Corporate Carbon Footprint Analysis 2010

Landis+Gyr is committed to a sustainable use of resources. This includes an effort to reduce its carbon emissions. Since 2007, Landis+Gyr has engaged independent auditors to quantify its greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. The GHG Protocol distinguishes between various GHG accounting approaches in terms of organizational as well as operational aspects based on principles derived from financial accounting.

Emissions scopes

The GHG protocol considers three scopes:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company.
• Scope 2: Indirect emissions associated with the generation of purchased electricity consumed by the company.
• Scope 3: All other indirect emissions as a consequence of the activities of the company that occur from sources not owned nor controlled by the company. Landis+Gyr used business air travel as an indicator of its scope 3 emissions.

Figure 1: Greenhouse gas emissions scopes

Consistent with the scope definitions above, Landis+Gyr have considered the following items in their GHG reporting effort for scope 1:

• Energy carriers for the generation of electricity, heat and steam
• Diesel for the operation of emergency generators
• Direct GHG emissions attributable to chemical/physical processing
• Energy carriers consumed in transportation (Landis+Gyr fleet only)

Scope 1 (direct emissions) in 2009 amounted to 6,861 tons CO2 (19% of total). This figure represents a 14% reduction of scope 1 emissions compared with 2008 and 4% reduction compared with 2007.

Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased electricity and district heating) represented the largest component with 23,770 tons CO2 (67% of total). This figure represents a reduction of nearly 4% scope 2 emissions compared with 2008 and a 14% reduction over 2007. 

Scope 3 emissions from business air travel contributed a relatively small proportion (4,633 tons or 13%) to the total carbon footprint. Compared to 2008, scope 3 emissions decreased by 30%, a 16% reduction compared with 2007.

In total, the Landis+Gyr Group emits 35,300 tons of CO2. This is 4,100 tons or 10% less than in 2008, and 13% (5,200 t) less than in 2007. Figure 2 presents the emissions generated by each scope for 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Figure 2: Landis+Gyr greenhouse gas emissions 2007-2009, per scope (CO2e, metric tons/year)

Carbon footprint

The Carbon Footprint is expressed in CO2-equivalents (CO2e) and comprises the Green- house Gases (GHG) and their Global Warming Potential (GWP7), shown in Table 2. GHG emissions are determined by multiplying GHG activity data (e.g. GJ electricity con- sumption for a furnace) with emission factors (e.g. CO2 – emissions per GJ/natural gas). The unit of measurement is tons, and all GHG emissions are converted to tons of CO2e, using appropriate GWP (Global Warming Potential) factors as published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This allows for the aggregation of all GHG emissions in one single indicator, expressed as the carbon footprint.

Table 1: Global Warming Potential (GWP) of greenhouse gas emissions according to the Kyoto Protocol

The Landis+Gyr Group has established sustainability goals for its operations.  Beginning with the benchmarks yielded by first GHG emissions audit in 2007, the organization seeks to continually optimize its performance, developing products and practices that reduce their environmental burden, both in terms of production, operation and disposal.  All companies that belong to the Landis+Gyr Group participated in this project.

Please visit the links below for more information on emissions reporting and disclosure:

• The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative
• The Global Reporting Initiative
• Carbon Disclosure Project