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SINAI > Case Studies > Digitizing Carbon Footprint Calculations for a Global Energy & Commodities Firm

Digitizing Carbon Footprint Calculations for a Global Energy & Commodities Firm

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Inventory Management Systems
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Buildings
Cement

Applicable Functions

Quality Assurance
Warehouse & Inventory Management

Use Cases

Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems
Inventory Management

Services

System Integration
Testing & Certification

The Challenge

The client, a global energy, environmental products and commodities firm, was faced with the challenge of digitizing and confirming their internally developed carbon footprint calculations and methodology. The goal was to deliver a robust and auditable Greenhouse Gas (GHG) footprint. The client's diversified business structure and varied assets made the initial task of data gathering quite complicated. Additionally, the data the client had consolidated to date had been in spreadsheets, a format that often causes version control issues, exacerbates manual errors, and drives delays from difficulties in obtaining reliable data. These challenges were further amplified by the need to repeat the process yearly, at a minimum, with increasing stakeholder pressure to deliver more frequent and specific reporting.

About The Customer

The client is a global energy, environmental products and commodities firm with operations across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. They have a diversified business structure and varied assets, including international offices, refineries, and energy storage facilities. The client was seeking to digitize and confirm their internally developed carbon footprint calculations and methodology to deliver a robust and auditable GHG footprint. They were also required to comply with the UK's Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) regulations, which mandate large businesses to annually report on their energy and carbon emissions.

The Solution

The client collaborated with SINAI to establish a GHG inventory, which helped determine boundary conditions, methodology, and emissions factors, as well as identify relevant data sources and collection processes. SINAI worked with the client to define the best boundary selection that was both SECR compliant and optimal for building a decarbonization strategy. The client proceeded with the equity share approach to appropriately account for assets with partial ownership, as was SINAI’s recommendation in order to align the Company’s GHG inventory with GHG protocol. SINAI’s climate experts aided their sustainability team in connecting emissions data to the SINAI platform. Using the principles of the GHG Protocol, SINAI’s experts and software delivered a complete emissions inventory of the Client’s scope 1 and 2 emissions, within one month. This made the building and managing of their carbon inventories easily repeatable and auditable, in addition to saving time.

Operational Impact

With SINAI's solution, the client was able to move away from a manual emissions tracking process to a manageable and automated carbon accounting system. This not only made the process of building and managing their carbon inventories easily repeatable and auditable but also saved time. The client was able to easily comply with SGS reporting requirements, thanks to the emissions data being easily exportable. Looking forward, the client is working with SINAI to continuously build on its emissions data and climate intelligence, enabling communication between all stakeholders around climate risks and opportunities. The quality, usability, and robustness of their emissions inventory data have been prioritized, allowing the client to make informed, confident, and data-driven decisions on their decarbonization strategy.

Quantitative Benefit

Completed a complete emissions inventory of the Client’s scope 1 and 2 emissions within one month
Moved away from manual emissions tracking process to an automated carbon accounting system
Enabled the client to easily comply with SGS reporting requirements