 1 and 2 categories account for the emissions within a company’s operations. In some cases, a business may look to report on emissions that are outside of its operational control. This can be accomplished by creating a Scope 3 emissions inventory.
Scope 3 – Corporate Value Chain Emissions
A Scope 3 report includes all other indirect emissions that occur across the company’s value chain and are not already accounted for in Scope 1 or 2. There are fifteen categories of emissions in Scope 3, split into upstream activities (i.e. material acquisition, capital acquisition, business travel, etc.) and downstream activities (i.e. distribution and storage, use of product, etc.). Determining which Scope 3 categories are relevant to your business is the first step. From there, formulating a plan to collect the necessary data and track Scope 3 emissions can be difficult which is where a partner like Burton can assist. When creating a Scope 3 emissions inventory, it is best to be proactive in collecting data and understand there will need to be inter-department cooperation across your company.
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