Nature - Report: Companies benefit from voluntary emisson reduction

Air Products, cited in the Pew-sponsored report, recycles ash from waste coal at a co-generation plant in Cambria County, Pennsylvania

By Environmental News Network staff

A new report sponsored by the Pew Climate Center singles out 13 companies that are making voluntary efforts to track their greenhouse gas emissions.

"You can't manage what you can't measure," said Judith Bayer of United Technologies Corporation, one of the companies cited in the report. "The process of conducting an (emissions) inventory is a basic, no-regrets policy a company can make."

The study, "An Overview of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Issues", is the work of a team from Arthur D. Little Inc.. The report presents a set of principles for greenhouse gas emissions inventory and reporting; describes credible approaches by major companies; identifies key decision points in the monitoring process; and lists information resources available to companies mulling such projects.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Environmental issues

"Even for companies that may not be convinced about the link between GHG emissions and global warming, there's still often a drive to inventory emissions as a prudent way to measure GHG emissions," said Chris Loreti, a senior manager at ADL and co-author of the report.

Loreti said more and more company leaders believe they're better off reducing emissions voluntarily than being forced to do it by government mandate. Moreover, as the market for GHG emission credits and trading increases, companies see financial benefits in voluntarily reducing their emissions.

"It's really a reflection of a changed attitude about environmental reporting and public disclosure," Loreti said. "Companies nowadays feel a greater sense of responsibility toward their shareholders, customers and the public."

An accurate inventory will also put companies in a better position to count voluntary, near-term emissions reductions toward future regulations.

"There's also the motivation to be part of discussions on climate change. If regulations are going to be developed, companies want to have an input," said Loreti. "A better understanding of their own emissions will allow them to be better prepared in that debate."

"In the absence of a comprehensive policy regime, we must encourage voluntary efforts to identify and reduce greenhouse gases," said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Climate Center. "Ensuring that such efforts are recognized in the future requires that they be well thought out and documented today. This report is a thorough guide to the choices involved in inventorying greenhouse gas emissions."

International Fuel Cells, a UTC subsidiary, supplies fuel cells for all space shuttle flights

Without prodding, UTC took the bull by the horns in 1996, revising its environment, health and safety policies to include conservation of natural resources as a key ingredient in its worldwide operations. The corporate rethink resulted in the creation of an energy and water baseline in 1997 for 229 of the company's manufacturing and non-manufacturing sites.

The company then set a goal to reduce energy and water consumption by 25 percent as a percentage of sales. UTC uses roughly 1,500 British thermal units, or Btu, to generate each dollar of sales. The company aims to reduce this figure to 1,150 Btu per sales dollar by 2007.

By lowering its energy use, UTC reduced its costs as well as its carbon dioxide emissions. Since the program was implemented three years ago, Bayer said, the company has saved nearly $30 million in energy consumption.

UTC employs a variety of strategies to reduce consumption. They include lighting upgrades; more efficient motors, boilers and chillers; energy management systems and co-generation.

One facility saved $230,000 in annual energy costs simply by getting employees to turn off all computer monitors at night.

The Pew report describes similar efforts by American Electric Power, Air Products, Baxter International Inc, BP Amoco, DuPont, Entergy, ICI, Niagara Mohawk, Shell International, Suncor, Sunoco and Whirlpool Corp.

"This is a very rapidly developing and changing area. And a lot of guidelines are going to come about on how companies can estimate their emissions," said Loreti.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

Gas-busters: Algae comes to the aid of coal-fired plants
July 31, 2000
NASA sensor takes wait out of emissions tests
July 25, 2000
Cow burps make for bad air Down Under
July 21, 2000
Midwest farmers harvest bumper crop of wind power
June 14, 2000

Nutty notion: Pistachio shells purge mercury emissions
DOE commits $15 million to help blow the greenhouse down
Gas-busters: Algae comes to the aid of coal-fired power plants
NASA sensor takes wait out of emissions tests
Carbon sequestration: antidote to emissions
CO2 emissions report for U.S. offers mixed message
Schools get high marks with clean-air credits

United Technologies Corporation
"An Overview of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Issues"
Arthur D. Little Inc.
corporate GHG emissions
information on Btu energy conversion
GHG emissions

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.