Managing Footprint Calculations

You've seen the overall process steps to calculate emissions using business activity forms. In this training, you'll learn how AlmikaSoft’s Miami plant uses business activities capability of SAP Sustainability Footprint Management to calculate the footprints of all GHG categories.

The lesson focuses on the last six steps of the overall process flow.

Business Activities offer an easy and simple way to calculate emissions. For example, if you want to track emissions from different types of business travel, you can create separate business activities for air, train, and car travel for each of your locations. Then, users in those locations can enter data about fuel used or distance traveled, and the system calculates the emissions using the emission factor and other calculation information that's entered in the business activity for each type of travel.

There's a calculation method associated with each GHG category to calculate carbon footprints.

The two calculation methods defined for scope 2 emissions are: Location-based method and market-based method.

• Location-based method: This method is used to quantify scope 2 GHG emissions based on average energy generation emission factors for defined geographic locations, including local, subnational, or national boundaries.
• Market-based method: This method is used to quantify the scope 2 GHG emissions of the reporting organization based on GHG emissions emitted by the generators. Generators are those from whom the organization contractually purchases electricity bundled with other contractual instruments.

You know that you can directly enter data about business activities, such as waste, into the system by filling out forms. You can also input the CO2e emission data for different waste types and treatment methods. This data, varying by location and time, is utilized to calculate the associated GHG emissions based on waste quantity.

There are three calculation methods available:

• Average-Data: This method utilizes average emission factors and quantities of waste. You can use this method when the preferred footprint type is quantity-based.
• Waste-Type-Specific: This method applies emission factors specific to waste types and treatment methods.
• Spend-Based: This method focuses on the amount of money spent on waste disposal methods rather than waste quantities. This is the latest method that can be used in addition to the activity-based approach to calculate carbon footprints. You can use this method to map spend-based emission factors of purchased products, capital goods, upstream transport and distribution, business travel, employee commute, upstream leased assets, and downstream transport and distribution.
  Note

  You can use spend-based proxies if actual fuel consumption data is not available. This involves converting the amount spent on fuel into a mass or volume measure using appropriate emission factors.
  Regardless of the chosen method, the basic calculation remains consistent, comprising a quantity or amount and an emission factor.

After you decide the calculation method based, you start the GHG data collection process followed by recording GHG data and finally reviewing the results.

To read more about the supported calculation methods for each GHG scope category, follow the linkhttps://help.sap.com/docs/sustainability-footprint-management/application-help-for-corporate-and-products/calculation-methods-by-ghg-category

In the previous lesson, you've seen how AlmikaSoft imports its master data and manages its emission factors.

The video shows the further step-by-step process that AlmikaSoft’s Miami plant follows to calculate and evaluate its corporate carbon footprint.