Source 44 - GHGe & Sustainability Data Services

California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Establish a statewide GHG emissions cap for 2020, based on 1990 emissions by January 1st, 2008. Adopt mandatory reporting rules for significant sources of greenhouse gases by January 1st, 2008.

Energy derived from nontraditional sources (e.g., compressed natural gas, solar, hydroelectric, wind).

The US House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 on June 26 by a vote of 219 to 212. This comprehensive national climate and energy legislation would establish an economy-wide, greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade system and critical complementary measures to help address climate change and build a clean energy economy.

Made by people or resulting from human activities. Usually used in the context of emissions that are produced as a result of human activities.

Total dry weight of all living organisms that can be supported at each tropic level in a food chain. Also, materials that are biological in origin, including organic material (both living and dead) from above and below ground, for example, trees, crops, grasses, tree litter, roots, animals and animal waste.

A naturally occurring gas, and also a by-product of burning fossil fuels and biomass, as well as land-use changes and other industrial processes. It is the principal anthropogenic greenhouse gas that affects the Earth's radiative balance. It is the reference gas against which other greenhouse gases are measured and therefore has a Global Warming Potential of 1. At room temperatures (20-25oC), carbon dioxide is an odorless, colorless gas, which is faintly acidic and non-flammable.It is a molecule with the molecular formula CO2. Joseph Black, a Scottish chemist and physician, first identified carbon dioxide in the 1750s.

A metric measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases based upon their global warming potential (GWP).

An independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world. Thousands of organizations from across the world’s major economies measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies through CDP.

The total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product" [1]. For simplicity of reporting, it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent of other GHGs, emitted.

Having a net zero carbon footprint. Refers to the achievement of net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset.

A nonprofit group that specializes in climate solutions for governments, utilities, and large businesses. They provide carbon offsets, customized voluntary offset programs, and climate consulting services. The focus of the organization is on quality ensures the integrity of both the carbon market and the environment.www.climatetrust.org

The framework of rules, relationships, systems, and processes within and by which authority is exercised and controlled in corporations. It is based on the principle that companies are accountable for their actions and therefore broad-based systems of accountability need to be built into the governance structures of companies.

A process for decreasing errors in data.

A process wherein the data are checked for accuracy and inconsistencies.

A basic component of six sigma that is used to identify root causes for defects. It includes five steps including; Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.

Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are the first global indexes tracking the financial performance of the leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide.

eGrid is issued by the US EPA and it consists of a comprehensive source of data on the environmental characteristics of almost all electric power generated in the United States.

A unique value for scaling emissions to activity data in terms of a standard rate of emissions per unit of activity (e.g., grams of carbon dioxide emitted per barrel of fossil fuel consumed).

The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an international system for declaring the environmental performance of a product or service in a consistent and verifiable way.

Carbon-fluorine compounds that often contain other elements such as hydrogen, chlorine, or bromine. Common fluorocarbons include chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).

Created in 2001, FTSE4GOOD indexes are a range of socially responsible stock exchange indexes included in the British FTSE index.

Global warming is an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the Earth's surface and in the troposphere, which can contribute to changes in global climate patterns. Global warming can occur from a variety of causes, both natural and human induced. In common usage, "global warming" often refers to the warming that can occur as a result of increased emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities.

Every greenhouse gas has a Global Warming Potential (GWP), a measurement of the impact that particular gas has on 'radiative forcing'; that is, the additional heat/energy which is retained in the Earth's ecosystem through the addition of this gas to the atmosphere. The GWP of a given gas describes its effect on climate change relative to a similar amount of carbon dioxide and is divided into a three-part "time horizon" of twenty, one hundred, and five hundred years. As the base unit, carbon dioxide numeric is 1.0 across each time horizon. This allows the greenhouse gases regulated under the Kyoto Protocol to be converted to the common unit of CO2e. For instance, methane has a GWP of 21. This means that in 100 years, one ton of methane will have an effect on global warming that is 21 times greater than one ton of CO2.

When sunlight reaches the earth, some of it is converted to heat. Greenhouse gasses absorb some of the heat and trap it near the earth's surface, so that the earth is warmed up.

A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation. GHGs include water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2 ), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), halogenated fluorocarbons (HCFCs) , ozone (O3), perfluorinated carbons (PFCs), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

The most widely used international accounting tool for organizations to understand, quantify and manage their GHG emissions.

A decade-long partnership between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for sustainable Development is working with businesses, governments and environmental groups from around the world to build a new generation of effective and credible emissions accounting and reduction programs for tackling climate change.

Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) is a full life-cycle model sponsored by the Argonne National Laboratory (U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy). It fully evaluates energy and emission impacts of vehicle technologies and transportation fuels.

The IPCC was established jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988. The purpose of the IPCC is to assess information in the scientific and technical literature related to all significant components of the issue of climate change. The IPCC draws upon hundreds of the world's expert scientists as authors and thousands as expert reviewers.

ISO 14001 is a standard for environmental management systems.

A a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), an international environmental treaty that defines legally binding targets and timetables for cutting the GHG emissions of industrialized countries that ratified the protocol.

A business philosophy and/or strategy that focuses on eliminating waste, which includes all steps or processes that do not add value to the final product or service.

Systematic set of procedures for compiling and examining the inputs and outputs of materials and energy and the associated environmental impacts directly attributable to the functioning of a product or service system throughout its life cycle.

On December 6, 2007, pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, the Air Resources Board (ARB) approved the Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions regulation. The regulation requires the mandatory reporting and verification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Facilities subject to mandatory reporting will be required to have their greenhouse gas emissions verified beginning in 2010, for their 2009 reported emissions.

On 3/10/09 the EPA issued a proposed rule for mandatory GHG reporting from large GHG emissions sources (25,000 metric tons or more of GHG emissions/yr) in the US. The first annual report would be submitted in 2011 for calendar year 2010.
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Common international measurement for the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions. A metric ton is equal to 2205 lbs or 1.1 short tons. A short ton is equal to 2,000 lbs.

This database provides a cradle-to-grave accounting of the energy and material flows into and out of the environment that are associated with producing a material, component, or assembly. It's an online storeroom of data collected on commonly used materials, products, and processes. Created by NREL and its partners.
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The The 30 member countries of OECD are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.

The index used by the Roberts Environmental Center of Claremont McKenna College in CA to evaluate a multiple companies' environmental and sustainability reports.

Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services. A Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for a method for measuring the embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from goods and services at the request of Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and the Carbon Trust.

A Product Category Rule (PCR) is an emerging standard for defining a group of products with equivalent functions in terms of their environmental performance. See also EPD.

One of the leading European trade associations with offices in Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris. They are networking with European and national plastics associations and have more than 100 member companies, producing over 90% of all polymers across the 27 EU member states plus Norway, Switzerland, Croatia and Turkey. The Plastics Europe Index supplies the life cycle analysis on specific plastics.

A computer platform consists of hardware architecture or software framework (including application frameworks), that allows software to run. Typical platforms include a computer's architecture, operating system, programming languages and related runtime libraries or graphical user interface.

Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals. It entered into force on 1st June 2007. It streamlines and improves the former legislative framework on chemicals of the European Union (EU).

English directive - Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances. These regulations implement EU Directive 2002/95 which bans the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.

Direct GHG emissions that occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the company. For example, emissions from combustion in owned or controlled boilers, furnaces, vehicles, etc., or emissions from chemical production in owned or controlled process equipment.

Indirect GHG emissions from the generation of purchased electricity consumed by the company.

All other indirect GHG emissions. They are usually a consequence of the activities of the company, but occur from sources not owned or controlled by the company. Some examples are extraction and production of purchased materials, transportation of purchased fuels, and contracted services.
Where other companies cut corners, Source 44 believes in working with our clients to analyze the full scope of the origins of their products.

A SIPOC diagram is a tool used by a team to identify all relevant elements of a process improvement project before work begins. It helps define a complex project that may not be well scoped, and is typically employed at the Measure phase of the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. It is similar and related to Process Mapping and 'In/Out Of Scope' tools, but provides additional detail.
The tool name prompts the team to consider the Suppliers (the 'S' in SIPOC) of your process, the Inputs (the 'I') to the process, the Process (the 'P') your team is improving, the Outputs (the 'O') of the process, and the Customers (the 'C') that receive the process outputs. In some cases, Requirements of the Customers can be appended to the end of the SIPOC for further detail.

A business management strategy, initially implemented by Motorola in 1986, that seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Black Belts","Green Belts", etc.) who are experts in these methods.

Obligation of an organization's management towards the welfare and interests of the community within which it operates and which provides the environment and resources to survive and flourish, and which is affected by the organization's actions and policies.

The triple bottom line is a form of reporting that takes into account the impact your business has in terms of social and environmental values along with financial returns.

The city of Copenhagen is hosting the 15th Climate Change Conference in December of 2009. Participants from 192 countries representing governments, the business community and civil society will be among the expected 15,000 total visitors.

The Convention on Climate Change sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. It recognizes that the climate system is a shared resource whose stability can be affected by industrial and other emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.