The Greenhouse Gas Protocol
They made a set of rules (GHG Protocol Product Standard) that companies can use to manage the gases from the things they make and sell. They want to work with different groups and governments to make sure everyone uses these rules around the world. This way, companies can do a better job of managing these gases globally. It’s like getting ready for a future where companies make less of these harmful gases, and the world becomes a safer and better place for everyone.
- Climate Change Cause: Gases we release into the air, known as anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG), are causing climate change.
- Safe Temperature Limit: Scientists stress the need to limit the global mean temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid severe consequences.
- Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reduction: To achieve this limit, significant reductions (up to 85%) in carbon dioxide emissions are necessary by 2050.
- Consequences of Exceeding Limit: Exceeding the temperature limit would lead to unpredictable and dangerous consequences for people and ecosystems globally.
- Urgency in Emission Reduction: Urgency is growing to accelerate efforts in reducing GHG emissions to address the imminent threat of climate change.
- Business Leadership Needed: Government policies alone are insufficient, requiring businesses to take the lead and innovate for significant progress.
- Business Incentives: Addressing GHG emissions not only benefits the environment but also makes good business sense by improving financial performance, reducing risks, and gaining a competitive edge.
- Anticipation of Policy Changes: As the impacts of climate change become more evident, governments are expected to implement new policies and incentives to drive substantial emission reductions.
- Understanding GHG Impact: To effectively tackle climate change, companies need a detailed understanding of their GHG impact.
- Corporate GHG Inventory: A corporate GHG inventory is a tool that helps companies account for emissions from their operations, value chains, and product portfolios.
- Comprehensive Approach: Traditionally, companies focused on emissions from their own operations, but now there’s a realization that they need to account for emissions along their entire value chains and product portfolios.
- GHG Protocol and Product Standard: The GHG Protocol, through the development of the GHG Protocol Product Standard, provides a widely accepted method for managing GHG emissions from companies’ goods and services.
- Global Implementation: The goal is to work with industry groups and governments to promote the global use of these standards for more effective GHG management worldwide.
- Business Preparation for Low-Carbon Future: Businesses are encouraged to plan for a low-carbon future now to align their investments with the changing landscape and contribute to a more sustainable world.
Purpose of the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard
- Purpose of the Standard: The GHG Protocol Product Standard provides rules and guidance for companies to measure and publicly report the greenhouse gas emissions and removals related to a specific product.
- Primary Goal: The main aim is to give companies a framework to understand and disclose the emissions associated with their products, helping them make choices that reduce the environmental impact.
- Public Reporting: Public reporting means sharing information about a product’s GHG emissions publicly, following the rules specified in the standard.
- Increased Awareness: As awareness about climate change grows, investors and consumers are demanding more transparency and accountability from companies regarding the environmental impact of their products.
- Stakeholder Requests: Companies often receive requests from stakeholders, including investors and consumers, to disclose their overall GHG inventories, including product and supply chain emissions.
- Product-Related Risks: Understanding and managing the risks associated with the GHG emissions of products are crucial for a company’s long-term success in a competitive business environment.
- Scope of the Standard: The standard focuses on the emissions and removals occurring throughout a product’s life cycle, from design and manufacturing to use and disposal.
- Exclusions: The standard does not cover avoided emissions or actions taken to offset released emissions. It is also not designed for quantifying GHG reductions from offsets or claiming carbon neutrality.
- Business Objectives: The standard is not just a technical accounting tool; it is designed to be adaptable to business needs and serves multiple business objectives.
- Phased Implementation: Companies are encouraged to implement the standard gradually, focusing on improving the quality of their GHG inventory over time, aligning with their business realities and objectives.
How this standard was developed
- Initiation in 2008: The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) started working on the Product Standard in 2008.
- Steering Committee: A 25-member Steering Committee made up of experts provided strategic direction throughout the three-year development process.
- First Draft in 2009: In 2009, Technical Working Groups, consisting of 112 members from various industries, government agencies, academia, and non-profit organizations, worked on the first draft of the Product Standard.
- Road Testing in 2010: In 2010, 38 companies from different industry sectors “road tested” the first draft. They tried it out in real situations and provided feedback on how practical and usable it was.
- Stakeholder Advisory Group: A Stakeholder Advisory Group, involving more than 1,600 participants, provided feedback on both the first and second drafts of the standard.
- Diverse Participation: The people involved in developing the standard came from diverse backgrounds and regions, representing a wide range of perspectives and experiences.
- Feedback Incorporation: The feedback from companies and stakeholders was used to improve the rules. This input ensured that the standard would be practical and useful for businesses around the world.
- Collaborative Development: The development process involved collaboration between experts, companies, and stakeholders to create a comprehensive and widely applicable set of rules for measuring and reporting product-related greenhouse gas emissions.
Who should use this standard
- Universal Applicability: The standard is designed to be used by companies and organizations of all sizes, operating in any economic sector and in any country around the world.
