How Much CO2 Does My Company Emit?

Get started reducing greenhouse gases

Last year the U.S. emitted seven billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gases (CO₂ equivalent). You could allocate most of that to each of us as consumers (as is done by the carbon footprint calculator in this post). After all, most of it was generated while making and delivering things for consumers. Consumer choices clearly affect global warming pollution.

On the other hand, most of those emissions were produced by industrial and commercial activities. About 1.2 billion tonnes were generated by energy use in residences, and probably another half-billion tonnes by non-commercial transportation (travel by consumers that wasn't commuting to work).

Of the 7 billion tonnes CO₂e the U.S. poured out last year, about 5.4 billion was emitted by businesses, offices, factories, farms, commercial transportation, and related business activities. (This does not include the indirect emissions associated with imported products or raw materials.) U.S. businesses had about 136.7 million employees in 2006, so that's roughly 40 tonnes per employee. You can do a first approximation of your firm's emissions.

40 tonnes CO₂e per employee

These emissions came mainly from the following sources associated with your business:

• Generation and delivery, or on-site generation of electricity, steam and process heat you used in your operations, including offices and production.
• Transportation used by your employees to get to and from their jobs.
• Energy embodied in water, paper and other supplies used at your facilities.
• Combustion of liquid fuels at your sites.
• Delivery of raw materials to your facilities.
• Distribution of finished products to your customers.
• Emissions from waste from your offices and production sites.
• Business travel by your employees, including sales calls.

The exact mix of where CO₂e is emitted in your business requires some analysis. You also want to identify "low hanging fruit"--energy uses where reducing CO₂e emissions is easy. There are consultants who can help you do this, and we are compiling a list. But in the meantime you might try this walkthrough approach outlined by The Carbon Trust (pdf from The Carbon Trust site; copy on our site).

Often the wasted energy spotted in such a walkthrough can amount to 10-20% of total energy use in a building. That goes to the bottom line. And it reduces greenhouse gas emissions immediately. These early savings may pay for professional assistance with more complicated analysis. You're on your way.

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Should You Carbon-Label Your Products?

Does Carbon Labelling Reduce Carbon Emissions?

Labeling products with information about how much greenhouse gas was emitted in the product's production, processing and distribution is at a very early stage of development. It is a huge commitment of resources to develop an accurate analysis for even one product.

Consumers do not seem to understand the carbon labels that have been piloted. They may be more misleading than helpful, even assuming they can be made accurate.

For example, Boots the Chemists developed a carbon footprint analysis for one of its brands of shampoo indicating that 160 grams of greenhouse gases were released in its manufacture (including the manufacture of its ingredients and packaging) and distribution. However, the consumer is going to take it home and cause the emission of kilograms of CO₂ every time he or she uses the product. The carbon cost of heating water for the shower dwarfs the carbon cost of the blob of shampoo used (actually, of its packaging--that's the carbon-intensive part). Even if you rinse and repeat.

Carbon labeling may make the consumer feel better, just like labeling your product as made from hemp and/or bamboo, which the consumer somehow feels are environmentally friendly materials. It is more a part of image management than of carbon management.

Better to look at your operations and improve energy and materials efficiency.

Keep in mind this possibility: After you go to all the trouble and expense of measuring carbon costs and labelling your products, will your carbon labels compare favorably with those of your competitors? There are some strategic questions here about how green you can get compared to competitors, and whether it makes sense to compete on that basis when consumers can see actual numbers.

If consumers do learn to look for carbon labels, will they become a marketing advantage? This will favor large companies, since it may cost tens of millions to develop, calculate, and apply such labels to a range of products. In the long run such labels may become as common as nutrition labels are today--indeed much more common since they could be applied to all products. They might even come to be required, as nutrition labels are. However, that is decades in the future.

That said, the type of life-cycle analysis of products undertaken to develop carbon labels could be very useful to a company as it identifies high-leverage points for carbon reduction. In the case of Boots' shampoo mentioned above, the analysis suggested incorporating recycled PET into the bottles, and adopting reusable plastic bins rather than cardboard cartons for bulk distribution to stores, and other distribution improvements. These changes reduced the life-cycle (not counting consumer use) carbon emissions of the shampoo by 20%.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% is a substantial win, if it can be replicated at reasonable cost. But the label itself is not necessary to achieve this.

For more information about the carbon labelling issue check these links:

Carbon Trust launches Carbon Reduction Label
Tesco to 'carbon label' its products
Tesco briefing paper (pdf) by UK Energy Research Centre
CarbonCounted's alternative system

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tags: greenhouse gas emissions, green, carbon choices, carbon footprint, business, carbon label

Businesses Must Reduce Their Carbon Footprints

Carbon choices for businesses

If you want to make your business greener, and reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases your operations generate, here are four simple steps:

1. Commit yourself to reduce your own carbon emissions. Or do you believe that you have a superior right to pollute? If so I'd like to introduce you to 1.3 billion annoyed Chinese.
2. Get your employees on a path to reduced carbon emissions. Lead, encourage, teach, incentivize, and set a good example. Walk the walk. Set the tone. Provide support (including some of the tools that will be available on this site). Maybe even measure performance. How come the "employee of the month" always gets a special parking space? Why not a transit pass? Rewarding driving and parking sends the wrong signal.
3. Squeeze energy out of your operations. Make life cycle energy efficiency a key metric in every management decision. What can you outsource to places where energy overhead is lower? Is carbon footprint and emission reduction part of your bonus and performance criteria? Do a detailed energy audit. Analyze fleet operations, scheduling, and load factors. Evaluate facility retrofits for carbon impact and payback. Many proven technologies are available.
4. Reduce carbon emissions in your supply chain. What are the life-cycle carbon impacts of your products? Are there alternatives or alternative suppliers who can do better? Calculate carbon costs of sourcing decisions. How have other companies done it? In the long run maybe tally a second bottom line for greenhouse gas emissions?

The goal of this site: to make this easier

We will be assembling tools, recommendations, and functions to help businesses make meaningful carbon-management decision. Many of the "greening the supply chain" resources do not focus on greenhouse gas emissions but deal with other environmental or regulatory compliance issues. A lot of the ideas out there are snake oil. Do you want to feel good, look good, or do good? I know that is a tough question. At least we will be able to point you to resources that will help you make informed decisions.

Visualize a world in 2050 producing less than half the greenhouse gases we do today. Visualize developed countries producing 15% of what they emit today.

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tags: carbon choices, greenhouse gas emissions, co2, environment, carbon footprint, business, commercial