Carbon and Sustainability Accounting:

An IPCC-based Approach

Prof. Paul Jowitt & Dr. Keith J. BakerScottish Institute of Sustainable Technology (SISTech)Heriot-Watt University

Outline

• Where to start?

• Embodied Carbon

• Operational Carbon

• Sustainability Accounting

• ‘5 Principles’ – IPCC / World Resources Institute

• Where now?

Where to start?

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

Robert Kaplan

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

Einstein

Embodied Carbon

The carbon and other GHGs (expressed in CO2e) embodied in the capital of an organisation

i.e. everything the organisation owns.

Operational Carbon

The carbon and other GHGs (expressed in CO2e) emitted by an organisation’s operations (including emissions from electricity generation).

i.e. what the organisation does.

Sustainability Accounting

Also called the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC).

Accounting for the wider impacts of an organisation and its operations (environmental, social, economic, etc).

The next big challenge!

WRI ‘5 Principles’

• Relevance• Completeness• Consistency• Transparency• Accuracy

(World Resources Institute, ‘The Greenhouse Gas Protocol’, report submitted to the IPCC)

Relevance

The GHG inventory should reflect the GHG emissions of the organisation.

It should serve the decision-making needs of users – both internal and external to the organisation.

Completeness

Account for and report on all GHG emission sources and activities within the chosen inventory boundary.

Disclose and justify any specific exclusions.

Consistency

Use consistent methodologies to allow for meaningful comparisons of emissions over time.

Document any changes to the data, inventory boundary, methods, or any other relevant factors in the time series.

Transparency

Address all relevant issues in a factual and coherent manner, based on a clear audit trail.

Disclose any relevant assumptions and make appropriate references to the accounting and calculation methodologies and data sources used.

Accuracy

Ensure that the quantification of GHG emissions is robust, and that uncertainties are reduced as far as practicable.

With sufficient accuracy to enable users to make decisions with reasonable confidence.

Where now?

We can measure most of what matters.

We can use what we know to drive policy.

We can ensure policy delivers sustainable outcomes.

Or……………………