6 Ideas To Reduce Scope 2 GHG Emissions

When we think about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we think about the smokestacks of a factory or the black, smelly smoke that billows from tractor trailers. We forget that by typing on a keyboard or talking on the phone in a bright, air-conditioned room, we may be contributing to the generation of Scope 2 GHG emissions simply because we are using electricity. When we really start looking into our greenhouse gas emissions, we discover many actions we engage in as a matter of routine that make us directly or indirectly responsible for GHG emissions.

3 Scopes

GHG emissions have been separated into 3 categories:

• Scope 1 GHG emissions are the emissions generated from the company’s own buildings and vehicles.
• Scope 2 GHG emissions are the emissions generated from electricity and resources a company purchases.
• Scope 3 GHG emissions come from less obvious, indirect sources such as:

• • • transmission and distribution losses from purchased electricity
    • business travel
    • employee commuting
    • contracted solid waste disposal
    • contracted wastewater treatment
    • purchased goods
    • end-of-life treatment of your products
    • investments

Scope 2 GHG emissions can be managed by changing how we use energy and where we get our energy.

6 Ideas to Reduce Scope 2 GHG emissions

1. Reduce energy usage. The less energy you use, the less you have to purchase.
2. Ask around in your community for greener energy options and access to community solar programs.
3. If your community doesn’t have a solar sharing program, you might start one.
4. Some utility companies offer greener power options, meaning they have the ability to provide energy to you through nonrenewable and renewable sources and you can select which one you want.
5. Brainstorm and/or research ways to generate your own renewable electricity.
6. Use a program like JadeTrack to monitor and reduce your energy usage.

As with all sustainable and environmentally-friendly tactics, it helps to keep these three words tumbling around in your head – reduce, rethink, and replace. Reduce your usage of energy where possible. Rethink the way you use energy and where you can acquire your energy. Replace equipment that does not support your sustainability goals with more efficient equipment, when necessary. Look for any way to perform tasks more efficiently. The simplest way to reduce Scope 2 GHG emissions is to use energy more efficiently so you require less of it. Then, you think of how to most sustainably acquire the energy you need.