FRONT DESK / ANALYSIS
SCO PE 3 E M ISSIO NS
Scoping mechanisms By Martin Read
I
n the aftermath of COP26 – and with heightened interest from organisations across the supply chain to show their commitment to the decarbonisation cause – one of the most challenging aspects of sustainability reporting is how an FM provider’s Scope 3 emissions are managed and measured. Defining and then measuring Scope 3 emissions – those that result from activities not owned or controlled by the reporting organisation – is fraught with complexity. Different clients and suppliers working to
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their own objectives makes planning any form of reduction programme a seemingly intractable problem, dependent on myriad conversations and prone to overlapping priorities. Which is where Acclaro Consultancy has stepped in, instigating the development of what it hopes will be a framework through which a standardised method of measuring carbon emissions generated by FM services can be deployed. Acclaro is a long-time supporter of IWFM’s sustainability reporting work,
and for this project has brought together four key membership organisations – the IWFM, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) and the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE). BAM FM is also involved as the project’s founding partner with Acclaro. First up for this project was a report from Acclaro detailing the nature of the problem. This is intended as the start of the process, with all parties working with initial feedback to the report through until Q2 2022.
A subsequent webinar event in support of the report and the project’s aims involved BAM FM’s managing director Louise Williamson and strategic director Reid Cunningham; UK Green Building Council’s net zero adviser Karl Desai; Acclaro Consultancy’s Sustainable FM Index programme director Chris Havers; and Acclaro’s managing director Sunil Shah. Explaining the project’s aim, Acclaro said: “Most FM providers see their impacts as their direct emissions only, which include those generated via transport and building operations. Some go a little further and measure their indirect emissions from business travel and waste. “However, this reporting typically captures less than 20 per cent of the providers’ full impacts, meaning that most carbon emissions are going unmanaged and unreported, even in cases where companies are stating that they are net zero. What is not considered by most are the goods procured by FM and the emissions that exist on the client sites.” Those are Scope 3 emissions. Chris Havers, SFMI programme director at Acclaro added that a standardised approach needs to “reflect on the nuances of how facilities managers operate with their clients”. In its introductory report, Acclaro took as its starting point Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s accounting standards, matching suggested facilities service functions to them and detailing the data requirements for calculating emissions in each of these areas. The report, entitled Scope 3 Emissions in FM – Setting the Foundations for Net Zero, is the first of two initial pieces of the project’s ‘stage 1’ activity. A second report, incorporating feedback from the first and due
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