Carbon Footprinting: Scope 3

[This Tip continues a series of “Carbon Footprinting” tips that started in the January 2015 issue of Plastics Engineering.]

Scope 3 covers the direct emissions from assets that a site uses but does not control—e.g., when an employee flies in a plane, the site takes a share of the emissions. Typical emission sources are:

Employee business travel:

• private car use

• flights (short-haul and long-haul)

• rental cars and taxis

• employee commuting

Product transport to the customer by contract transport (not collection)
Water use and waste disposal

All calculations need values for the relevant “driver” and the emission factor for the emissions source. The recommended data set is published by the UK government (www.ukconversionfactorscarbonsmart.co.uk).

Actions:

Quantify the relevant emissions in terms of their drivers.
Use the emission factors to calculate the amount of CO₂e for each emissions source.
Scope 3 emissions may be difficult to calculate, but for most plastics sites, Scope 3 will be <10% of the total, and even large estimation errors will not affect the total greatly.

Note: Dr. Robin Kent is the author of Energy Management in Plastics Processing, published by Plastics Information Direct, and managing director of Tangram Technology Ltd., consulting engineers specializing in energy management in plastics processing. rkent@tangram.co.uk.