Reporting for Calendar Year 2018
The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol categorizes a company’s GHG emissions as one of three “Scopes”. Scope 1 is classified as direct emissions from owned or controlled sources (i.e. mobile combustion, stationary combustion, process emissions). Scope 2 emissions are classified as indirect emissions (i.e. purchased energy). Scope 3 emissions are all remaining indirect emissions not included in Scope 2 (i.e. business travel, distribution, shipping and logistics).
As an engineering firm that uses modern, often “green” manufacturing processes at our production facilities, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions are the largest contributors to ES3’s carbon footprint. ES3’s Scope 3 emissions are primarily due to business travel and shipping. ES3’s Scope 2 emissions come from purchased electricity and energy for each of our facilities located in Utah, Georgia, and California. Scope 1 GHG emissions represent the smallest contributor to ES3’s carbon footprint and come from ES3 owned and operated vehicles.
GHG emissions are commonly reported in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). CO2e is a way to quantify and combine various greenhouse gasses, such as CO2, NH4, and N2O, into a singular unit. ES3’s GHG emissions are broken down by scope and displayed below.
For FY18, Scope 3 emissions are ES3’s biggest GHG contributor. This is mainly due to business travel and shipping and receiving heavy aircraft components weighing hundreds of pounds apiece. Scope 3 emissions are highly variable from year to year depending on workload and unfortunately the most difficult aspect to control.
In order to reduce our Scope 2 GHG emissions during FY18, ES3 purchased and installed 400 high efficiency lighting fixtures at our 200,000-square foot Material Research & Development Center in Utah. This is a major contributing factor to the reductions ES3 realized in our Scope 2 GHG emissions from CY 2017. However, and as mentioned above, Scope 2 emissions (primarily from purchased electricity and gas) vary with workload so an increase in workload will most likely result in an increase in Scope 2 GHG emissions.