10 Ideas To Reduce Scope 3 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 greenhouse gases 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 3 ghg emissions are naturally harder to calculate and manage, but they are just as important.

10 Ideas to Reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions

#1. Consider having virtual meetings.
#2. Plan longer or smarter meetings so they can occur less frequently.
#3. Choose travel companies with a focus on reducing ghg emissions.
#4. Reduce consumption of materials and resources.
#5. Reduce consumption of materials and resources from companies with a poor ghg emissions strategy and replace with better options.
#6. Encourage, even invest, in smarter commuting choices for your employees.
#7. Scope out options for more sustainable suppliers and investing opportunities.
#8. Promote more environmentally-friendly options for disposing of sold products when they can no longer be used.
#9. Determine if there is a way to make products last longer so they will need to be disposed of less frequently.
#10. Measure your Scope 3 ghg emissions. This very thorough calculator may help
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 materials and resources where possible. Rethink the way you use materials, the way you produce your products, and the way you provide your services. Replace suppliers, types of materials, and companies that do not support your sustainability goals. This type of thinking helps exercise your natural ingenuity, which is just the thing for solving more elusive problems like Scope 3 ghg emissions.