Sustainable Business News from
Kuhn Associates Management Advisors
Building Sustainable Businesses
 
 
Volume 2010, Number 2                                                                                                                 March 2010
In This Issue
Feature Article
Ideas You Can Use NOW
Calendar of Events
More About Us
Our firm's mission is to help companies throughout the product supply chain create environmentally-sustainable businesses. Our consulting services include: creating enterprise-level environmental sustainability visions, goals and strategies; re-engineering internal processes to reflect environmentally-sustainable best practices; and  maximizing the environmental sustainability of product supply chains through the design and implentation of supplier assessment mechanisms.
 
We are particularly interested in working with small- and medium-sized enterprises. We work nationwide in a variety of industries. We are extremely sensitive to clients' budgets and their capacity for change.
 
Whether it's an energy, water, chemicals or solid waste issue, our team of professionals is ready to help your business. Please contact us to learn how we can help you.
 
Call 212-343-1006 today.
 
Greetings!

Our Newsletter provides valuable information on the relationship between business and environmental sustainability, one of the hottest topics in business today.  This month's Feature Article is on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's proposed new standard for accounting and reporting greenhouse gas emissions throughout a company's value chain. In our Ideas You Can Use Now section, we've included tips on how to apply this immediately to your company.
 
Happy reading!

Feature Article: Counting and Reporting GHG Emissions across the Value Chain
Since 2001, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative has provided companies with a method to help them to calculate and report some of their value chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: the 'Corporate Standard' provides rules and guidelines for accounting and reporting GHGs produced by internal operations and those related to the production of purchased energy.

For many companies, however, the most subtle and far-reaching  emissions occur at points in the company's value chain that are outside of its four walls. That means looking all the way upstream, at its suppliers, and their suppliers, and so on; and all the way downstream, at distributors and consumers, and ultimately to disposal, reuse, and recycling.

Since 2008, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative has been drafting a new Standard to provide rules and guidance for accounting and reporting on the entire value chain: the "Scope 3 Standard," to be released in late  2010.
 
The Scope 3 Standard is indeed comprehensive. But assessing a company's GHG emissions in this way brings a significant number of challenges.

 
  • Mapping the entire chain. A company's value chain is a dynamic thing, with a large number of suppliers and consumers whose identities may change or whose emissions levels may vary across time. And so a company may, at best, be able to produce a 'snapshot' of how the value chain was at a certain time, rather than how it currently is.

  • Setting the boundaries of the inquiry. Given issues of cost and expediency, how much of its value chain should a company account for? This raises new questions. Who gets included in the inventory of emissions a company takes responsibility for. For instance, should you consider your suppliers' suppliers?

  • Gathering all the data. Once a company has decided which areas of the value chain it is going to examine, data collection still provides challenges. It might be relatively easy to get data on electricity use at a supplier's facility, but difficult to allocate all the electricity used that facility amongst specific customers. Then, someone needs to convert all those killowat hour data into CO2 equivalent emissions. Or, for instance, a warehouse might be run by a third party, which is unwilling or unable to release information on its energy use - in which case the company will have to estimate the data based on other sources. How reliable is this secondary data?
 
Despite all these challenges and complexities, the new GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard is a step in the right direction when it comes to dealing with corporate contributions to climate change. A standard that can guide companies on the complex, and sometimes thorny, issues that surround  tracing emissions through the value chain will be a powerful tool for making business more environmentally sustainable.
Ideas You Can Use Now!
 
In the Feature Article we talked about the GHG Protocol's proposed Scope 3 Standard. Although the Standard will be voluntary, it's expected to have far-reaching impact. Here are some tips for making the most of this challenge and opportunity:
 
- Find out more about the Scope 3 Standard. Visit www.ghgprotocol.org.

- Consider your value chain. Do you have transparency upstream and downstream? What resources would be required to get this transparency?

- If you have been adhering to the Corporate Standard, decide whether the practices you've used to calculate and report those GHG emissions can be translated into the Scope 3 task.
 
- Learn about Lifecycle Assessment (LCA), a process that looks at the entire life of a product, from cradle to grave. Where are you in this cycle? More upstream (e.g., raw materials)? More downstream (e.g., retailer)? Knowing this will help you when it comes time to apply the Scope 3 Standard.

Think about the specific situation of your company. Then, use these tips to prepare for the release of the Scope 3 Standard later this year.

For more information on the Scope 3 Standard, contact us at 212-343-1006 or [email protected].

Calendar of Events
 
Here are a few of the interesting sustainability events happening in the coming months:

April 6-7, Chicago, IL... Marking the release of a new report on corporate energy efficiency, the Pew Center for on Global Climate Change is hosting a conference, 'From Shop Floor to Top Floor: Best Business Practices in Energy Efficiency'. Speakers include environmental executives from DuPont, Coca-Cola, and the Exelon Corporation.Visit the website here.

April 15, Boston, MA... Groom Energy's Green Enterprise 2010 conference covers a wide range of topics in sustainability and business, including the impact of the recent SEC ruling on disclosure. Speakers include Seventh Generation's Jeffrey Hollander. More details here.

April 24, Dallas, TX... Organized by Greenergy 2030, GreenCamp is a collaborative event bringing together professionals and thought leaders from across business. The focus is on green job creation and on helping existing organizations meet new sustainability challenges. More info here.

May 4, Columbus, OH... Moving Ahead 2010 looks at how to change transport systems to make them more sustainable. With participation by business, government, and non-profit organisations. For more, see here.
Thanks for reading! Please contact us today to discuss anything you've read here, suggest a topic for a future edition or learn how we can help you build a more sustainable business.

Call 212-343-1006 or email us at [email protected] for more information.

Sincerely, 

Robert W. Kuhn, President
Kuhn Associates Management Advisors LLC
www.kuhnassociatesllc.com
Copyright 2009   Kuhn Associates Management Advisors LLC
Reproduction without prior permission prohibited.