Greener By The Numbers Tracking the progress of sustainability efforts requires the right data. Here’s how to get started and what to measure. By Maurice Norris, MAS Voices | Responsibility AS ORGANIZATIONS IMPLEMENT sustainability initiatives, it is important to track their progress, success and impact. As famed management consultant Peter Drucker is credited with saying, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Where To Get Started Several tools are available to determine a company’s carbon footprint. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol has free training sessions on its website, and its guidance is divided into calculating the various levels of emissions: Scope 1, 2 and 3. • The Environmental Protection Agency describes Scope 1 emissions as generated from sources that are controlled or owned by an organization, for example, emissions associated with company-owned vehicles or furnaces. • The EPA describes Scope 2 emissions as those that are associated with the purchase of electricity, heat, steam or cooling. Even though the energy is not generated at the company’s location, Scope 2 emissions are the result of an organization’s energy use, so they are accounted for as part of that organization’s GHG calculations. • Scope 3 emissions are defined by the EPA as the result of activities from assets that are not owned or controlled by the reporting company but that the company indirectly affects in its value chains. Vaclav Volrab / Shutterstock.com 36 • SEPTEMBER 2023 • PPAI
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