Footprinting

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SWCA Environmental Performance Group specializes in both Carbon and Ecological Footprinting* of businesses and products. These footprints can be completed for whole companies, departments, geographic units or individual products. Looking at both footprints gives you a complete and quantitative picture of all your environmental impacts and opportunities.

The Carbon Inventory (or Carbon Footprint) focuses specifically on greenhouse gasses and is generally limited to impacts of the study organization itself, though relevant impacts up and down the value chain may optionally be included as well.

The Ecological Footprint, on the other hand, delivers broad coverage of resources, activities, and wastes throughout the value chain. Greenhouse gasses are included, but so are non-greenhouse gas items like raw materials, water consumption, and land use. Impacts from raw material extraction to intermediate products to final waste are all included in the Ecological Footprint.

Ecological Footprint

The Ecological Footprint is an internationally standardized metric that includes a much broader range of environmental impacts than the Carbon Inventory. The Ecological Footprint combines raw material extraction and processing, direct land use, and greenhouse gas emissions into the global acre, a unified metric of environmental impact.

By expressing everything in one common measurement unit, it is possible to compare the total “environmental intensity” of different resources used or activities performed. This ability to wrap up an organization’s diverse forms of resource consumption into one single metric makes the Ecological Footprint a powerful understanding and goal‐setting tool.

SWCA Environmental Performance Group performs its Ecological Footprint analyses according to the internationally recognized standards maintained by the Global Footprint Network.

*SWCA Environmental Performance Group is a member of the Global Footprint Network.

Carbon Footprint

The Carbon Footprint, or Carbon Inventory, measures tons of greenhouse gasses created by an organization. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas wastes are the main contributors to global warming and are the focus of much media and consumer attention.

Energy use, transportation and waste are the primary contributors to the creation of greenhouse gasses; thus, focusing on greenhouse gas reduction will help you set goals to reduce costs in these areas as well. The reduction of greenhouse gasses will typically be an integral part of any environmental sustainability program, so developing a baseline of your impacts is important. Sample results of a carbon footprint are presented below.

SWCA Environmental Performance Group performs its carbon footprint analyses according to ISO 14064 standards. Per ISO standards, Direct Emissions and Energy Indirect Emissions are always included. SWCA Environmental Performance Group recommends that clients optionally include Other Indirect Emissions that the client feels they are willing and able to impact. Other Indirect Emissions categories included in the above sample analysis are solid waste landfill emissions and employee commuting emissions.