Carbon Foot Printing in a Service Organisation.

Archie Prentice, Sustainable Development and Environment Manager, Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Climate change is regularly reported as one of the most significant threats to the planet.  As awareness of climate change grows, so does interest in reducing the production of green house gas emissions (GHG).  Climate change legislation being prepared for Scotland will create a statutory requirement to reduce emissions. 

But how do organisations respond to this issue?  Some have claimed to be carbon neutral by combining reductions and offsetting of their operation’s emissions.  But is this enough?  Operations require inputs and produce outputs, both of which generate emissions. 

To help inform their GHG reduction activity, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, working with ARUP, Centre for Sustainability Accounting and Stockholm Environment Institute undertook a comprehensive climate footprint study.  As the Scottish Government’s economic and social development agency for the north and west half of the country, HIE supports business and community projects to deliver regional economic growth.  By using a simple transformation model, it was possible to identify the carbon/GHG impacts of the organisation’s inputs, operations and engagement with customers.    Analysis at this level has enabled the development of a programme of work to stabilise and reduce emissions.  However analysis highlighted some challenging issues about the boundary of emissions counting and identifying who is responsible for reducing emissions. 

Archie will present findings of this footprint work, and identify how HIE is reducing emissions.  He will also highlight some of the broader challenges with emissions management that emerged during this work.