Reducing your carbon footprint

Scope

The main greenhouse gases to and from the atmosphere are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases. Each gas’s effect on climate change depends on three main factors:

How much is in the atmosphere? Concentration, or abundance, is the amount of a particular gas in the air. Larger emissions of greenhouse gases lead to higher concentrations in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gas concentrations are measured in parts per million, parts per billion, and even parts per trillion. One part per million is equivalent to one drop of water diluted into about 13 gallons of liquid (roughly the fuel tank of a compact car).

How long do they stay in the atmosphere? Each of these gases can remain in the atmosphere for different amounts of time, ranging from a few years to thousands of years. All of these gases remain in the atmosphere long enough to become well mixed, meaning that the amount that is measured in the atmosphere is roughly the same all over the world, regardless of the source of the emissions.

How strongly do they impact the atmosphere? Some gases are more effective than others at making the planet warmer and “thickening the Earth’s blanket.”

For many companies, reducing greenhouse gas emissions benefits the bottom line because efficient practices reduce operating costs and help increase employee productivity. A wide range of strategies are available to help organizations reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as:

1. Energy Efficiency U.S. EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program: Through its partnerships with more than 15,000 private and public sector organizations, ENERGY STAR delivers the technical information and tools that organizations and consumers need to choose energy-efficient solutions and best management practices.
   
   U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provides a variety of programs that identify opportunities for integrating energy-efficiency measures into your facility. Such as Buildings Performance Database (BPD) enables users to perform statistical analysis on an anonymous data set of tens of thousands of commercial and residential buildings from across the country; And, Standard Energy Efficiency Data (SEED) provides an easy, flexible, and cost-effective method to analyze data about large portfolios of buildings and demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency.
   
   U.S. EPA’s State and Local Climate and Energy Program helps state, local, and tribal governments develop policies and programs that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy costs, improve air quality and public health, and help achieve economic development goals.
   
2. Renewable Energy U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership (GPP) is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use. Green power is electricity produced from a subset of renewable resources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and low-impact hydro. Partnering with EPA can help your organization reduce its carbon footprint and communicate its leadership to key stakeholders.
   
3. Supply Chain U.S. EPA’s Green Suppliers Network works with large manufacturers to engage their suppliers in low-cost technical reviews to identify strategies for improving process lines, using materials more efficiently, and reducing waste. Working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP), the Green Suppliers Network helps small and medium-sized manufacturers stay competitive and profitable while reducing their impact on the environment.
   
4. Waste Reduction and Diversion Strategies U.S. EPA’s Resources for Waste Reduction and Recycling provides resources related to waste reduction and recycling in the workplace, including guidance on starting or expanding a recycling collection program, initiatives to reduce everyday trash, and frameworks for food recovery programs.
   
5. Reduce Methane Emissions U.S. EPA’s AgSTAR program promotes the use of biogas recovery systems to reduce methane emissions from livestock waste. AgSTAR assists those who enable, purchase, or implement anaerobic digesters by identifying project benefits, risks, options, and opportunities. AgSTAR provides information and participates in events to create a supporting environment for anaerobic digester implementation. U.S. EPA’s Natural Gas STAR Program provides a framework for companies with U.S. oil and gas operations to implement methane reducing technologies and practices and document their voluntary emission reduction activities.
   
6. Increase Fuel Efficiency in Transportation and Logistics U.S. EPA’s SmartWay is a public/private collaboration between EPA and the freight transportation industry that helps freight shippers, carriers, and logistics companies improve fuel-efficiency and save money. Acquiring U.S. EPA Certified SmartWay light-duty vehicles can help improve the overall fuel economy performance of a light-duty fleet.

Regulatory citations

• 40 CFR 98 — Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting

Key definitions

• Alternative Energy: Energy derived from nontraditional sources (e.g., compressed natural gas, solar, hydroelectric, wind).
• Biodiesel: A mono-akyl ester derived from biomass and conforming to ASTM D6751–08, Standard Specification for Biodiesel Fuel Blend Stock (B100) for Middle Distillate Fuels.
• Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a set of technologies that can greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing coal- and gas-fired power plants, industrial processes, and other stationary sources of carbon dioxide. It is a three-step process that includes capture of carbon dioxide from power plants or industrial sources; transport of the captured and compressed carbon dioxide (usually in pipelines); and underground injection and geologic sequestration, or permanent storage, of that carbon dioxide in rock formations that contain tiny openings or pores that trap and hold the carbon dioxide.
• Emissions Factor: A unique value for scaling emissions to activity data in terms of a standard rate of emissions per unit of activity (e.g., grams of carbon dioxide emitted per barrel of fossil fuel consumed, or per pound of product produced).

Summary of requirements

Most businesses are not required by law to lower carbon emissions, though some must measure and report them. The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to work with states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.