Reporting on greenhouse gas emissions
Summit Energy Clearly Defines Glass Manufacturer’s Carbon Footprint
For most companies, energy use accounts for nearly all greenhouse gas emissions. This case study describes a global glass manufacturer that chose the energy consultants at Summit to establish their baseline carbon inventory and provide ongoing greenhouse gas emissions reporting.
Sustainability Is More Than A Buzzword. It Takes Work: As part of ongoing efforts to tackle corporate sustainability, companies must first know where they stand and what they want to achieve. It is critical to establish baselines and reporting protocols in order to communicate current status and future goals, especially regarding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition, when companies ask suppliers to report and manage carbon emissions, it is imperative that they also plan, strategize and prepare for increasing regulatory requirements.
SITUATION
Pressure to measure and subsequently reduce carbon emissions has increased steadily across the globe. One of the largest glass manufacturers in the world, producing 30 billion glass containers a year and providing insulation for 20% of all homes in the United States, understood that it needed to take action. The manufacturer turned to Summit Energy, the company’s energy procurement and risk management partner for 167 sites in North America, to help tackle its sustainability challenge.
As an initial step, Summit recommended establishing the manufacturer’s GHG emissions baseline. With access to the company’s corporate-wide energy information via the online reporting tool dashboarDView™, Summit was able to efficiently analyze the data and create the manufacturer’s baseline carbon footprint.
LEADERSHIP
An accurate GHG emissions baseline is the cornerstone for setting achievable emissions- reduction goals and managing a carbon footprint. Summit began developing the glass manufacturer’s GHG inventory by defining boundary conditions, outlining scope definitions and establishing calculation methodologies. Using the latest industry conversion factors and calculation conventions, Summit created a greenhouse gas inventory built upon verifiable data and auditable processes.
Using dashboarDView™, the glass manufacturer could track and report on greenhouse gas emissions at both the site and enterprise levels. The company began to leverage emissions data from multiple streams and scopes, benchmark performance against baseline data, and maintain a database of sustainability project initiatives.
RESULTS
With a GHG inventory built on verifiable emissions, the glass manufacturer, not only gained an understanding of historical emissions data, but also used that information to shape corporate sustainability benchmarks and initiatives. Armed with solid data and reporting statistics, the company can move forward with its sustainability efforts and report its progress to customers, investors, regulators and internal stakeholders.