- Scope of Application: Companies that want a better understanding of the greenhouse gas inventory of the products they are involved with—whether designing, manufacturing, selling, purchasing, or using—can benefit from using this standard.
- User Roles within Companies: Various people within a company can find value in using this standard. This includes staff from departments like product design, procurement, research and development, marketing, energy, environment, logistics, and corporate sustainability.
- Diverse Departments: The standard is relevant to a range of departments within a company, highlighting its versatility. For instance, those involved in creating, buying, researching, marketing, and managing the energy and environment aspects of products can utilize the standard.
- Policy Makers and GHG Programs: Even policymakers and programs that focus on managing greenhouse gases may find this standard useful. They can consider incorporating the standard into the design of their policies or programs to enhance their effectiveness.
- Inclusive Approach: By being inclusive and applicable to a wide range of users and sectors, the standard aims to be a valuable tool for anyone interested in understanding and managing the greenhouse gas impact of products.
Use of the Product Standard for product comparison
- Purpose of the Product Standard: The Product Standard is designed to help companies monitor the greenhouse gas emissions of their products and track how they can reduce these emissions over time.
- Prescriptiveness for Specific Cases: For certain situations like labeling products, making performance claims, or allowing consumers to compare products based on their environmental impact, companies need more specific rules. This includes details on how to count emissions and where to get the necessary data.
- Performance Tracking: The primary goal is to support companies in tracking the performance of their products in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Product Labeling and Claims: If a company wants to put labels on their products, make claims about how well their products perform, or enable consumers to compare products, they need additional guidance beyond the basic rules provided in the Product Standard.
- Data Sources and Allocation Choices: The rules should specify where companies should get the data for their emissions calculations and how they should allocate emissions to different parts of the product life cycle.
- Comparison of Products: For situations where companies want consumers or businesses to compare two or more products based on their greenhouse gas impacts, additional specifications are needed. Section 5.3.2 and Appendix A of the standard provide more guidance on these requirements.
- Comparative Assertions: The Product Standard does not support claims that one product is environmentally superior or equivalent to another, as referred to in ISO 14044 as comparative assertions. This means companies using the standard should not make broad claims about the overall environmental performance of their product compared to a competitor’s product.
Relationship to the Corporate and Scope 3 Standards
- Three Standards for Different Views: There are three sets of rules (standards) to understand the environmental impact of a big company: Corporate Standard (for everything the company does), Product Standard (for individual products), and Scope 3 Standard (for the entire chain of making and selling things).
- Comprehensive Approach: Together, these three standards help the company measure and manage its impact on the environment comprehensively. It’s like looking at the big picture (Corporate), focusing on specific products (Product), and considering the entire process of making and selling (Scope 3).
- Choosing the Right Standard: The company decides which set of rules to use based on what they want to achieve. If they want to see where they can reduce the most impact across the whole company, they use the Scope 3 Standard. If they want to focus on specific products, they use the Product Standard.
- Common Data for Both Standards: Companies use similar data for both Scope 3 (the whole process) and Product (individual products) inventories. This can save time and make things more efficient because they don’t have to collect the same information twice.
- Mutual Support: While each set of rules can be used alone, they also work well together. For example:
- First, a company might use the Corporate and Scope 3 Standards to figure out their total emissions and find products with the most impact.
- Then, they use the Product Standard to see how to reduce emissions in those specific products’ life cycles.
- Or, they might use product-level data from the Product Standard to calculate emissions for the Scope 3 Standard.
- They could even use all three together to come up with strategies for reducing emissions both for specific products and the whole company.
- Adding Up Everything: When you add up the emissions from each product’s life cycle and a few other things like employee commuting or business travel, it should be close to the company’s total impact on the environment (all emissions from making and selling stuff).
Limitations of product GHG inventories
- Understanding Product Impact: The Product Standard is like a tool that helps companies understand how much a product contributes to climate change. It looks at all the emissions (greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide) that happen from the beginning (making the product) to the end (disposing of the product).
- Simplicity of GHG Focus: The good thing is, by just focusing on greenhouse gases, the analysis becomes simpler. The results are easier to share and explain to people who want to know how much a product adds to climate change.
- Limitation of GHG-Only Approach: The downside is that by only looking at greenhouse gases, you might miss other ways a product affects the environment. For example, some products might harm ecosystems, use up a lot of resources, contribute to ozone depletion, or even negatively impact human health.
- Don’t Judge Overall Performance: It’s important to note that the results from this GHG-only analysis shouldn’t be used to say how good or bad a product is for the overall environment. Other environmental impacts, besides greenhouse gases, should also be considered when making decisions to reduce emissions based on the analysis.
- Room for Other Environmental Impacts: Even though this standard focuses on greenhouse gases, the steps and methods it provides can be used to collect data for other environmental impacts too. Companies can choose to include information about these other impacts along with their greenhouse gas inventory using the same processes.
