Climate neutrality for your company – Easy, Economic, Sustainable
OUR SERVICES
1. Calculation of your company’s greenhouse gas emissions – your CO2e footprint
2. Assessment of emissions savings potentials from energy efficiency or local power generation measures, if applicable
3. Compensation of remaining emissions that cannot be avoided yet
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1 Calculation of greenhouse gas emissions - the so-called CO2e footprint
CO2OP calculates greenhouse gas emissions based on with internationally recognized standards such as the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1. The first step in the calculation process is to determine the system boundaries of your company and the scope of the calculation within these boundaries. According to, e.g., the GHG Protocol, a distinction is made between the so-called Scopes 1, 2 and 3. Besides carbon dioxide (CO2), other significant greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4) or nitrous oxide (N2O) are included in the calculations, hence it is called CO2e footprint with CO2e for carbon dioxide equivalents.
- Scope 1 refers to direct emissions from the company’s asset base. This usually includes the generation of heat in company-owned buildings and, if applicable, electricity produced on-site from fossil fuels, or the company’s fleet of vehicles
- Scope 2 refers to indirect emissions that occur through the provision of energy carriers (e.g. electricity, district heating, cooling, steam) by third parties, typically utility companies or building owners.
- Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions. These can be business trips, employee travel, upstream and downstream supply chains as well as emissions caused by the use of the produced product over its entire life cycle.
To calculate a correct carbon footprint, Scopes 1 and 2 need to be considered, while Scope 3 is voluntary. Thus, in order to achieve climate neutrality, Scope 1 and 2 need to be neutralized though internal measures, sourcing of carbon-neutral energy carriers, or compensation. In our standard assessment package, we offer Scopes 1+2 as well as elements of Scope 3 that are comparatively easy to determine, such as business trips or employee travel to and from work. We call this Scope 2+. Other Scope 3 elements we offer on an individual basis – these depend on the relevance of the respective category for the company.
Subsequently, all the company data required for the selected scope of investigation is collected and entered into our proprietary greenhouse gas emissions calculator, which then calculates yearly greenhouse gas emissions. The figure shows an exemplary result of a corresponding greenhouse gas calculation.
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Assessment of the potential of carbon-free sourcing, energy efficiency and on-site power generation measures
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Compensation of remaining annual emissions that cannot be avoided yet
We only offer compensation projects that are registered under the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) or the Gold Standard. The CDM was agreed under the Kyoto Protocol and is intended to implement emission reductions in developing countries. The Gold Standard was developed by the WWF in cooperation with other environmental associations. It ensures that a project generates additional socio-ecological improvements to local communities in addition to its certified greenhouse gas reductions. In any case, certification according to the CDM or Gold Standard ensures that a project is additive, i.e. that it has become financially viable only through the compensation payments. As a rule, these are projects in the field of renewable energies, energy efficiency or agriculture and forestry, which are implemented in developing countries. Over the past 20 years, offset projects registered under the CDM or Gold Standard covered a total of approximately 2 billion metric tons of CO2e globally (for comparison: global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 were 36.8 billion tons of CO2e, source: Global Carbon Project).
In addition, many projects support several of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals – objectives of the United Nations (UN), which are intended to ensure sustainable development on an economic, social and ecological level, worldwide.
