One good thing about striving to improve your company’s sustainability is that you can tackle the project from so many angles, including reducing production waste and building more circular products.
Your efforts can also include reducing your greenhouse gas emissions — and, depending on the size, type and location of your facilities, you may be required to do so. Why is it important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Because, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains, the emissions, which come from both humanmade and natural sources, trap heat around the Earth, altering climate and weather patterns. Carbon dioxide, or CO₂, is the most common greenhouse gas. Others include methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and several types of fluorinated gases.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions isn’t just good for the environment. It reduces costs — and even can fuel corporate growth, says Alyssa Rade, chief sustainability officer at Sustain.Life (recently acquired by Workiva Carbon, a carbon accounting platform).
“Adjusting how you conduct business to consume fewer resources or use the same resources more efficiently can result in significant emissions cuts while lowering costs,” Rade says. “For example, in 2022, Microsoft experienced 18% company growth while achieving a 0.5% reduction in overall emissions, an impressive achievement in ‘decoupling’ economic growth from GHG emissions, something that’s unusual for a company of its size.”
Greenhouse gas emissions are frequently broken down into three categories — Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 — based on where those gases are emitted, whether directly by a company on its own property or upstream or downstream from a company’s facilities.
If you’re just getting started with an analysis of your greenhouse gas emissions, Rade offers some questions to get you started, such as:
- How many facilities does my company own or lease (manufacturing plants, office space, retail locations, etc.)?
- What supplies, equipment, components and machinery does my company source from suppliers?
- How are our goods and services delivered to customers?
- What energy consumption is involved in the manufacturing of our products?
- Do our employees travel for work? If so, how often and what modes of travel do they use?
- When a customer is done with our product, how do they dispose of it? How can we facilitate mattress recycling or circular product design?
You don’t have to go it alone as you get started. An entire sector has grown to help companies track greenhouse gas emissions, including providers that offer calculators and greenhouse gas accounting services to help you measure your emissions.
“The key here is not to get overwhelmed,” Rade says. “Start with one topic or area where you can access emissions data or where you’ll have some team support.”
Learn More
In the September issue, BedTimes offered a primer on the gases that make up greenhouse gas emissions and explained the Scope 1, 2 and 3 classification system. You can find the article here.
