Conducting a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory: A Primer
Cotter, David
(Capaccio Environmental Engineering, Inc.)
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LoginConducting a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory: A Primer David M. Cotter Capaccio Environmental Engineering, Inc. Concern over the effects of global warming and the movement by international, federal, and state agencies to implement rules designed to track, curtail, and control emissions of green house gases (GHG) has produced a groundswell of action at corporate levels. Additionally, the semiconductor industry is seeing increased pressure from customers and investors to disclose emissions and actions pertaining to global warming, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC). This concern has brought forth a need for the semiconductor industry to better understand how their actions, operations, and tools may contribute to global warming, particular as they relate to the generation of GHG emissions. This paper discusses the drivers behind this movement and the protocols available for corporations to design and implement GHG inventories and reporting strategies. Specific guidance is provided outlining how semiconductor manufacturers and related industries can identify sources of GHG emissions for estimation and tracking, identifying some of the tools and approaches that can be used to accomplish this, and discussing the types of metrics that can be used to track and report progress towards established GHG reduction targets. The general protocol, “A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard”, jointly published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) [WRI, 2004] is part of a series of high level protocols designed to guide corporations in doing emission inventories, establishing reduction targets and strategies, and initiating programs to track and report progress towards those targets. This general protocol has spawned sector-specific guidance documents for the semiconductor industry, such as the World Semiconductor Council (WSC) protocols, which are presented with a focus on case-study application examples.