Calculating carbon footprints | Inki Brown | TEDxBærekraftigeliv

how do we run companies more sustainably how do we decide which actions to take and which areas to focus on you can't manage what you don't measure i'm a firm believer in those words if you don't have the numbers to pinpoint where your challenges are it's really hard to make the right decisions this is true in finance it's true in health care and it's also true in the field of sustainability of course some things cannot be measured for something like this tedx event how can you measure the benefit of providing inspiration and engagement but there are still some numbers we can run at emisoft we looked at the carbon benefits of running this event virtually instead of physically for physical events we are including promotional materials and participant travel in addition to electricity required to heat and light the venue and food for the audience which all sums up to 1.7 tons co2 equivalents by keeping it virtual the numbers add up to only 0.2 tons and most of that comes from the electricity required to run computers in this way we are avoiding emissions equivalent to driving a gasoline car for close to 9 000 kilometers this illustrates something that is measurable your carbon footprint if you want to manage the impact that your company or organization has on climate change you need to get some numbers not only will your numbers help you prioritize should you set your office equipment to print on both sides of the paper or make a policy to reduce business travel your numbers will also be crucial in setting goals if you don't know what your footprint is how can you know how much it's possible to reduce it by or what it would take to go carbon neutral so how do you get started on measuring your carbon footprint many organizations start by looking at their direct emissions these are the emissions that come from the equipment that you own or control there may be emissions from your industrial processes you may have vehicles that burn fuel or you may heat your buildings using gas but in many cases your indirect emissions play a much larger role in your total footprint indirect emissions are caused by the products and services that you buy or that you sell to others remember the numbers i mentioned earlier from running this event well all of those are indirect emissions the organizers do not own the planes that would have brought participants here they are not even taking the flights themselves but they would have had an indirect responsibility for the emissions from the flights since without the event the participants would probably not have come so direct emissions are those that your company has direct control over for example you can switch to electric vehicles or more fuel-efficient equipment indirect emissions you have much less control over but you are still indirectly responsible for them and you certainly have the power to make a difference for over 10 years i've worked with organizations big and small helping them on their sustainability journey in the last few years i've noticed a shift we are getting more and more companies contacting us because their customers have started to require carbon data and low carbon solutions the trend is clear more companies are starting to map out their indirect emissions and taking action to mitigate them now i won't tell you that calculating your total carbon footprint is simple to do so i recommend that you start with the numbers that are fairly easy to get fuel consumption electricity flights and work your way up to mapping out the rest of the emissions from your value chain keep in mind that whereas financial accounting has developed over thousands of years climate accounting is still in its infancy frameworks are still evolving experts are still not entirely in agreement about the best way to calculate impacts and various standards may use different indicators this means that we need more companies to work on identifying their climate footprints because the higher the demand for reliable data the faster the field will evolve my challenge to you today is threefold if your company has not already mapped out your direct emissions those from your own equipment do so and set goals to reduce them talk to your suppliers to get a better understanding of the indirect impact you have some of them may have the numbers ready and be eager to give them to you while others will need more time to get their ducks in a row and while you're talking to them ask them which low-carbon options they offer and lastly start preparing for your customers to ask the same of you what is the impact of the goods and services that you provide whether it comes from sourcing raw materials the energy your product may consume or how you take flights to provide your services and which low-carbon options can you offer by taking these steps you're preparing your organization for a low-carbon future and not only that you are helping to prepare your suppliers and your customers too remember at the beginning when i said that you can't manage what you don't measure well the flip side of that is that you can manage what you do measure thank you [Music] you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 10,365

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Global Issues, Business, Climate Change, Sustainability, Technology

Id: MG5cIyi-pbU

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 02 2020