BusinessForward

By:  Jennifer Rignani, Senior Writer, BusinessForward

Sure we inhabitants of the planet earth care about its fate. Nobody wants to pull a Matthew McConaughey in “Interstellar.”

But beyond the dramatization of global implications of overconsuming the environment, there are very real reasons to understand your company’s role in the health of our planet. Just like your budget at home can reign in over-consumption of energy and costly inefficiency, so too can a carbon footprint analysis. Further, if you are interested in engaging customers who care about these issues, it’s a good idea to know your environmental impact and what you can do about it.

Green Initiative

Recently, a $6 billion retail customer had a Green Initiative in place and an authentic concern for doing their part in recycling and reducing waste.  But they had no system to understand other areas of the business in terms of environmental impact. What they needed to know first was their baseline carbon footprint.  Though they had just hired a sustainability coordinator, she had no capacity to identify the relevant data, collect it and analyze it to determine this. Many at the company didn’t even know what it was.

Carbon Footprint

For the record, a carbon footprint is historically defined as “the total sets of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.”

To get to the actual baseline for this customer, output in three areas were examined:

• Direct Emissions like refrigeration and air conditioning and purchased gases
• Indirect Emissions such as electricity
• Optional Emissions including business travel and product transport

Working with the COO, HR, purchasing, facilities and other departments, we were able to establish a baseline carbon footprint. Applying EPA calculation standards, and our own business process methodology, we captured their metric tons of output and provided a framework for continued measurement.

But what does it all mean? For now, our customer finally has context to their company-wide Green Initiative. They also have solid recommendations on how to automate this process in the future. Employees are excited to get involved and learn more about their role in sustainability.

For this company and others, the ultimate goal is to identify areas for improvement. So the next question is, how do you benchmark your carbon footprint against other same-sized companies in your industry?

Benchmarking

While working with experienced consultants in this area is smart, there are complementary resources to get you started.

Consider membership to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Depending on organizational size, membership is between $7,000 and $9,000 per year. The CDP is a large repository of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from organizations all over the world.

Leverage the Sustainable Materials Management Data Management System (WasteWise) from the EPA. This is free to partners in exchange for tracking and reporting data. Using the analytical features within the tool can help identify areas for opportunity as well as some benchmarking

Granular Data

If your business has storefronts, or your product requires refrigeration or transport, here are four ways get a handle on impact.

1. Capture and track refrigerant level for each of your facilities, distribution centers, and corporate offices. This would include segregating refrigerant purchases by location.
2. Potentially slot and distribute refrigerants from a central warehouse for improved visibility.
3. Capture and track supply chain aspects. Specifically the miles traveled by your transportation fleet and by your vendors.
4. Join the EPA SmartWay program to obtain tactics for moving goods in lower carbon ways.

Earth Day is every day, when you think about it. Working with people who know how to design a process to ensure that your company’s carbon footprint can be calculated more easily is key.

Look for more on this topic in future blogs. While we may not be jetting off to other planets for natural resources just yet, it certainly makes sense to establish your role on earth.