Carbon Emissions Intensity Explained
By: Nicole Sullivan, Director of Climate Services
This article was originally published on carbonbetter.com on February 7, 2023. Subscribe to our LI newsletter, Sustainable Progress, to get a bi-weekly digest of brand new content.
The metric that will give context to your total emissions as your business and carbon footprint both expand.
With consumers increasing pressure on companies to deliver more value while simultaneously reducing emissions, how can you set goals to reduce your carbon emissions when your business—and therefore carbon footprint—is expanding? Many organizations only look at total emissions, measured in Scope 1 (direct), 2 (indirect), and 3 (everything else in the supply chain), when setting and tracking emissions reduction goals
That metric is emissions intensity, often measured in kilograms (kg) or grams (g) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emitted per product. Water intensity and energy intensity can also be measured in this way, depending on which environmental impacts are material for your business. Another benefit of using emissions intensity is that it makes these numbers more relatable to consumers.
The Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions associated with Central Machine Works’ green collar charity beer.
What Is Carbon Emissions Intensity?
Carbon emissions intensity refers to the emissions attributed to a facet of an organization’s operations. It’s calculated by dividing the total emissions by a metric of an operation, such as the number of products/units produced, the number of full-time equivalent employees, or the square footage of building(s). So if you’re making a product, emissions intensity might be in kg or g of CO2e per item that you manufactured. Or if you are an office-only type of operation, and your footprint is limited to the emissions associated with your office, carbon intensity might be measured in terms of full-time employee equivalents or emissions per square foot.
Why Does Carbon Emissions Intensity Matter?
Emissions intensity will vary from operation to operation, but it’s a really important way of relating emissions to where an organization is at scale. Companies that have set targets have likely set some sort of target around overall emissions. For example, a target to reach net zero by 2040. However, something that’s important to consider is that as an organization grows, its overall carbon footprint could also grow, particularly in the absence of energy efficiency projects
For example, an organization might add a second or third facility or new suppliers, and even if they’ve done efficiency projects, they might still see an increase in emissions. There are various reasons for this. Maybe they’re now operating 24/7, whereas they used to only operate five days a week. Or maybe they’ve added new carbon-emitting equipment to their operations or have increased fuel consumption. Whatever the case, overall emissions could continue to grow as an organization grows, depending on what’s being done to mitigate those emissions.
Conversely, if you are working towards decarbonizing, your emissions intensity could actually go down as you scale up since emissions intensity accounts for your overall emissions in relation to your increased production or increased scale. So, in addition to total emissions targets, it can be helpful also to set emissions intensity targets. Carbon intensity gives context to total emissions by relating those emissions to a tangible product or unit.
BeatBox Emissions Intensity Case Study
Here is a chart showing BeatBox’s 2021 emissions, including the carbon intensity per carton of party punch. On the left you’ll see their total carbon footprint for Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Since BeatBox actually uses a co-packer, in their case, the bulk of their emissions is in Scope 3, with total emissions measuring just over 6,800 metric tons of CO2e.
For consumers of products, a metric ton is really hard to visualize. (Even for people working in carbon accounting, it’s hard to visualize a metric ton). But when carbon emissions can be related in terms of the end-user product or service, it’s much easier to digest. In the case of BeatBox, they have an emissions intensity of 445 g of CO2e per carton of party punch.
As mentioned above, the concept of emissions intensity is not just important from a progress-tracking perspective
领英推荐
Conclusion
Most of the organizations we encounter know they need to measure their total carbon emissions, but it’s not typically common knowledge what emissions intensity is or why it matters. If you’re unsure how to measure your organization’s emissions intensity
Nicole Sullivan is the Director of Climate Services at CarbonBetter. When she’s not working on sustainability reports and helping clients to decarbonize, she’s busy reading about the environment or is outdoors exploring it. Connect with her on?LinkedIn?and say hi!
ABOUT US
We're a privately held firm focused on sustainability & decarbonization services, clean energy & carbon offset project consulting, and energy logistics services for Fortune 1000 companies, utilities, and other organizations that seek to make a positive impact. We're a creative and diverse team tackling the complex climate challenges that are changing our world by helping organizations transition to a net-zero future—accelerating the societal shifts that will save our planet.
We're proud to be the largest minority-owned business in Austin and the 7th largest privately-owned business headquartered in Austin.
Learn more at carbonbetter.com/about/.
EXPLORE OUR SERVICES
VIEW SOME OF OUR WORK
LEARN MORE ABOUT REPORTING
“We’re realists. We know companies can’t just decarbonize overnight. But we can all take steps to do better—and make a collective difference.”
Tri Vo – President, CarbonBetter