GHG Protocol Releases New Guidance

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol), a partnership between the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), released new guidance for calculating value chain (scope 3) emissions for indirect emissions resulting from both upstream and downstream activities in production (see, http://www.ghgprotocol.org/feature/scope-3-calculation-guidance).

The report can be found at http://www.ghgprotocol.org/files/ghgp/public/Corporate-Value-Chain-Accounting-Reporing-Standard_041613.pdf.  Category 5 reporting denotes waste generated in operations, which includes coverage of emissions from disposal of both solid waste and wastewater.

Waste treatment activities may include:

• Disposal in a landfill
• Disposal in a landfill with landfill-gas-to-energy (LFGTE) – i.e., combustion of landfill gas to generate electricity
• Recovery for recycling
• Incineration
• Composting
• Waste-to-energy (WTE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) – i.e., combustion of municipal solid waste (MSW) to generate electricity
• Wastewater treatment

No regulations currently require companies to report Scope 3 emissions.  The GHG protocol is a foundation for estimating increased efficiencies.

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