A Thousand Words

One of the challenges that we are facing with Carbonostics, is the very-quickly-evolving terminology that is emerging out of the sustainability metrics field. In one conversation I had with a Director of Environment, I had to explain the acronym "LCA" while in another a Director of Environment had to explain to me the term "Scope 3".

It seems however, that as we come to the end of 2009, some consensus seems to be rising to the surface on which terms are most useful, and perhaps we can start to guess which ones will endure. Some of the key ones that I've come across are:

- "LCA" aka "life-cycle analysis" - looking at a product or a process from the very start to the very finish

- "Cradle to Grave" - aka life-cycle

- "Cradle to Cradle" - a design term that refers to the hope that the materials left at the end of a product's life may find a new life in another product (think plastic bottles being made into sweatshirts)

- "Greenhouse Gas Emissions" aka "GHG" - a term that actually refers to several different gases that damage our atmosphere. Click here to go to Wikipedia to learn more about the technical terms behind "greenhouse gas".

- "Carbon" - although simple-sounding, the term carbon has come to mean a lot more than just the element carbon this year. "Carbon" is being used as a substitute for "greenhouse gas emissions". There are some who believe (as I am starting to) that "carbon" is going to be a substitute for anything to do with environmental emissions. And as such terms as "hoover" and "kleenex" have become synonyms for a product rather than just a brand name, so "carbon" will become a synonym for all the complex terminology around that make up "greenhouse gas emissions" and possibly a wider environmental impact too.

- "Carbon Footprint" - the "greenhouse gas emissions" for a process, a building, a factory, or a product. "Carbon Footprint" measurement is still quite contraversial because the standards of what should go into a footprint measurement are still being debated. However the boundaries are slowly becoming clearer and it's likely that we'll see more and more published, verified, and audited "carbon footprints" in the coming year.

- "PCF" aka "product carbon footprint" - a term that implies (even if it does not explicitly say) that the "greenhouse gas emissions" from "cradle to grave" have been measured for this product.

- "Scope 3 emissions" - this term comes from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, an NGO established by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The GHG Protocol is one of the leading bodies that are establishing standards on how "greenhouse gas emissions" are measured and reported. In their terminology "Scope 1 emissions" are any emissions resulting from activity that you control in your building or your factory. "Scope 2 emissions" are emissions resulting from the energy you buy. And "Scope 3 emissions" are emissions that result anywhere else along your supply chain or the "life-cycle" of your products or services. It is the "Scope 3 emissions" that are now starting to be measured by businesses. (If you're producing toasters, your "Scope 3 emissions" are emissions from all your suppliers, all the transport and storage along your supply chain, including at your customer's warehouse, distribution, and retail outlet, and all the emissions from the electricity that the consumer uses after they purchase your toaster and use it in their home.)

With Carbonostics, we are working hard to keep on top of all the developments in terminology and standards so we can deliver smart, sophisticated, and valuable metrics to our customers. I have no doubt that in 12 months or so, the world of sustainability metrics will look a lot clearer and we will be spending a lot more time looking at ways that we can develop metrics tool that predict and correlate sustainability across businesses.

Until then, we will continue to provide as much educational support as necessary to help our colleagues and customers feel comfortable within this brave new world of sustainability metrics.