Norm, standardization and calculation concerning green indicators

Question

Hello all,
I'm looking for help concerning enterprise carbon impact.
There is a lot of international meeting, green concepts such as carbon impact, diagnosis and so on but how those all these things works in real concrete world ? Is there any know concrete formula to calculate green impact of a firm on environment ?
What are the key indicators ? How do we use it on a daily basis ? De they consider all firm impact of environment or just C02. Are other gaz included ?
What are standard to proceed such a calcul on all the extended supply chain including suppliers, customers, and delegate transports ? If you include the supplliers impacts, how do you proceed while aggregating data for all an industrial sector ?
IS there such calculus in SAP Carbon Impact ? IS there equivalent of help.Sap.com for SAP Carbon Impact ?
Thanks for help
regards
Morgan

Answer 1

Hello Morgan,
I can answer a few of the questions that you have asked.
There is a lot of international meeting, green concepts such as carbon impact, diagnosis and so on but how those all these things works in real concrete world ?
Many companies already report on their Sustainability initiatives through CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Reports. These reports generally include their People practices, Environmental Impact and their Social service practices if any.
Even SAP published its Sustainability report which you can read in detail at the following URL Link: http://www.sapsustainabilityreport.com/performance/index.html
Is there any know concrete formula to calculate green impact of a firm on environment ?
There are a lot of ways in which firms have to account for their Environmental Impact. Carbon emissions are divided into Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. The "Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative" has setup Standards for Companies to report on their emissions. You can find more details about the standards at the following URL Link: http://www.ghgprotocol.org/standards
What are the key indicators ?
Most companies use the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to report on their carbon emissions. For the entire CSR report many companies use the GRI G3 Guidelines. You can read more about the guidelines here Link: http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/G3Guidelines/ and you can read SAP's report based on the GRI Guidelines here Link: http://www.sapsustainabilityreport.com/griIndex/
De they consider all firm impact of environment or just C02. Are other gaz included ?
Other impact like Solid Waste Generated, Water Consumption is also reported. CO2 is a Greenhouse Gas. Most companies report on their Greenhouse Gas Emissions, so other Greenhouse gases are also included.
What are standard to proceed such a calcul on all the extended supply chain including suppliers, customers, and delegate transports ? If you include the supplliers impacts, how do you proceed while aggregating data for all an industrial sector ?
Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions are indirect emission sources and when you report them, you have to account for your supplier's emissions as well. So they cover your extended supply chain. Most companies need to do a Life cycle Assessment (LCA) of their products. You can read more about LCA here Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_cycle_assessment