The importance of knowing your emission factor

 

 

Knowing yourself, your strengths and weaknesses is often a key factor of success in many areas of life; and your company is no exception. In case of low carbon strategies, the rule applies too. This article will explain you why and how to turn a Lifecycle Carbon Analysis (LCA) into a competitive advantage.

 

 

As the industrial sector organizes themselves to reduce the CO2 emission impact of their activities, companies lately tend to request LCA together with the commercial offer. Bidder must therefore build their LCA with the available data they have, in case emission factor isn’t available they would use an average regional (Europe, Asia, etc…) value which is available in an existing database (see article the Emission factor on the blog)

 

 

Often subcontractors can beat these emission factors especially if they are located in area where the energy production is already highly decarbonized or if they have already implemented a carbon emission reduction strategy. Hence, if you are working as a subcontractor in one of those areas or you have already conducted a carbon reduction strategy, you have interests in knowing both your emission factor and the average one of the sector of activity you are providing, as it will directly support your biding offer.

 

 

In case your price is within the market range this acts as a factor of differentiation and an advantage for you between you and your competitors. In some cases, where the product has a strict overall CO2 emission target, the choice of even a more expensive solution might be motivated by this aspect.

 

 

Then how to move forward?

 

 

First we recommend to calculate the LCA of the activity you provide using a cradle to gate methodology (cradle to gate approach calculates the emissions till the product/service is being sold to the consumer)  Using this methodology you will need to sum up:

 

 

 

• • The energies consumed by this activity

 

 

• • The material/consumable consumed by the activity

 

 

• • The freight consumed by this activity

 

 

• • The waste generated by the activity

 

 

 

This will bring you a T CO2e (Ton CO2 equivalent) / unit of your activity. Then to go further you can integrate this CO2 emission calculation directly to your cost sheet or even make this data available on your website. You can also compare it with the average of the sector (if exists). If you consider it as a strategic leverage, you can also build an action plan that would allow you to improve your emission factor.

 

 

 

 

Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay