Scoping mechanisms

SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS

By Martin Read

In 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 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

CATEGORISATIONS

GHG PROTOCOL SCOPE 3 PRIORITIES

The sector's Scope 3 project commenced with an initial mapping of FM service provision against GHG protocol activities

GHG protocol category GHG protocol definition Relevance Applying definition to FM internal operations Applying definition to delivery of general FM services (not service specific) Minimum level data recommendations to aim for

Business travel Transportation of employees for businessrelated activities during the reporting year (in vehicles not owned or operated by the reporting company) High Emissions from travel relating to central functions (BD, conferences) Emissions from travel relating to delivery of client services

Waste generated in operations Disposal and treatment of waste generated in the reporting company's operations in the reporting year (in facilities not owned or controlled by the reporting company) High Waste from central functions Waste managed on client operations where FM is paid to manage waste and in projects delivered that generate waste. Differentiating between waste in FM projects and general waste management operations Business travel expense claims should include: Transport mode, journey distance, class of travel (ie on planes). Segregated between client level travel and own operations travel

Quantity of waste produced broken down by waste streams. Segregated between own sites and client sites. Waste from projects on client side included

out in Q1 2022, is intended to propose a methodology.

Then, in the project’s second phase, (towards the latter part of 2022), wider testing and implementation of the devised methodology is intended to take place with organisations that volunteer to take part.

To tackle Scope 3 emissions, organisations will need to investigate their supply chains or place high demands on them to report their own emissions.

BAM FM’s Louise Williamson explained: “FM companies have been measuring (GHG Scope) 1 and 2 for some time, but we are now looking at how we can consistently measure those Scope 3 emissions, which is much more complex but necessary if we’re to support our clients.”

The firm’s strategic director, Reid Cunningham, went on to illustrate one interesting example of the kind of detailed measurement of Scope 3 emissions we can expect. “We’re working with Edinburgh University to investigate the carbon allocated to emissions is another thorny problem.

The expectation is that both the scope and granularity of emissions reporting will develop over the coming months, culminating in further guidance from the project’s partners, to be published in a second ‘Stage 1’ report early this year.

different carbon intensities of ingredients in our menus”, he explained, “and we’re engaging with some clients to change menu cycles and options to reduce the carbon in our catering services.”

Particularly important will be how to avoid ‘double counting’ emissions that are already accounted for in Scope 1 or 2 reporting. The way that goods procured by FM providers for service delivery to clients are collected and converted to manager and NHS specialist at Inenco, said that with “most people still trying to measure their carbon footprint”, a roadmap to net zero remains beyond reach for many. Although more streamlined energy carbon reporting is helping organisations establish their baseline for Scope 1 and 2 emissions, “most aren’t touching on Scope 3” yet.

For now, Sunil Shah is still inviting interested parties to feed back on the initial report (if that's you, use the report link at the bottom of this page).

Shah also expects that 2022 will see some service firms, whose focus on emissions has been mainly about activities such as vehicle fleets, forced to look more broadly at their emissions responsibilities across the entire supply chain.

DEFINING EMISSIONS

SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT

Carbon Trust defines the three emissions scopes as follows: ● Scope 1: direct emissions from an organisation’s owned or controlled sources; ● Scope 2: a company’s indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling; and ● Scope 3: all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain. Categorically difficult

The initial report concludes with a table, developed by project leaders, detailing 16 GHG Protocol Scope 3 categories – ranging from ‘upstream transportation/distribution’ to ‘employee commuting’ – with elements of FM service delivery deemed applicable being connected to each (see chart above). For example, for ‘employee commuting’, service elements include ‘emissions from commuting to client sites for on-site teams’ and ‘emissions from commuting to FM offices’.

In a subsequent IWFM webinar, supported by energy consultancy Inenco, Bethany Goodwin, senior account

FURTHER READING The GHG protocols tinyurl.com/Fac0102-protocol ‘Scope 3 Emissions in FM – Sett ing the Foundations for Net Zero’ tinyurl.com/Fac0102-scope3