Practical Steps for Achieving ISO14064-1 - GHG Inventories

Introduction

ISO14064-1, the standard for taking inventory of your Greenhouse Gas Emissions, is an increasingly important standard for your business to obtain and achieve as we face a climate crisis.

With recent global agreements, like the Paris Agreement - there is an increasing public focus on the impact of climate change and what businesses are doing to combat their own greenhouse gas emissions. Following and implementing a standard like ISO14064-1 can allow you to set robust emissions reduction targets and be transparent about what your organisation is actively doing.

Inventorying your emissions and reporting these publicly can be pursued for a number of reasons, whether it contributes to your annual report, communicate to your customers, meet regulatory or investor requirements, or publicly disclose your emission reductions targets to meet public expectation of transparency. The core values of this standard with regards to GHG data include completeness, consistency, accuracy and transparency. Being able to demonstrate these values throughout your data collection process is vital to reduce bias, disclose with confidence and to have comparable year on year GHG results.

This article briefly discusses hints and tricks to make your organisations journey with this standard easier, therefore, leading to easier implementation. Following what is required of yourselves will be key in adhering to this standard as much as possible.

What is required?

Firstly, you would need to select your baseline year for emissions quantification. This can be based on either a calendar year or your financial year. Then you would need to decide on your scope and subdivide these emissions sources into Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions - direct, indirect, and other indirect emissions.

Selecting a quantification methodology, as well as the appropriate conversion factors, that are aligned with the ISO14064-1 standard and documenting this is important for conformance to the standard for accurate, complete, and consistent quantification of your GHG emissions year on year for this standard. The Standard recommends using the IPCC factors, and proxy figures are allowed to be used.

Implementation

There are several requirements for documentation within this standard, whether is required of your organisation, recommended for your organisation or optional for your organisation to include within a formally written report, or in a corresponding section of your annual report.

This is why, in terms of operational control and planning, conducting a risk and uncertainty assessment of your methodology is important. In doing so, you can ensure robustness and accuracy is maintained against this standard and that your total emissions calculation is a clear representation of your operations. A risk assessment will also help for future projects to reduce further your GHG emissions.

Having a team within your organisation to deal with the implementation of this standard is paramount in terms of roles and responsibilities within the standard. Those working on this standard would ensure that all clauses are met, and everything is followed correctly. If you already have an EMS team this standard would fit with their roles and responsibilities.

Having this team in place could also incite an organisational culture change. This culture change can lead to emissions reductions targets being embraced further within your organisation and having all staff and even your suppliers to follow set procedures, policies and KPIs as per the requirements of this standard will be massively beneficial.

Inventory and reporting standards such as the ISO14064-1 can reinforce disclosure mechanisms within your organisation and align you with the Science Based Targets Initiative and the Global Reporting Initiative. These are becoming increasingly prevalent among those who wish to communicate their environmental, social, and governance activities. Some organisations are setting their own Science Based Target without joining SBTI a trend we predict will grow in the coming years.

How can we help?

At Crowberry Consulting, we can guide your organisation through the development of a Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 Greenhouse Gas Emissions against the ISO14064-1 standard and provide recommendations to improve your conformance to this standard, as well as navigate the disclosure, validation and verification requirements needed to achieve ISO14064-1. Once your team has been through the gap analysis a clear action plan can then be developed to further support the principles and conformity to this ISO.

Get in touch with us today if you are wishing to implement this standard!

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