Posted by Ian on Monday, October 10, 2011.

Greenhouse Gas Protocol releases new standards

Last week the Greenhouse Gas Protocol released the final versions of two new accounting standards: the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) and Product Life Cycle standards. The new standards provide a harmonized framework for companies to measure and report indirect greenhouse gas emissions throughout their value chain.

This news is very exciting to us at Brighter Planet. From the beginning our goal has been to provide companies and individuals with a comprehensive view of their greenhouse gas emissions. So we’re thrilled to see the establishment of a standard set of rules for calculating indirect emissions, especially as they corroborate many of the decisions we’ve made when building our emissions models.

For example, two of the key challenges identified in the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) standard are collecting data on diverse suppliers and activities and providing up-to-date data for calculations. Brighter Planet’s emission models automatically use the most appropriate client-provided primary data or secondary data from our databases. These are kept up-to-date by automated scripts that import updates from authoritative government and industry sources the day they are released. The standard also encourages third-party assurance of calculations. Several of Brighter Planet’s emission models have been verfied by leading carbon validator Det Norske Veritas, an industry first.

With the new standards in place, we hope that many more companies will begin to measure their indirect as well as direct emissions. As World Business Council for Sustainable Development president Björn Stigson points out, this comprehensive view “will help companies make better business decisions and stimulate innovation of products and production methods.”

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Safety in Numbers is Brighter Planet's blog about climate science, Ruby, Rails, data, transparency, and, well, us.

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  1. Patti Prairie CEO